Andrew Babula, professor and director of the Real Estate Program and the Shenehon Center for Real Estate at the University of St Thomas, recently spoke with WCCO-TV about how a recent court ruling could change the process of buying and selling homes.
From the story:
“Historically and currently when a seller sells their home, they will pay their agent the listing agent the fees. It’s about 6%. If it’s a $300,000 home, they’ll have a fee about $18,000. Then, that listing agent splits that fee usually about 50-50 with the buyer’s agent. So they just walk with about $9,000 in that place. The National Association of Realtors has been mandating that when homes are listed on the MLS, the database of homes, that they put in what the buyer’s agent fee is going to be and I think we'll split those fees right now,” said Andrew Babula. …
“It depends on how it (the case) plays out. It’s still in the lower courts, so it’s going to go to appeal – potentially all the way to the Supreme Court. It could change between now and then. Ultimately, I think in an extreme case, the courts could mandate that the listing agents are not able to pay the buyer’s agents and so the buyer would have to pay themselves their agent directly,” said Babula.
