Onto 2025, What Have We Learned?

2025 is in full swing and despite a busy holiday season and our chief editor undergoing a very bad case of the flu, The Real Estate Think Tank continues in full swing as it embraces the beginning of the New Year. With all that said, 2024 has been another year of improvement and growth here at TRET and this time of the year causes us to reflect on some of its highlights.

The Origin of the 6% Commission Standard

The recent National Association of Realtors (NAR) Settlement is in the process of changing how many real estate brokers and salespeople conduct business. The terms of the settlement all but abolish cooperative compensation amongst brokers. Although this may not be a substantial change for markets in which every buyer offers through a Buyer's Broker and every seller is automatically represented by a Seller’s Broker, the effects will be greatly felt in other markets. Some of the larger real estate markets have developed complex systems of agency that will now be simplified by one premise--in a residential real estate transaction, a buyer will now have to pay a Buyer’s Broker and seller will have to pay a Seller’s Broker.