Real Estate

Realtors – NAR Update Mid September 2024 –

August 18, 2024

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NOTE THIS IS FROM NAR NOT US nj.org

Hello,

With six resources published in the last month alone, NAR’s recently launched “Consumer Guide” series has been a hit, providing homebuyers and sellers with the knowledge and backing they need to navigate one of the most consequential transactions of their lifetimes. Feedback from you, our members, has been incredibly helpful, and we are grateful for your continued engagement.

Since our last all-member email on this series, we have published the following guides:

Offers of Compensation: Outlines the process and options available for offering compensation to a buyer’s agent and the reasons why this may be a compelling option for sellers to consider when marketing their property.
What Veterans Need to Know About Buying a Home: Covers what NAR is doing to promote access to financing for veterans and highlights the options available to veteran buyers in their homebuying process.
Negotiating Written Buyer Agreements: Explains what consumers should expect from—and how to navigate—conversations with REALTORS® about the services they need and the associated compensation.

As a reminder, these three guides, in addition to the earlier guides on written buyer agreements, open houses, and the ethical duties of REALTORS®, are available for download on facts.realtor, and we encourage you to give them directly to inquiring clients. All guides are also available in Spanish.

To reach as many consumers as possible, NAR will issue a press release tomorrow morning that promotes the resources developed to date.

We will continue to send periodic updates like this one with the latest few guides bundled together for ease of reference. However, we encourage you to follow along in real time: new guides in the series are posted to facts.realtor every Wednesday. Keep an eye out for the next installment in the series, which will cover seller concessions.

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or feedback.

Thank you,

Katie

NJ State Law S3192

Buyer/Tenant Representation Agreement is now required prior to working with a buyer or tenant of one to four family properties.
Designated Agency is permitted. (Click for Agency Explained Guide from NJ Realtors).
Seller’s Property Condition Disclosure is now required by the state. As always, you have the option to upload it to the listing as an Associated Document for easier access by other member agents.
Signage is required at Open Houses, disclosing who the listing agent represents. This can be displayed at the entrance to the property or near the sign-in sheet.

For full details on the new NJ State Law, please refer to the information provided by NJ Realtors at: https://www.njrealtor.com/government-affairs/cpea/. (Click for Summary.)

NAR Settlement

Offers of compensation can no longer appear anywhere in the MLS. No mention or inference is allowed in listings. It is also prohibited to include a web address of the listing on another website.
The following fields have been removed from listing load and from listing agreements for ALL property categories: Comp BA, Comp TA, Comp Sub, and DCA.
NJMLS Listing Agreements have been updated; all cooperating broker compensation related fields have been removed to comply with NAR Settlement policy changes.
Commission Split Addendum paperwork has been removed from NJMLS forms. For now, this is still required by the NJ Real Estate Commission, however the NJMLS will no longer provide the Commission Split Addendum in their listing paperwork. For access to the section of the NJ Real Estate Commission rules related to this, click here.
Keybox Disclosure statement has been moved to a separate form since we no longer provide the Commission Split Addendum in our system.

Source. NJMLS

Antitrust

Understanding the principles of antitrust law is critical for both brokers and agents, not only to protect the brokerage from costly antitrust claims, but to best serve consumers in their homeownership journey. Keep in mind that brokers may be held liable for the anticompetitive behavior of their salespeople and staff, so having an antitrust compliance program in place to educate and train staff is important. Business decisions should always be made unilaterally and independently, and never as a result of an agreement, understanding or conspiracy among competitors. Any agreement to fix prices is prohibited, and real estate professionals should never agree, expressly or implicitly, with their competitors about matters such as the commission rate charged to consumers or the cooperative compensation they will offer to cooperating brokers. Similarly, brokers should never agree with other competitors to refuse to deal–or to only deal on certain terms–with another competitor or business. Avoid discussions with competitors about how to do business with other competitors altogether.

Are Lawyers Loving this Legal Labyrinth?

OK So David Maller comes back to settle the estate. Dave hasn’t lived there in many years. He seems to remember stomping around the back yard in galoshes. Splash Splash. Wait – it was sunny? Yikes! Memory is a funny thing your honor!

Yes, standing water – even once – is a must disclose item. On the other hand, that giant termite hiding under your bed was probably just your imagination.

Realtors – NAR Update Mid September 2024 –

Antitrust

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