For real estate agents in Butler County, it’s business as usual despite national commission lawsuit
The real estate industry may be facing its largest shake-up since the housing market collapse of the late 2000s, and local real estate agents are waiting to see how it will affect their business.
As a result of an antitrust lawsuit filed late last year, the National Association of Realtors has agreed to pay $418 million worth of settlements over the next four years to home sellers who feel they paid inflated commission fees to real estate agents. The association has also agreed to change its rules so that brokers are not allowed to include commission rates for the buyer’s agent in home listings.
The settlement has yet to receive final approval by the federal judge overseeing the case. If it does, then the new rules would take effect in mid-July.
In addition, three major real estate brokerages — Keller Williams, Re/Max, and Anywhere — have also agreed to settle for a combined $208.5 million and will no longer require their agents to be members of the national association. Another brokerage, HomeServices of America, has yet to reach a settlement.
Despite the far-reaching lawsuit, which some commentators speculate could lead to massive changes in how people buy and sell homes, some local real estate agents are not convinced that much will change when the dust settles.
“There’s a lot of stuff being put on the Internet that seems to indicate that commissions are going to be reduced or dropped. I’d be surprised by that,” said Jack Hutterer of the Hutterer, Stahl and Kadyk team in Saxonburg. “I think what might happen is that they’ll be shifted around a bit in terms of where they come from and how they get to the real estate company.”
The Hutterer, Stahl and Kadyk team is a franchisee of Berkshire Hathaway. One of Berkshire Hathaway’s subsidiaries is HomeServices of America, which is the lone holdout in the lawsuit.
Another local real estate agent waiting to see how the settlements play out is Sadler Priest, based in Butler and associated with Keller Williams.
“Nobody seems too concerned about it right now. It’s just a different way of doing business,” Priest said. “It might increase buyers’ closing cost fees. It might make it a little harder to buy. However, I think they’re going to come out with programs to combat those items.”
Priest also mentioned that in Pennsylvania, standard real estate contracts disclose the percentage of the sale that goes to the buyers’ agent.
“Our agreements here in Pennsylvania explicitly say how much the buyer agency is collecting,” Priest said.
Butler real estate agent Chuck Swidzinski, who is also a Berkshire Hathaway franchisee, said his team is proceeding as normal, as the settlement has not been formally approved by the judge overseeing the case.
“We’re all just at a standstill because nothing’s going to change until July anyway,” Swidzinski said. “No one knows what the outcome’s going to be. Everything’s up in the air because the judge hasn’t approved the settlement yet.”
