In a strange event, National Association of Realtors The trade group's interim CEO Nikia Wright posted a video “setting the record straight” about agency fees, but it was deleted before it could be reposted.
The video was first posted around 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday and was deleted about two hours later. It reappeared on NAR's website around 6pm ET that same day.
In the original video, Wright tells viewers, “NAR does not set fees. It never has and never will. Period. End of story.” In the reposted video, Wright's statement reads, “NAR We don’t set fees. And there never will be.”
In fact, NAR has set fees in the past. In 1983, Federal Trade Commission published a study titled “The Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry,'' detailing the historical use of NAR's commission schedule and stating that prior to 1950, charging less than the standard commission rate was unethical for trade associations. It was emphasized that the regulations had been violated.
NAR pointed this out in a text-based message included at the end of the video. The text reads: “This video reflects that although the NAR does not set fees, Supreme Court precedent from the mid-1900s ruled that the NAR fee schedule in use at the time was inappropriate. This lawsuit has nothing to do with those fee schedules, and in fact, NAR rules have explicitly prohibited anticompetitive conduct for decades.”
NAR is accused of price manipulation in an ongoing fee lawsuit, but not of setting fees. Rather, the trade group is accused of setting protocols such as participation rules that allow competitors to stabilize fees. NAR did not mention the Code of Ethics for Participation in the video.
“To avoid distracting from the fact that NAR does not set fees and our rules have explicitly prohibited anti-competitive conduct for decades,” a NAR spokesperson said in an email. The video has been updated.”
