NAR settlement causing ‘total confusion’ in real estate: Barbara Corcoran

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has agreed to pay $418 million after reaching a settlement in a lawsuit where a federal jury ruled the organization had conspired to inflate commissions. Corcoran Group Founder Barbara Corcoran joins Yahoo Finance Live in-studio, believing the ruling to be creating more “clarity” from real estate brokers, which may ultimately incur more service costs on homebuyers.

In Corcoran’s words, the settlement has resulted in “total confusion” across the real estate industry. She explains the change that requires brokers to create a written document outlining all the services they will provide for buyers, as well as the cost of each service, will make “a clear difference,” but that’s the only upside.

Corcoran explains that sellers will have to “make good with the buyers” in order to help boost the price and sales of their homes, even if it means coming out of their own pockets for the “myriad of things” that could arise.” However, she maintains that the ruling is “not a big deal,” but rather, it’s the confusion it has raised that is the real problem.

Corcoran notes that this ruling will not prompt home prices to come down, as sellers have “a one-time chance” to make profits on their house. She cites the housing inventory shortage as the reason why “prices have gone up despite everybody singing the blues,” with prices continuing to rise due to the imbalance in supply and demand dynamics.

However, Corcoran advises that if you want to buy a house, the time is “right now.” As people wait for rates to fall before entering the market, she warns that the optimal time will see “everybody in the market,” and she questions, “Why would you wait for that?”

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Editor’s note: This article was written by Angel Smith