DOJ vs NAR Lawsuit Turned Into an Exercise in Irrelevancy

Here is a classic case of technology outpacing the legal system.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) settled its case with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) primarily because neither side had much to fight for. The policies that the DOJ had issues with simply became irrelevant with the increasing ubiquity of ‘cheap technology’ and the social media dynamic.

Real estate blogs, other ‘Web 2.0′ centric real estate sites like Zillow and Trulia and especially brokerages like Redfin have effectively achieved what 3 years and untold millions of dollars couldn’t do in court…vanquishing NAR’s ability to ‘restrict competition and consumer choice in real estate services, and discouraging low-cost services.’

NAR lost its hands on this wheel awhile ago, fighting the DOJ in court while Ivory Tower technologists disintermediated the industry from underneath them. Dissension from the large trade organization is rather en vogue right now for the once tightly locked constituency, so you gotta figure they cut their losses and settled out of an irrelevant and expensive lawsuit, hopefully to address bigger problems and spend their war chest on items that may keep them viable, going forward. If I was a tax paying Realtor, I’d be doubly pissed since I would have theoretically paid for this lawsuit on both sides…

This should be a lesson carefully studied by the mortgage industry. Before everyone goes all legal on each other, consider one of my favorite Twain quotes: ‘History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme’. The industry of real estate traditionally runs about 5-7 years behind the rest of the world when it comes to implementation of progressive practices and technologies, pretty bad until you consider the industry of mortgage lags a few years further behind it.

It’s a matter of time before the release and adoption of similar technologies and progressive practices achieve what the perpetual mortgage circle jerk will only fumble through…achieving greater transparency and refined business structure within an industry that has internal conflicts of interests, misalignment of objectives and a slew of other appropriate cliché’s [Insert Y0ur Favorite Here]…

Tom Molina

As a 21 year veteran realtor, I am always open to a new idea or new way of doing things. I'm sorry...but I don't see the big difference ....this concept has been done and done and done. In twenty years of real estate I've seen every incarnation of this concept has failed in a big way. Locally the "hope you sell" franchises have crashed and burned and before them there was a parade of others beginning with "why usa". In every market 90% of the real estate is sold by 10% of the Agents. The best most experienced agents have their plate full. The only agents willing to work for a "satisfaction fee" are worth having? And, at an average sales price of 180K, 3% becomes $5400 commission which is less than your "minimum". I also noticed the markets where you exist are the same markets where the pressure on sales prices has been the most intense. In our experience, these are the same markets where the most successful agents are in most demand. Good Luck in your business but I see nothing new here.

David Podgursky

It was silly to worry about tying up the MLS for whatever amount of reasons when there are still laws to keep people from brokering real estate without a real estate license.

too bad the mortgage industry doesn't follow suit - any "correspondent" can provide the content but only a licensee can originate the loan