A federal jury ruled on Tuesday that the powerful National Association of Realtors and several large brokerages had conspired to artificially inflate the commissions paid to real estate agents, a decision that could radically alter the home-buying process in the United States.
The realtors’ group and brokerages were ordered to pay damages of nearly $1.8 billion. The verdict allows the court to issue treble damages, which means they could swell to more than $5 billion.
Will update with non-paywalled link when one becomes available.
Our realtor was like our best friend for a month while we were looking for houses (not in a creepy way, in a helpful way) and gave us a big wreath when we bought our house. He definitely put the time in.