tyb
Government probes MLS hidden Realtor commissions, could be next housing-market domino to topple
Real-estate agents have long kept information about their commission structure close to their chest
Another potential blow has been struck against the longstanding way in which real-estate agents get paid.
In April, the Department of Justice wrote to CoreLogic, a real-estate software provider, demanding that the company turn over information on how it works with Multiple Listing Services, the locally owned and operated compilations of real estate data.
The “civil investigative demand” concerned potential antitrust law violations, Justice said, specifically “practices that may unreasonably restrain competition in the provision of residential real-estate brokerages services in local markets in the United States.”
It’s not the first time that Justice has taken an interest in how competition gets stifled in the residential real estate market. And the April demand joins another high-profile legal case: a lawsuit filed in March which charges that real-estate brokerages and their industry group conspire to keep agent commissions artificially high.
In the American way of transacting real estate, buyers never have any reason to demand a higher level of service or a lower fee from their own broker since the seller is essentially paying the tab for both sides. And often, when sellers try to offer fees lower than the 3% that’s standard across most of the country, brokers tend to steer buyer clients away from those listings even if the house was a good fit.
Against that backdrop, in an industry that has resisted change and operated with an “I’ll-scratch-your-back…” ethos, an overhaul of the MLS, the information infrastructure of the industry, might be the ultimate example of a revolution underway.
“I think everyone smells change in the air,” said Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, a discount real estate brokerage, one of the earliest disruptors to try to take on the established way of brokering residential real estate. “Certainly everyone in the industry either acknowledges [change] or embraces it,” he said.
The MLS is often referred to as a singular entity, but there are hundreds of iterations. Each aggregates information on properties available for sale in its local area. The National Association of Realtors describes it this way, playing up its benefits as a pool of listings: “The MLS is a tool to help listing brokers find cooperative brokers working with buyers to help sell their clients’ homes. Without the collaborative incentive of the existing MLS, brokers would create their own separate systems of cooperation, fragmenting rather than consolidating property information.”
The Justice Department has long been interested in how the various MLS operate. As MarketWatch was one of the first publications to report, last year a decade-long consent decree against NAR was lifted. That agreement was reached in 2008 after local real estate associations and listing services spent years refusing to allow listing access to upstarts like Redfin, which can tend to undermine an agent’s role in the process and engage the consumer in the house hunt.
i.e. cut them out of the commission structure, many NAR listed agents will refuse to do business with Redfin listed property's or FSBO's (for sale by owner).
Agent commission is clearly what’s of interest to Justice now. The very first item on the list of demands sent to CoreLogic, was “all documents relating to any MLS member’s search of, or ability to search, MLS listings on any of the company’s multiple listing platforms, based on (i) the amount of compensation offered by listing brokers to buyer brokers; or (ii) the type of compensation, such as a flat fee, offered by listing brokers to buyer brokers.”
In U.S. residential real estate transactions, agents representing both the buyer and the seller are paid from the proceeds of the sale. That means that technically the seller pays the commission of both his own agent and the agent representing the buyer. Of course, anyone in the industry, or anyone who’s bought and sold real estate often enough is keenly aware that’s not entirely true.
rest at link
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/hidden-realtor-commissions-could-be-next-housing-market-domino-to-topple-as-government-probes-mls-2019-05-31
these people, get paid way too much for being, effectively, paper pushers, as real estate prices increased they, of course, were paid a higher amount.
Jay Hoag, who sits on the BOD of Netflix since it's inception, has been active in buying it's stock.
Hoag, Jay
Mr. Jay C. Hoag serves as Lead Independent Director of Netflix, Inc. Since June 1995, He has served as a founding General Partner at Technology Crossover Ventures, a venture capital firm. Mr. Hoag serves on the board of directors of Electronic Arts, Inc., Tech Target and Zillow, Inc. and several private companies. Previously Mr. Hoag served on the boards of directors of eHarmony, Inc. and TheStreet.com. Mr. Hoag holds an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Northwestern University.
https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/officer-profile/NFLX.O/258810
Also Rich Barton, co-founder of Zillow, is also an Independent Director at NFLX too.
Barton, Richard
Mr. Richard N. Barton serves as Independent Director of Netflix, Inc. In late 2004, Mr. Barton co-founded Zillow Group, Inc. where he is now Executive Chairman of the Board. Additionally, Mr. Barton is a Venture Partner with Benchmark Capital. Previously, Mr. Barton founded Expedia, Inc. in 1994 and was its President, Chief Executive Officer and director from November 1999 to March 2003. Mr. Barton was a director of InterActiveCorp from February 2003 until January 2005. Mr. Barton also serves as a director for Avvo, Inc. and Glassdoor.com. Mr. Barton holds a B.S. in general engineering , industrial economics from Stanford University.
https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/officer-profile/NFLX.O/258824
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1617640.htm
they have always done this, they over-inflate all the property's that are tied to Mortgage Backed Security's (MBS) and under-report the ones they can't legally do this with, doesn't mean they don't. But that mkt is really small in comparison. All the property's on the coasts-especially in ca were used the allow the MBS mkt to thrive. And people wonder why there is such a disconnect between real estate sales/prices (recently and not only due to location) between the over-priced coastal areas and places not located there. Those mkts are actually up in sales YoY while ca has dropped recently. Inventory up 15% in ca alone. All these over-ambitious sellers have them priced too high and the real estate agents just whistle past the graveyard as the higher the price the bigger the cut. Entire profession from top to bottom needs a clean-up and up.
and then you add in the MERS scandal where the system bifucated the the titles away from the actual mortgages so they could toss them back and forth and avoid the county filing fee's, among other things. Ini some cases, the trusts that contained the docs had them listed multiple times so they could show that cash flow against the balance sheet. Had an indymac loan and mine showed it in the trust 48 times-have seen examples higher. This was also illegal and against the rules of the governing trust to remove them and split those docs.
See Indymac bank and deutsche bank MERS scandal, Federal Reserve takes control of indymac, One West bank (munchkins hands all over that too).
all for that. I actually have the smoking gun docs from the FRB that said they did this from when they sucked up indymac when schumer intentionally caused the bank run on it Was all over that shit when it started. They quickly shut that process down when too many FOIA requests came in..but I have them still, no longer in that property but hopefully those put to use soon. The close out docs were signed by….wait for it…..
LARRY GREENE and not linda.
it does, deck always stacked against responsible people. Just like healthcare for the healthy, that subsidizes all the illegals and sick. Quit mine in 2017, $735/mt for jack shit, and a big bill at the end of any visit-disguised as a co-pay of course.
Not even 50, later this year, and that is ridiculous, but live in ca so there's that.
feel you anon, family is 4th gen ca, and I am the last of them here I think. You know we are 'crazy' so i no longer talk to any of them-they made that choice not me.. Lived in nocal then socal (present) and have seen it turn to shit. Bailed out of SF in 2000 as the prop values were horrible then. Smaller place then we were renting at time went on market for $750k so it was time to GTFO
one moar
>It ain't over by a long shot.
fuckin' A bubba. Born here…die here. Everyone else in the world came to this country because they gave up fighting problems in theirs.
I am NOT going to give it up for ANYONE
they'll get them anon, must be patient. easy to say and hard to do but must.
apparently this is not notable..How this is with the discussion it's generated….second time in 2 breads
no its not all there but please continue to ignore