This is a round up in a week-long series examining the high stakes and potential impact of two closely watched federal lawsuits — the so-called Moehrl and Sitzer cases — taking direct aim at how homebuyers pay commissions.
The past several years in real estate have seen an unprecedented amount of upheaval. Obviously, there was the coronavirus pandemic. Before that, large amount of money poured into housing and fueled entirely new segments, such as iBuying. Technology has become ubiquitous. The list could go on.
But as disruptive as all of those things have been, and continue to be, there’s something that could eclipse them all in terms of impact: The ongoing agent commission lawsuits.
Over the past week, Inman dove headlong into these cases. The biggest and best-known of the suits is known as the Moehrl case, but there are others such as Sitzer/Burnett as well. None of them are finished yet, but they all take aim at the way agents are paid, and as a result have the potential to entirely change the way the U.S. housing market functions. Could they make American real estate look more like Europe? Will they lead to flat fees and a la carte pricing?
No one knows yet, but the answer is definitely, maybe.
As far as we’re aware, no other publication has taken on a project looking at these cases and their implications in as much depth. And in the coming days, Inman will publish several more pieces on what all of this means and how it might impact agents on the industry’s front lines.
But for the time being, here’s a recap of our project and what every industry professional needs to know right now:
This piece explores the flagship Moehrl suit via a massive recent court filing, and notes that a key issue at this point is whether or not the case can go from becoming a suit about one consumer to a suit about millions. In other words, can the Moehrl case become a class action suit?
Why does this question matter?
In the immediate term, there are billions of…