Change is coming for many American home buyers and sellers, as well as the agents representing them. Debra Kamin, who covers real estate, explains the shift.
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The American housing market is under renovation.
This month, the National Association of Realtors, a real estate trade group that represents more than 1.5 million members, agreed to settle several antitrust lawsuits by paying $418 million in damages. As part of the settlement, the association also eliminated some of its longstanding rules around agent commissions, a move that will transform the home buying and selling process.
For example, a seller’s agent can no longer offer to split commissions with a buyer’s agent on the databases commonly used to list homes, a practice that the home sellers in the lawsuits said had led to inflated commissions. As a result, buyers will most likely have to pay their agents.
Debra Kamin, a reporter on the Real Estate desk at The New York Times, has reported on the settlement and its potential effects on the industry.
“This is a historical moment for the housing industry,” Ms. Kamin said in a recent conversation. “We’ll probably look back on this moment and say that a lot of change came from this settlement.”
In an interview, she explained the broad power of the N.A.R. and the polarizing reaction to the changes. This conversation has been edited.
Can you explain the role of the National Association of Realtors?
The National Association of Realtors is a nonprofit that set the rules and regulations that have guided the housing industry for more than 100 years. If you are not a member, it is very difficult to do business as a real estate agent. It owns the trademark to the word “Realtor,” for example. If you want to call yourself a Realtor, you have to be a member, a distinction that many agents say offers them a badge of authenticity. Agents must also list homes or find homes for sale, and in order to do that, they need access to listing databases, most of which are only accessible to members of the N.A.R.
