[phantom784]

Realtors earn commissions as a % of the price a house sells for.

[adityamwagh]

It’s also a diabolical amount. My friend bought a house in San Jose, and both, the buyers and sellers agent got $50,000 each on a $2M house. They didn’t even help with the house search much.

[groundzeros2015]

Who agreed to those terms?

[cpburns2009]

The buyers or sellers. No one is required to use a realtor. They simply provide a convenient service for a fee.

[georgeecollins]

Tell me you have never bought a house in the US without telling me you have never bought a house in the US.

[rpdillon]

I've bought several houses in the U.S., and the last one I sold, I didn't have a realtor. I'm not sure what point you're making here.

[georgeecollins]

That you have bought several houses in the USA makes your experience represent 0.01% of homeowners. Most people in the USA only buy one.

[cpburns2009]

That's an odd accusation to make with confidence.

[triceratops]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnett_v._National_Associatio...

[groundzeros2015]

This lawsuit is about realtors acting against your interest (agency problem), and is not about you being forced to pay a particular commission.

You can choose your realtor. You can discuss with them.

This person just bought a 2m house!

[triceratops]

> not about you being forced to pay a particular commission

It's literally in the first paragraph of the article.

"At trial, a federal jury found that they violated antitrust law by conspiring to force home sellers to pay inflated commissions to real estate agents."

[pc86]

The force applies to "inflated," e.g. they agreed to pay a fee but were forced to pay an inflated fee. Not they were forced to pay any fee at all.

[nathan_compton]

Merch has to move for them to earn a percentage. If prices are systematically too high I would guess liquidity goes down.

[WarmWash]

Nothing a 50 year mortgage can't fix, I'm sure that article will be coming out soon to from our realtor friends.