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Real Estate|Home Sellers and Buyers Accuse Realtors of Blocking Lower Fees
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/realestate/sellers-buyers-realtors-high-commissions.html
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A year after a landmark settlement called for a disruption in how real estate agents are paid, people say they still feel forced to pay them excessive commissions.
March 15, 2025, 7:30 a.m. ET
When Mike Chambers was ready to sell his house in Boulder, Colo., last month, he interviewed a handful of real estate agents who promised he could fetch $2.75 million or more if he listed with them.
But the promise would come at a cost: Each agent wanted him to pay a commission of at least 5 percent, or $137,500.
Frustrated that not a single agent was willing to budge on the rate, Mr. Chambers, 39, decided to sell his house on his own, and he took to social media with the handle @realtorshateme to chronicle the process. His reels drew 50,000 views or more.
Within days, local agents were making their own social media posts that countered his points — an action that Mr. Chambers described as an aggressive campaign aimed at preventing him from making a sale on his own.
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Call it the Realtor recoil.
One year after the National Association of Realtors agreed, as part of a legal settlement, to change a key rule on real estate commissions — a rule that had long upheld a tradition of commissions between 5 and 6 percent, little has changed.
