This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
Steven Huang, president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors, said these new rules will also force realtors to educate their clients about the complicated home selling and buying process.
“A lot of times, consumers are not educated from A to Z up front,” he said. “We as real estate agents need to just thoroughly educate the consumer and let them know what our value is and then let the consumer decide what is a fair payment for that service.”
The lawsuit is just one harbinger of change for the real estate industry. A proposed state bill currently making its way through the Senate titled “Buyer-Broker Representation Agreements” would, if passed, require a buyer’s agent to enter into a contract detailing compensation rates and services the agent would provide before the agent starts touring homes with their client.
“This contract will actually have you sit down and go over why you’re being compensated, how you plan to be compensated and what kind of value you are bringing to the table for your client,” Michelle Perry, president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, said. “Now we’re going to show our value even more.”
As the Federal Reserve is expected to lower interest rates next month and realtors are seeing a rise in homes being actively listed in the Bay Area, agents are preparing to see how these new rules play out.
“This is happening as the market is moving along and we’re anticipating a pretty busy fall,” said David Stark, a spokesperson for Bay East Realtors Association. “Call us in three months and then six months to see how it’s working out.”
This article was originally published by a www.kqed.org . Read the Original article here. .
Buying or selling real estate is perhaps the most complex transaction you’ll ever make.
That’s the cautionary adage some Maryland realtors tell prospective buyers and sellers. Hire us, they say, and we’ll advocate for you until the keys change hands.
How agents are compensated for that time and effort is the central focus of several changes coming Saturday to the National Association of Realtors. While denying any wrongdoing, the trade organization agreed to a sweeping overhaul of how it operates to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged its policies and practices had artificially inflated commissions at the expense of sellers.
The settlement agreement ends the practice of posting compensation offers alongside properties on multiple listing services, and realtors must also sign a written compensation agreement with buyers before touring a home.
Maryland has a law on the books requiring buyer agreements that disclose the specific amount or rate of compensation the real estate broker will receive. Even as realtor associations in the state say their fees have always been negotiable, the settlement has attracted fresh attention to the practice.
Here’s what Marylanders need to know.
Agent commissions add up
Agents representing both buyers and sellers have traditionally split a commission of 5-6% of the sales price, often paid by the seller. The Maryland Association of Realtors estimated the median sales price for a Maryland home was $430,000 in May, putting compensation around $21,000-$25,000 to be split between buyer and seller agents.
Some agents are concerned the policy changes will put more pressure on homebuyers to come up with financing for commissions, said Sarah Rayne, CEO of the Howard County Association of Realtors.
A home listed for sale on Multiple Listing Services will no longer include a blanket offer of “cooperative compensation,” in which the seller pays for a buyer agent’s commission. Buyers can still ask sellers during negotiations to pay for their agent’s fees.
The practice of sellers’ agents splitting a commission with the buyers’ agents is known as cooperative compensation. The settlement agreement changes the way properties are advertised to no longer include a blanket offer of cooperative compensation to a prospective buyer’s agent when they advertise the property.
“They’re already kind of struggling to come up with a down payment, closing costs, all that money that you need to bring to the table in order to buy your first home,” Rayne said.
Rayne said first-time homebuyers are getting priced out of Howard County, a hot market where some starter homes are listed around $500,000 to $600,000. The lack of affordable inventory can contribute to a lot of competition for listings, she said.
If buyers are concerned about affording an agent, they may go into a transaction alone. They may have cost savings upfront, Rayne said, but they won’t have an advocate heading into financial negotiations later.
“They need somebody there who can help them work through this process,” she said.
Figure out what you need
Not everyone is going to need an agent. That’s one of the tips Joanne Cleaver, a former real estate journalist and author of a book on negotiating realtor commissions, has learned over the years. The writer runs a Facebook group for buyers and sellers centered on negotiating how agents represent them.
For example, some property transactions require the help of a real estate attorney. If the attorney can handle the negotiations and transaction, perhaps an agent isn’t necessary, Cleaver said. Retaining a real estate lawyer could cost less than an agent commission in some cases.
First-time homebuyers or people searching for property in another state may prefer to work with an agent who has knowledge of a region or specific expertise. Experienced buyers and sellers also shouldn’t assume they can go it alone, Cleaver said.
That’s why it’s crucial for buyers to do research before hiring an agent.
“This is not ‘House Hunters,’” Cleaver said. People may think they need to move fast, but she cautions against signing a contract with an agent out of eagerness to buy a house.
Sellers can also reduce the cost of commissions. Cleaver likes to ask agents what work they do beyond listing the home. Could some of that work, such as organizing an open house, be handled by the seller, Cleaver said.
When Cleaver was selling a home in Michigan, she found a discount agent who agreed to a flat fee of about $900 in exchange for listing the home. She reused old listing photos, wrote up the home description herself and timed the listing to go live on a Friday in hopes of catching the weekend house hunting crowd.
Within hours, Cleaver said, the agent forwarded an inquiry that resulted in an offer by the end of the day.
If an agent balks at a buyer or seller’s request to negotiate, Cleaver recommends not hiring them.
“Agents are really in a moment where they need to prove their value,” she said.
Talk to more than one agent
Buyers and sellers should interview several agents before signing an agreement, said Cheryl Abrams Davis, president-elect of the Maryland Association of Realtors. The organization represents about 28,000 realtors.
“This is like anything else that you do in life when you go to a doctor or hire a tax preparer,” she said. “Those same questions you’re going to ask of them, you’re going to ask of your realtor.”
Abrams Davis recommends asking realtors about their negotiating experience, how long they have been in business, how many buyers they have worked with and how many houses they’ve sold. Reviews from other clients are important too, she said.
“The beauty of this process is that there are various options” for agent financing, Abrams Davis said. Some agents ask for a flat fee, and others set a percentage rate of the sales price.
The Maryland Association of Realtors puts out its own list of recommended questions for first-time homebuyers in choosing an agent. Association leadership said agent compensation must be specific, such as a percentage of sales price, a flat dollar amount or a combination of both. It cannot be open-ended.
“We are all about making sure there’s transparency about the process for all Marylanders and anyone moving into our state,” she said.
This article was originally published by a www.thebaltimorebanner.com . Read the Original article here. .
KSHB 41 reporter Grant Stephens covers issues connected to access to housing and rent costs. Share your story idea with Grant.
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There are big changes coming to the way you buy or sell a home.
These changes stem from a series of lawsuits intended to make the home buying process more transparent.
The changes take effect August 17th.
An agent working with a buyer will have to work out an agreement before the prospective buyer and real estate agent look at a property together.
KSHB 41 News staff
Home in Kansas City area
“When a real estate agent says, ‘Hey, starting August 17th, you have to sign this agreement,’ they’re telling you the truth,” said Holden Lewis with NerdWallet.
You may be familiar with the standard five to six percent commission rate you’d have to pay in the past.
It’s split between buyer’s and seller’s agents and is often baked into the total cost of the home.
The changes mean there’s now an extra layer of negotiation that could change that standardized fee.
“It’s gonna specify how much you’re gonna pay that agent,” Lewis said.
Realtors like Kathleen Spiking with the Rob Ellerman Team say it might change how contracts are written and how they’re paid.
KSHB 41 News staff
Kathleen Spiking
“They’re training us on what’s going on, what’s does this look like, how does it appear in a contract,” Spiking said.
But since she’s always been upfront with costs, it won’t change the day-to-day.
“Personally, for me, it doesn’t affect the way that I run my business,” she said. “I still have communication up front with all of my clients, whether they’re buyers or sellers, and I think maybe for people it would be further and more thorough communication at the beginning and during the process of buying a home,” she said.
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This article was originally published by a www.kshb.com . Read the Original article here. .
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) requires the implementation of two policy changes no later than Saturday, August 17.
San Luis Obispo County real estate agent Christa Lowry explained the two changes taking place.
“The first change is that buyers will not be able to enter a home without a written and signed buyer’s representation agreement with their buyer’s agent,” Lowry said.
That agreement negotiates a percentage of the sale the buyer will pay their agent. Prior to this rule, buyers could opt out of paying the buyer a commission.
“They had the option to not, but it was standard that they did,” Lowry said.
She added that while this new change requires the buyer to pay the buyer’s agent a commission, that commission fee is agreed upon by both parties.
“It’s a negotiable amount. That’s the most important thing to know,” Lowry said.
The second change prevents a listing agent from disclosing an agent’s commission or concession on the Multiple Listing Service. Instead, buyers will need to contact the listing agent directly about commission or concession fees.
“Buyers used to be able to call an agent and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to see five properties.’ There [was] no written agreement. There [was] no talk about commission or concession,” Lowry said. “Now they have to sit down and have that conversation with a buyer’s agent.”
Jenny Heinzen works as a broker for Vineyard Professional Real Estate, a luxury real estate firm in Paso Robles.
She said most of these changes involve a restructuring of business.
“It’s just kind of a work-around with the paperwork,” Heinzen said.
However, she said first-time home buyers could be impacted by the changes.
“A lot of times first-time home buyers are stretching for payment and if those first-time home buyers are asked to pay their buyer’s agent commission, that affects their down payment capabilities,” she said.
Heinzen noted that those costs can be avoided by structuring agreements differently.
“Our goal on our listings and most of the agents within the county is to get compensated by the seller,” Heinzen said.
She said for those new to buying a home or looking for help navigating these changes, finding the right agent is key.
“It’s going to be really important to work with good, experienced agents who are selling the types of property that you want to buy or sell,” Heinzen said. “Find a good agent and a good agent will educate you.”
This article was originally published by a www.ksby.com . Read the Original article here. .
It was huge news at the time: the National Association of Realtors (NAR) agreed in March to pay $418 million and make changes to how the home-buying process works in order to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged the industry conspired to make agent commissions higher than they needed to be.
The provisions of the settlement go into effect on Aug. 17. For now, what consumers can expect is more paperwork, and potentially more confusion.
“This is a grand social experiment,” says Leo Pareja, the CEO of exp Realty, one of the biggest real-estate brokerages in the country. “None of us know what’s about to happen.”
Buyers now have to sign a contract
Here’s how the process used to work: a seller’s agent would list a home on an MLS, or multiple listing service, which is a database of properties for sale. Those listings would state that the seller of a home would pay a certain amount to compensate the buyer’s agent. This compensation was often about 3% of the sales price, which was also about what the seller’s agent would get from the seller. (The average amount ranges between jurisdictions and even from sale to sale; some agents were also paid flat fees.)
Technically, those fees were negotiable. But most homeowners either didn’t know that or feel they could negotiate. In addition, home sellers allege, real-estate agents would sometimes “steer” buyers to specific homes based on the amount of compensation they could receive. As of Aug. 17, real-estate agents cannot list any sort of agent compensation when they put a house on multiple listing services, a change designed to eliminate steering.
Read More: Stop Looking For Your Forever Home.
In addition, both buyers and sellers are now required to sign a written agreement with their agent before the agent shows them a property or assists with a transaction. The buyer’s side of this is more consequential—most sellers have signed these contracts in the past, but few buyers did. In the new buyers’ contract, sometimes called an “exclusive representation agreement,” the buyer agrees to work with the agent for a certain period of time. Most importantly, the buyer and agent also agree on how the agent will be compensated, whether through a flat fee, a specific share of the purchase price, or another method. Agents must also make clear in this contract that broker commissions are fully negotiable, a change that consumer advocates hope will drive commissions—and prices—down.
Many real-estate agents say the changes are positive, including Jennifer Stevenson, a real-estate agent in upstate New York and a regional vice president for the National Association of Realtors. “This makes the process better,” she says. “Clients are going to understand exactly what is expected of me and what I am offering them as a service.”
But others aren’t so sure that the changes will be positive for consumers. Realtor associations across the country have been releasing drafts of contracts that are extremely lengthy and written in legal terms that are difficult to understand, says Tanya Monestier, a law professor at the University of Buffalo. The draft buyer agreement from the North Carolina Association of Realtors, for instance, is seven pages long.
Read More: When Should I Buy A House?
Monestier analyzed the draft agreement by the California Association of Realtors (CAR) for the Consumer Federation of America, and issued a report criticizing the agreement for being opaque—so opaque, in fact, that Monestier says she had trouble getting through the document. “No seller will read this monster of a document—much less be able to understand it,” she concluded.
Not all new buyer forms are so dense. Monestier says she reviewed a few forms that were clear; those from Exp Realty, for instance, are just two pages long and explicitly spell out buyer and seller responsibilities. Exp has made these forms available to any company that wants to use them, says Pareja, the CEO.
Compensation may be changing
Before the NAR settlement, it was standard for the seller to pay for both the seller and the buyer’s agents. That may not be the case going forward.
In tight housing markets, sellers could refuse to pay for the buyer’s agent because they have so much interest in their home. Instead, agent’s fees may become a bigger part of the negotiation when people are buying homes. If a buyer really wants a house, for instance, they could offer to pay the seller’s agent fees, and include that provision in their offer letter. Conversely, if a seller in a slow market is desperate to unload their home, they could offer to pay the buyer’s agent fees—though the agent could not disclose that on the listing.
Monestier says she also expects there will be more buyers who choose not to have an agent at all, because they don’t want to be on the hook for the agent’s fee. That could lead to less potential work for many of the real-estate agents out there.
Most of all, the settlement could lower compensation for both buyer’s and seller’s agents. Academic papers have predicted that fees could decline by 30-50% as a result, which would end up lowering home prices as well.
Of course, it’s possible that old habits are hard to break, and that not much will change at all. Sellers are accustomed to paying for buyers’ broker fees, and they may continue to do so. Even if everyone involved knows they can negotiate.
This article was originally published by a time.com . Read the Original article here. .
As a result of the March 2024 agreement by the National Association of Realtors to settle one of several class action lawsuits brought against them and a variety of large national real estate firms and Multiple Listing Services, things in real estate are about to change in a big way. August 17, 2024 is the deadline for certain practice changes to begin in the real estate industry across the country.
Some of those changes include a prohibition of any offers of compensation (by a selling firm to a buyer’s agent’s firm) from being displayed on any MLS listing as happens now, and more specific disclosures regarding agent representation and real estate commissions. Such as, clear reminders to consumers that commissions charged by brokers for selling your property or acting as a buyer’s agent are not set by law and are fully negotiable.
For several years, Maine Realtors have been required to present to everyone they have a substantive interaction with about buying or selling real estate, a written explanation of the types of agent representation available. This common disclosure details the difference between remaining an unrepresented “customer” and becoming a represented client. Still, there is much confusion about the process.
In Maine, we have used written Buyers Representations Agreements for many years, but states elsewhere are only beginning to. And, while in Maine it has always been that an interested party could view a listed home with an agent without ever signing anything, after Aug. 17, 2024, that can no longer happen (in all but limited scenarios). All real estate agents will be prohibited from showing you a listed property without a signed written agreement between you and the agent detailing the terms of representation and potential compensation (you can limit that agreement to just one property, and for just that day, if you choose). To be sure, there are many great reasons to have a trusted Realtor by your side guiding you and representing your interests when buying or selling real estate. That will not change, and in fact, it will be more important than ever after Aug 17.
There is an expectation that these practice changes will enhance transparency going forward, and maybe even lower the cost of selling real estate for consumers. At Newcastle Realty, our old model called for standard listing commission tiers of some percentage of the sold price; it might have been 5%, 6%, 7%, or 8%, depending on whether we were marketing land, a home, a business, or commercial property for the client. Of that, we used to offer a portion to agents representing buyers, as an additional incentive (that used to be 50% of what we were charging our seller client). Now, we offer a modified option where our listing and marketing services cost half what they used to, and the seller decides how much (if any) additional compensation they wish to offer to a buyer’s agent, and we add those together. The result is often lower than what we might have expected to see in the past.
Yes, this can and will have the effect of transferring some or all the cost for the buyer’s agent services (that used to be paid by the seller), onto the buyer’s side of the settlement statement—and that is a potential disadvantage for first-time home buyers without extra funds beyond their downpayment. It will take time for us to see the full impact of this evolution.
To be sure, there is a lot of confusion among consumers, and frankly, there is a lot of concern among some Realtors. At my firm, we have accepted and embraced these changes. We are ready to guide buyers and sellers through this new, exciting landscape. This is the future of real estate, and it begins Aug. 17. There are some very good sources of additional information available online if you want to learn more, such as www.nar.realtor/the-facts/home-sellers-what-the-nar-settlement-means and www.nar.realtor/the-facts/homebuyers-what-the-nar-settlement-means.
This article was originally published by a www.boothbayregister.com . Read the Original article here. .
When homeowners change their mind about a design feature late into a project — for example, after plans have been finalized, contracts are signed and builders have broken ground — things are bound to get complicated. Sometimes you might have to deal with a domino effect of issues and complete extra work such as drafting new plans, reconfiguring the budget, managing supply logistics and educating clients about how the project timeline and cost will be affected.
Here, designers and contractors share their best advice for processing change orders and implementing major last-minute requests from customers. Take a look at these eight tips, then in the Comments tell us how you negotiate change orders with clients and team members.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
When homeowners change their mind about a design feature late into a project — for example, after plans have been finalized, contracts are signed and builders have broken ground — things are bound to get complicated. Sometimes you might have to deal with a domino effect of issues and complete extra work such as drafting new plans, reconfiguring the budget, managing supply logistics and educating clients about how the project timeline and cost will be affected.
Here, seven designers and contractors share their best advice for processing change orders and implementing major last-minute requests from customers. Take a look at these eight tips, then in the Comments tell us how you negotiate change orders with clients and team members.
This article was originally published by a www.houzz.com . Read the Original article here. .
Before she put her Westford home on the market, Vicky Phillips did some math. With the four-bedroom home priced at $808,000, Phillips estimated it would cost her about $48,000 in commissions for a real estate agent to handle the sale.
Phillips decided to keep that money and sell the home herself. In May, she posted it on Picket Fence Preview, a website featuring homes that are for sale by the owner. She also paid a real estate agent $499 to offer the house on the multiple listing service, a system that shows all the properties for sale through brokers.
“It isn’t complicated,” said Phillips, who owns a business and noted that she has signed much more detailed contracts than the one she’ll use in selling her home.
She’s shown her home five times, a process that usually takes her about two hours, including tidying up. If she contracted with a real estate agent to handle the sale, that person would expect the standard 2 or 3 percent commission, as much as $24,000. If a buyer’s agent were involved, as is often the case, that person would take another 2 or 3 percent of the sale price.
“Real estate agents are great, but what are you paying for?” Phillips asked.
Questions like Phillips’ have roiled the real estate profession for years, and recently a rebellion of home sellers succeeded. In March, the National Association of Realtors agreed to pay $418 million in damages to settle a 2019 federal lawsuit that accused the organization of violating antitrust laws by adopting rules that created an industry-wide standard commission.
The settlement specifies that the NAR must drop rules that require the agent for the home seller to offer payment to the agent for the buyer. Those rules have resulted in the standard 5 to 6 percent commission being incorporated into the price of most homes for sale. Under the settlement, it will be easier for buyers and sellers to negotiate commissions with their real estate agents.
The settlement made national headlines, with some analysts predicting that the price of buying a home would drop significantly as a result of the decline in commissions.
Smaller commissions would be good news for Vermont home sellers, but local experts say the soaring cost of buying a house is mainly the result of the spike in home values. The median price of a house sold in Chittenden County climbed by more than $100,000 between 2020 and last year, to $460,500. With the typical commission of 5 or 6 percent, someone selling that home would pay the agents involved as much as $27,000.
Many real estate agents insist the national settlement won’t change anything in Vermont. Local agents have always been up front with homebuyers and sellers about how much commissions would cost — and have always been open to negotiation, said Kathy Sweeten, CEO of the Vermont Association of Realtors.
“It’s not going to have a huge effect, because we already do this,” Sweeten said in an interview. That’s the position many of Vermont’s real estate agencies are taking, too.
“We’ve been doing business this way for many years now with our agency disclosures,” Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty CEO Laurie Mecier-Brochu said.
But home industry analysts say the settlement will likely free up consumers to bargain with agents for their services. The Consumer Federation of America, an advocate for nonprofit consumer groups, said that while negotiating has always been an option in theory, contracts are usually written by lawyers for local real estate associations. Under the existing system, many homebuyers are unaware they’re paying a commission of 2 or 3 percent to their agent, because it’s incorporated into the home seller’s fees and therefore into the price of the home.
Starting next month, buyers who hire an agent to show them homes will be asked to sign a contract spelling out what they will pay the agent if there is a sale, so the cost will not be hidden in the sale price of the home. The advocacy group said the settlement will create more freedom and transparency for agents and consumers.
Change won’t happen overnight.
“The residential real estate marketplace will take some time, perhaps several years, to fully process the implications of this settlement,” the Consumer Federation said in a statement after the NAR settlement was announced.
Not all agents are paid by commission. Some charge a flat fee — $3,500 is common — instead of a commission, using that transparency as a selling point. And there have always been homeowners such as Phillips who avoid commissions altogether by tackling home sales on their own.
Changes in technology are making that easier. Nowadays, websites such as Zillow and Redfin display the homes that are listed on the MLS, making them available online to anyone who knows how to look for them. When she was shopping for a house two decades ago, Phillips noted, the real estate agent would print off MLS listings and mail them to her, a cumbersome process that gave the agent control over which properties Phillips could consider.
Online listing services also help would-be home sellers see what similar properties are going for — and provide valuable information to buyers, such as how much the home sold for in the past.
“Before, you couldn’t really go on Zillow and find comparables and past histories and what the taxes were” for houses on the MLS, Phillips added.
Demand for homes is high in Vermont, making it a good time for sellers to try their hand at going it alone.
Before she put her Montpelier modular home on the market in May, Tammy Parish asked for advice on Front Porch Forum about selling without an agent. She got a flurry of responses from sellers who had done that — as well as several pleas from people who wanted to tour her home.
“My phone blew up. It was people giving me advice saying, ‘Yes, you can do it’ or ‘No, it’s more detailed than you think,'” said Parish, who added that she sold her home for $240,000 the following weekend to one of the people who had responded to her query.
Parish hired a lawyer to help with a contract, paying around $2,000, she said. A 5 percent commission would have set her back around $12,000.
“That’s a lot of money to give to someone else for putting pictures out there and marketing it,” she said.
Phillips said more than 25 agents have gotten in touch since she posted an ad for her Westford home on Front Porch Forum in May.
“They all want to represent me,” said Phillips, who thinks a lack of inventory and high interest rates may have created a very slow market for agents. She added that there are times when using an agent is essential. She’s looking for property in Asheville, N.C., where she’ll build her next home, and she said the agent alerted her that land prices were lower in a neighboring town because of a local paper mill.
“She said, ‘On the right day you don’t smell it, but on a bad day, not only do you smell it everywhere, the fumes are toxic,'” Phillips said. “Good advice.”
If more negotiations lead to lower commissions, as expected, some agents might leave the profession. The number of real estate agents licensed in Vermont jumped during the pandemic, reaching 3,072 last year — the most since the Secretary of State’s Office started keeping records in 2008. Right now, 2,843 people are licensed to sell real estate, according to the office.
It’s a tough way to make a living, according to Mikail Stein of RE/MAX North Professionals, who sells about 40 homes a year. Stein said his overhead is high and his hours are long. Income is unpredictable.
“Only in the last two years of my career have I had a winter where I wasn’t freaking out about where things were financially,” Stein said. “And hourly-wise, most people do way better than me.”
Stein thinks career professionals such as him will stay in the business, and if commissions drop, part-time, new or unskilled agents will be most likely to leave.
“I hope what it ends up doing is providing the public with better service,” he said of the NAR settlement. “For those of us who do bring high service, the compensation will be just. And for those who don’t, the market will say, ‘You’re not providing enough.'”
A Game-Changing Federal Case
The lawsuit
A group of Missourians who had used real estate agents to sell their homes filed a 2019 class-action lawsuit against the 1.5 million member National Association of Realtors and several multistate real estate brokerages. The suit alleged that the defendants had conspired to inflate real estate commissions paid by the homeowners.
The details
The lawsuit took aim at the NAR’s “cooperative compensation” rule, which requires the home seller’s agent to offer compensation to the agent for the buyer in order to add the home to a multiple listing service. The suit charged that the NAR, by controlling almost all the multiple listing services in the U.S., was wielding monopoly power to keep commissions artificially high.
The verdict
A federal jury in Missouri ruled for the homeowners in October 2023, awarding them $1.8 billion in damages. The NAR said it would appeal.
The settlement
Instead, in March, the NAR settled the case for $418 million in damages and an agreement to change some of its practices.
What will change?
Sellers’ agents won’t set the commission earned by the buyer’s agent. Instead, homebuyers will negotiate directly with those agents for their services. The changes are due to take effect in August.
What’s next?
In Vermont, analysts say it is too soon to predict what, if any, impact the settlement will have in the state. Prices are high, driven by a critical shortage of inventory and high demand.
“If I had to guess, I would say Realtors will become less powerful, and maybe there will be more fee-for-service” real estate transactions, said Jeff Lubell, a Norwich resident who works as a principal associate in housing policy for Abt Global, a consulting firm in Rockville, Md. “We’ll see different patterns in different places.”
An unintended consequence?
Some real estate companies and analysts say the settlement will hurt low-income homebuyers. Those buyers may not be able to afford to pay an out-of-pocket commission to their agent. Previously that commission was incorporated into the price of the home, and thus into the mortgage paid over time.
This article was originally published by a www.sevendaysvt.com . Read the Original article here. .
Creating indoor-outdoor connections was the priority for this 315-square-foot screened porch in Canada’s wine country. Lauren Webb and Josephina Serra of Form Collective used sliding doors to make it an extension of the house, and another door (where this photo was taken from) opens right to the yard. Sited for maximum views of the woods nearby and mountains in the distance, the porch has screens that keep the bugs out and a fireplace to keep things cozy when the air turns chilly.
The homeowners wanted to have the feel of a rustic country home but with modern flair, as seen in the oversize stone fireplace, charcoal stamped-concrete flooring, pedestal dining table and natural oak finishes.
Read more about this project