A “FOR SALE” sign outside of a home in the Casa View neighborhood on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Dallas. According to an analysis by the real estate and rental platform Zillow Group Inc, the income needed to comfortably afford a home in Dallas is up by $53,679 since January 2020.The settlement changes several rules that lawsuits allege forced sellers to pay artificially inflated prices to sell their homes. It could mean the end of the 6% commission.
Some brokerages may offer flat fees, but no real estate company has ever made it work, he said. Customers haven’t been willing to pay the price.Hava Johnston, owner of The Johnston Home Team in Plano, said more agents for buyers and sellers will likely offer flat service fees. Instead of waiting for payment until a home is sold, a buyer’s agent could charge for each showing.“They’re going to have to figure out how to establish value for their services to their clients.
However, Sriram Villupuram, an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Texas at Arlington, points to one European country as proof that people will still use brokers despite changes.“In the United Kingdom, 70% of people still use a broker, so that’s not going to go away. That hasn’t gone away despite the emergence of technologies such as online marketplaces that offer a flat fee-based listing and so on and so forth,” he said Friday.