Real Estate Consumers HAVE No Rights. Especially when you Use an NAR member as the Forms are Designed to Protect Realtors and NOT Consumers.

This article, this lawsuit is true.  The MLS, Brokers, Franchise do discriminate against brokers that charge less commission.  I was boycotted in my first year for charging 5% commission.  The real estate industry is set up to prey on real estate consumers.  Your real estate listing is content for NAR and their website so they can place ads and sell ad space.  NAR.com is owned in part by the same company that owns Cendant, Sotheby's, Coldwell Banker, Century and ERA.

Do NOT Use a Realtor in your Real Estate Transaction.  The E and O insurance is to protect the Realtor, the "Forms" are to protect the Realtor and the Real Estate Consumer has no rights. '

This class action lawsuit is what happens in many MLS's and I would even dare to say all MLS's, I have been in many of them and been boycotted for charging less money and giving Buyer and Seller Rebates.

"Pennsylvania homeowner Thomas Logue filed a class action lawsuit in April 2010, alleging that a group of real estate brokerages and a local MLS (and its board of directors) conspired to keep broker commissions artificially high by limiting competition among companies, according to court documents. The area real estate companies stifled competition by keeping some rival businesses from effectively marketing properties, blocking discount brokers from listing in the MLS, alleges the suit, which Logue’s attorneys say caused him to pay more than was necessary to list his home in 2006.

This summer, a motion for preliminary approval of a settlement in the case was approved by the judge after denying a motion to dismiss by the defendants, laying the ground for this week’s approval of a settlement in the amount of $2.4 million, of which Logue’s attorneys will receive $1 million and Logue will receive $10,000. Court documents do not reveal the number of buyers that will split the remaining $1.39 million.

Logue filed the lawsuit against West Penn Multilist Inc., Howard Hanna Real Estate, Coldwell Banker Real Estate, Freeman Realty, Northwood Realty and Prudential Preferred Realty regarding purchases through these companies between February 13, 2005 and February 13, 2009.

Anti-trust laws were established in the 1800s to protect consumers from cartels and monopolies, which this case showed was in play on the Pennsylvania real estate scene. MLS companies have long struggled with business rules that dictate what is legitimate and what is not, and in this case, the judge agreed to this $2.4 million settlement alleging the brokerages and the MLS, along with their board of directors blocked discount brokerages.

Source and Full Article

http://agbeat.com/real-estate-sales-marketing/public-relations/2-4-million-class-action-lawsuit-mls-brokers-blocked-discounters/

The National Association of Realtors violates anti-trust laws every single day, and NAR Lobby money protects the Rights of Realtors and NOT the rights of the real estate consumer. 

For more on my take on the Real Estate Industry,
as a Real Estate Industry Insider and Whistleblower
http://www.realestateindustrywhistleblower.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/RealEstateConfession