This is the first in a two-part interview with California Regional MLS General Counsel Ed Zorn on the impending changes to the commission structure and how it will impact agents. Check back for the final installment tomorrow, and check out his sessions live at Inman Connect Las Vegas July 30-Aug. 1, 2024. Join us.
The real estate industry is gearing up for potentially huge changes in its commission structure a month from now and many are looking for a guide to tell them what those changes could mean for agents and consumers on the ground.
Edward John Zorn may be the most uniquely-suited to the task. Zorn is not only the vice president and general counsel of the nation’s largest multiple listing service, California Regional MLS, he is also president of real estate investment firm ZEC Investments, a mediator and arbitrator of real estate disputes, and a former adjunct professor of real estate at California Baptist University.
Moreover, he held a California broker license for many years until it expired in 2022, and has held a broker affiliate license under eXp Realty in Tennessee since 2019. Just in his capacity as a buyer’s agent, Zorn says he’s closed 40 deals in the last three years.
So when Zorn graces the Inman Connect Las Vegas stage at the end of July, it will be as someone who both lives the life of an agent and has the legal chops to understand the upcoming business practice changes associated with a proposed nationwide settlement between the National Association of Realtors and homeseller plaintiffs in multiple antitrust lawsuits.
The NAR settlement includes several rule changes set to go into effect on August 17, including a prohibition on listing brokers making offers of compensation to buyer brokers on multiple listing services and a requirement that brokers and agents sign contracts with buyers they are working with before a buyer tours a home.
In this two-part interview, Inman caught up with Zorn to get his take on buyer contracts,…