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Connecticut’s statewide residential multiple listings service says it wants to adopt the agent commission rules laid out in the settlement for a high-profile antitrust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors.
SmartMLS said Tuesday morning that it had filed paperwork to opt into the terms of the national settlement in Burnett v. the National Association of Realtors “minimizing disruptions” to sellers, buyers and the real estate industry while “firmly” rejecting any suggestion the commission price-fixing allegations in the lawsuit “were not applicable to Connecticut residential real estate transactions.”
The association had until midnight today to opt in.
The decision means when the settlement goes into effect this summer seller’s agents will no longer be allowed to make offers of compensation in listings on the MLS, and buyers will have to sign representation agreements with agents before touring homes, among other major changes.
“A robust, transparent, and universally adopted MLS is critical to providing real time market insights to sellers and homebuyers alike,” SmartMLS President Michael Barbaro said in a statement. “As Connecticut’s residential real estate industry navigates this period of change, SmartMLS is committed to preserving and protecting the open marketplace in the interest of the consumers it serves. While we were not a party to this litigation, opting in to the Burnett agreement is necessary to minimize disruption in the marketplace.”
While some analysts have suggested the commission rules will push some Realtors out of NAR and other trade groups and lower costs for sellers, most mainstream observers say the changes will have a smaller impact on the residential real estate industry as agents will still be able to make commission offers on listings posted to their individual brokerage websites.
Still, with buyer’s agent commissions now much more explicitly up for contention in each transaction, and with federal Department of Justice prosecutors pushing in a separate Massachusetts lawsuit to ban all seller offers to pay buyer’s agent commissions, fears abound that homebuyers, particularly prospective first-time buyers, could eventually come out worse off by either being forced to go into a transaction unrepresented or by being forced to save up even more to pay for agent fees.
“Homeownership is the most effective way to build wealth that can be passed down from generation to generation,” Barbaro said in a statement. “The path to homeownership should be broadened, not limited. Anything that removes transparency is an impediment to home ownership. SmartMLS will continue to work toward ensuring that Connecticut’s residential real estate marketplace continues to evolve in a productive, equitable, and transparent manner.”
