A settlement announced last week by the powerful National Association of Realtors is set to usher in the most sweeping reforms the American real estate market has seen in a centurycould impact the housing market nationwide or leave many in the industry in some uncertainty. Only time will tell, experts say, as home prices remain high in North Texas and competition heats up for the spring buying market.
The trade group also agreed to require agents or others working with a homebuyer to enter into a written agreement with them. That is meant to ensure homebuyers know going in what their agent will charge them for their services.Some housing experts say it's like hitting the reset button on the housing market. But it's still too soon to know exactly how this will impact buyers, sellers, and the agents they work with.
"It's always been negotiable. That's what has caused a lot of this kind of frustration and misunderstanding, is that this has always been negotiable,” said Ashley Massey, a real estate advisor in DFW and author of. “It's always been a negotiated industry. So now we're trying to essentially reinstate some information regarding this, making sure that both sides know it's always been negotiable from day one.
"In the United States, it's always optional to be represented. Whether you're buying or selling a house, you don't have to use a real estate agent to do that. But a lot of people find that they're bringing on professionals to help navigate. It's a huge transaction. There's a lot of legal implications with buying and selling homes.
"The problem with that is, who is going to get that extra 2% or 3% if it's not embedded in there? And I can tell you right now that the seller is going to want it, and they're going to want that extra money. In the environment that we have right now with less affordable houses available, they are so scarce right now that this is going to impede the buyer,” he said.
But if a seller doesn’t want to offer to pay the buyer’s agent commission, homebuyers would be on the hook to shop around for an agent they can afford. The policy change also requires that clients sign a contract with an agent before they enlist their services, spelling out how much the agent’s compensation will be.