NAR announced plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by October 10, 2024

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NAR announced plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by October 10, 2024

In our top story, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by October 10, 2024. This comes after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Department of Justice (DOJ) could reopen its investigation into NAR’s practices, overturning a lower court’s decision.

The legal battle began when the DOJ, under new leadership in 2021, withdrew a 2020 settlement that had previously ended its probe into NAR. The settlement required NAR to increase transparency around broker commissions and stop suggesting that buyer broker services were free. NAR complied, but the DOJ later decided the agreement restricted further investigation into potentially harmful practices.

After NAR’s appeal for a rehearing was denied in July, the trade group is now taking its case to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, NAR has agreed to provide documents related to ongoing commission lawsuits by September 30, 2024, as the DOJ narrows its document requests.

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In another developing legal battle, former Move Inc. employee James Kaminsky is at the center of a lawsuit between Realtor.com and CoStar. According to new filings, Kaminsky allegedly transferred up to 40 sensitive files to his personal email before leaving Realtor.com in January 2024. He later joined CoStar in March.

Realtor.com claims these files contain trade secrets, including details on online traffic, advertising strategies, and lead generation tactics. Move Inc., the parent company of Realtor.com, is seeking to block Kaminsky and CoStar from accessing these files during the lawsuit. However, there is no direct accusation that Kaminsky shared the documents with his new employer.

CoStar, defending itself, has dismissed the lawsuit as a publicity stunt, accusing Move of attempting to distract from a separate class action lawsuit filed against Realtor.com last week. This new lawsuit alleges that Realtor.com sold unvetted and potentially fraudulent buyer and seller leads to agents across the country. The National Association of Realtors has also been named as a co-defendant in the case, which claims that between 40-50% of the leads provided by Realtor.com had no intent to purchase and that the same leads were sold to multiple agents, breaking exclusivity agreements.

As both legal battles unfold, the real estate industry is watching closely to see how these high-stakes disputes will impact the future of online real estate platforms.

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Redfin laid off around 100 employees last week, mostly impacting its Concierge service, which helps homeowners prepare their properties for sale. Some support and sales manager roles within Redfin’s traditional brokerage business were also affected, though the company offered some staff the option to transition into agent roles instead of facing redundancy.

Redfin has faced a challenging few years, including multiple rounds of layoffs, exiting the iBuying business, and the surprise decision to leave the National Association of Realtors in October 2023. CEO Glenn Kelman has cited “dreadful” market conditions as a key factor behind the company’s ongoing financial struggles. Despite seeing some improvement in Q2 2024, with net losses of around $28 million compared to $67 million in Q1, Redfin has not recorded a profit since 2020.

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