Skip To Content

You may have seen the news: The National Association of REALTORS® reached a proposed agreement to resolve a portion of nationwide claims brought by home sellers. NAR’s agreement would end a litigation of claims brought on behalf of home sellers related to broker commissions and preserve consumer choice and protect members.

The agreement would resolve claims against NAR, over one million NAR members, all state/territorial and local REALTOR® associations, all association-owned Multiple Listing Services (this includes the Greater Lehigh Valley Multiple Listing Service), and all brokerages with an NAR member as principal that had a residential transaction volume in 2022 of $2 billion or below.

And you may have seen a lot of chatter in the news and on social media, in addition to attempts to interpret what all this means. To cut through the noise, we’ve compiled the resources and information that matters to you and your clients – right now.

Greater Lehigh Valley REALTORS®

A reminder that the agreement is currently proposed and requires approval by a Federal court. This process is expected to take several months. Nothing is changing today, tomorrow, or even the next day.

Staff and leadership at the Greater Lehigh Valley REALTORS® are poised to help its membership with whatever the future may hold. Your association has a robust marketing plan in place that can be adjusted, as needed, to continue to show the worth of using a REALTOR®. The Greater Lehigh Valley Real Estate Academy can and will offer classes and workshops to cover any topic our members need further education on. And, if the agreement is approved and changes are mandated, our staff, leadership, Board of Directors, and large group of committee volunteers are at the ready to ensure our REALTORS®, our association, and our MLS are in compliance.

GLVR, through great leadership, will address what lies ahead one step at a time.

Pennsylvania Association of Realtors®

Pennsylvania added buyer agency to its licensing statute in 1999 and has had buyer agent documents and forms in place since then. Multiple forms allow listing agents and buyer agents to explain their value to clients and to negotiate fees among the various players in a transaction. Staff and leadership at the Pennsylvania Association of REALTORS® feel confident in their ability to help members and consumers in this time of transition.

Any required rule changes are expected to be effective in mid-July 2024. PAR will be working with the Standard Forms Committee as well as other internal groups over the next few months to review its forms and practice advice to ensure they reflect new NAR rules as they are made available.

PAR has published a resource on PARealtors.org that includes frequently asked questions for REALTORS® and consumers. PAR will notify members when additional answers are posted. If you did not watch the video from PAR’s Chief Legal Officer Hank Lerner, please do so to understand how the proposed settlement will impact Pennsylvania REALTORS®.

GLVR staff works closely with PAR staff. Rest assured that changes made at the state level in any form will be heavily communicated to you at the local level.

National Association of REALTORS®