How much you pay to a real estate agent to buy or sell a home is likely to go down after a victory for consumers in a federal trial in Missouri earlier this week.
A jury in a case against the National Association of Realtors and several large brokerage firms found the parties conspired to keep costs artificially high and awarded $1.8 billion in damages, which could rise to more than $5 billion under antitrust rules.
The industry has long worked under a model of a 5% to 6% commission paid by the seller and split between the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent.
Betty Lin-Fisher | USA TODAY