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HomeServices of America strikes $250M settlement

NAR deal left brokerage as lone Sitzer/Burnett defendant

HomeServices of America Strikes $250M Settlement
HomeServices' Gino Blefari (Getty, Hitchcock + Associates)


HomeServices of America is out of the broker commission fight. 

The company, and some of its subsidiaries, agreed to pay $250 million to settle antitrust lawsuits accusing it of colluding with the National Association of Realtors and other major brokerages to hike agents’ pay. 

“This brings us a step closer to resolving this long-running case involving the industry-wide brokers’ commission scheme,” said Benjamin Brown, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in the Illinois-based lawsuit known as Moehrl. 

If approved by the judge, the agreement would release the firm from all claims brought by home sellers. The deal doesn’t include its parent company Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company or HomeServices’ direct or indirect parent companies, officers, directors or employees. 

News of the deal comes more than a month after NAR struck its own $418 million settlement with the homeseller plaintiffs. The trade group’s agreement left HomeServices as the last defendant remaining in Sitzer/Burnett, the first of the cases to head to trial. 

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The proposed agreement with HomeServices brings the total pending settlements nationwide to more than $940 million. Anywhere Real Estate, RE/MAX and Keller Williams — also defendants in Sitzer/Burnett — settled for a combined $209 million. Other firms such as Compass and @properties, targeted in other lawsuits, have also agreed to settle. 

HomeServices’ settlement is the largest payout offered by the brokerage defendants, though it pales in comparison to the $1.8 billion verdict and the $4.7 billion attorneys for the plaintiffs requested it pay in a March filing.

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Under the terms of NAR’s settlement, the 1.4 million-member organization agreed to landmark policy changes, including eliminating the commission-sharing rule at the heart of the lawsuits. 

The deal included all multiple listing services controlled by the group and brokerages with transaction volumes under $2 billion, though it provided provisions for larger brokerages to opt-in to the settlement. HomeServices and its subsidiaries were excluded from NAR’s settlement coverage. 

A federal judge preliminarily approved the NAR settlement on Tuesday. Brokerages eligible to opt in to the settlement now have less than 60 days to do so.

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