Kevin Sears
speaker
26 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Kevin Sears’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Hello, my name is Kevin Sears, and I am the 2024 president of the National Association of Realtors. Today, I'd like to touch on a couple of things.
Now, in the settlement, there are a couple of key pieces. One is financial. The other is rules. Now, let's talk about the rules.
Please hear me clearly. You will still be able to offer compensation to a buyer broker. It just cannot be conveyed on the MLS.
If there's one thing I know about members, they will figure out how to efficiently communicate the information to see if there will be any cooperating compensation.
So just know that we're doing everything we can to continue to advocate for your ability to help buyers, sellers, tenants, and landlords all across our great country.
Right.
The free market is working, and I think the consumer is benefiting while still receiving professional representation.
I take great offense at that characterization.
Coming up after the break, what does the NAR have to say for itself? The settlement was part of our agreement where we didn't admit to any wrongdoing. I'm Stephen Dubner. This is Freakonomics Radio. We'll be right back.
My name is Kevin Sears. I am a broker associate with Lamacchio Realty in Springfield, Massachusetts. OK, also. And I'm the 2024 president of the National Association of Realtors.
Yeah. You know, typically when I do the interviews, I'm used to just talking with local media and they want to know the brokerage I'm with. Yeah. I understand.
The National Association of Realtors is a trade organization that has about 1.5 million realtor members across the country. We are a trade association that advocates for our members and for property owners' rights across the country. What share of all real estate agents belong to the National Association of Realtors?
I think that there's probably close to about 3 million licensees across the country. And so we've got about half of them that are members of the National Association of Realtors, which, you know, part of the requirement to be a member is you have to subscribe to the Code of Ethics, which is very important for us. And it's been around for over 100 years.
Yeah, I'm not sure where you read that. That was the New York Times. Yeah, the New York Times has been known to get some things wrong. What I'll tell you is that the National Association of Realtors, we absolutely do have some assets. And part of the assets that we have are properties that we own, that we use. We also have reserves built up from dues from our members.
We also have different wholly owned subsidiaries that invest in property technology and that sort of thing.
Here's what Kevin Sears says. Commissions are entirely negotiable, and they have been for the entirety of the 30 years that I've been a real estate licensee and a realtor.
Yeah, I take great offense at that characterization. There's over 3 million across the country, and we have only half of those licensees as members. Consumers have tremendous choice right now. They can choose who to hire, what to pay, or to go it on their own. The fact that we are...
the only national organization that has reached to all 50 states, and we have the ability to lobby in our nation's capital, that's a good thing, not only for our members, but for our industry and for the American consumers who rely on us to promote private property rights and the protections thereof.
Unfortunately, a jury of eight in Missouri found us liable in federal court. And as a result, there was a jury verdict of $1.8 billion. Since it was an antitrust case, that meant it was tripled up just shy of $5.4 billion. We did not have the resources when it came to being able to satisfy that jury verdict. And so... we negotiated with the plaintiffs on a settlement.
The settlement does have a financial component. Over the next three years, the National Association of Realtors will pay $418 million as part of the settlement. There are a couple of other things that come along with that. The first is that the settlement was part of our agreement where we didn't admit to any wrongdoing.
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