There are small changes ahead in Massachusetts real estate practice as a result of large lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors. Here’s what our future clients need to know.

It was back in May, that I wrote about how the lawsuit will impact our clients; it was still in progress, so things changed between then and implementation.

Between May and June, two changes occurred:

  • A deadline for implementation was set for August 17, 2024.
  • Our local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) changed their forms. They did not stop being the conduit for information about how much buyer agent commission will be included in the sale price.

What remains the same, since May:

  • Buyer’s agents are required to work with buyers by contract. The contract must clearly state the expected compensation due at closing to the buyer’s brokerage.

What will 4 Buyers Real Estate be doing differently?

Fee:

We have always negotiated the cost of buyer agency. Services will be negotiated with our clients and with the sellers or their agents. After August 17, we may have the compensation specifically written into the offer, with our clients’ permission, if that is the best way to negotiate what our clients want.

At the current time, we expect that there will be little or no change in the cost to our clients. Our fees have always been governed by the contract we have with our clients. Our fee is frequently not the same as what was offered through the MLS. This year — as is true every year — we have had clients who owe us and clients who received a rebate. So far this year, rebates are greater than fees owed by $5500. Our clients are informed when we write the offer about what they may owe or be rebated if the offer is accepted.

Contract:

We had a contract that clearly delineated our fees, always. We will continue to do this (because it is the right thing). Now other companies are catching up to our normal practice.

Now that the NAR lawsuit settlement requires an early contract, we will do a one-week contract for prospective clients who want to see us in action before choosing our company. We used to do one set of showings with no written obligation; we liked that better, but we will do what is required.

What happened at our local Multiple Listing Service?

A Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is the database created by licensees of properties for sale. That database is then shared with other databases, like Zillow, as a powerful advertising tool for sellers.

In many parts of the country, only Realtors could subscribe to their local MLS databases. Those MLS companies were bound to whatever the National Association of Realtors (NAR) agreed to as a result of the lawsuits. However, our local MLS – called MLSPin, or Pinergy — allowed all real estate licensees to subscribe. Therefore, they are not bound by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) legal agreement regarding their procedures.

What MLSpin/Pinergy decided:

Our local MLS decided to clarify their forms. This was to make it clear that the seller is deciding whether to offer a percentage of the sale price to buyer’s brokers or not. Now exclusive buyer’s agents, like us, will need to contact the listing agents to find out what the seller is expecting to pay a buyer broker.

Knowing what the seller is thinking helps us plan negotiation for your Offer to Purchase. It will add one more step for us — asking whether the seller has already planned to pay a buyer’s agent fee. That’s really all that is changing.

We do not expect there to be dramatic changes in the way that we do our business as a result of these changes.