News Update
There are actually two separate issues going on in Missouri concerning lawsuits and real estate:
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Home seller lawsuit against realtors (November 2023): A class-action lawsuit argued that the way real estate commissions are determined violates antitrust laws. Home sellers shouldn't be forced to pay the commission of the buyer's agent, since that agent doesn't represent them. The jury ruled in favor of the sellers, which could significantly change how commissions are structured in the future [2, 3, 4].
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Missouri Attorney General lawsuit against MV Realty (March 2024): This lawsuit targets a specific real estate firm, MV Realty, for their "Homeowner Benefit Program." The AG alleges the program preys on homeowners by offering small cash gifts in exchange for unfair contracts locking sellers into using MV Realty for decades [5].
These are two distinct lawsuits, though both concern practices in the Missouri real estate market. The first deals with how commissions are typically split between buyer and seller agents, while the second focuses on potentially deceptive practices by a single company.
