According to the Times article, Haber and Umansky are expected to formally launch AREA on Wednesday at the Inman Connect real estate conference in New York City.

Haber and Umansky had planned to launch their new trade group at a later date, but ultimately decided to push ahead due to the mounting pile of commission lawsuits facing NAR, as well as Tracy Kasper’s unexpected resignation as NAR president earlier this month.

“We felt it was time to put this out in the public forum and to start building a community around it because we were hearing from agents that they wanted something different, but you can’t replace something like NAR with nothing — you have to have something to replace it with, otherwise it is just talk,” Haber said. “We don’t believe this is time for talk, this is time for action.”

As part of their AREA membership, agents will gain access to the National Listing Service, a nationwide database of home listings built off the technology that powers Umansky’s own private listing service. The website for the NLS (theNLS.com) is currently live with limited listings.

“Over a decade ago, when I founded The Agency, I had a clear vision to create a brokerage built by agents, and for agents. To this day, my founding mission has never wavered and I am always looking for opportunities to advance and empower agents all over the country and around the world,” Umansky wrote in an email. “Through this incredible journey, I believe it is important to give back and do better, especially for an industry that has given so much to me. As we forge ahead, I am committed to positive advancement not just for The Agency but for our entire industry.”

AREA will not be charging membership dues for at least another six months, but Haber and Umansky estimate annual dues will be between $400 and $500. The new trade group will allow agents to set their own commission rates and will not require cooperation between buyer and seller agents. The group will not have a president or vice president, and Haber and Umansky said they are still exploring where they will headquarter the trade group. So far, sites in Florida and Texas are under consideration.

“It is important for any association to demonstrate very tangibly, its value proposition,” Haber told HousingWire earlier this month “I think it is important that you join an organization not just because you have to, but because you want to. So, what that means is, that the goal isn’t to run up and have a million members, but to have members who want to be in the association and who want to help make a difference.”

In addition to the location of the firm’s headquarters, Haber and Umansky are still ironing out funding for the group. They are currently funding the organization with their own money, but they hope to raise between $50 million and $100 million from investors.

“We are underway, and the reaction has been really positive,” Haber said. “People are really excited and they are embracing the idea of something new.”

NAR did not return a request for comment.

The suit was filed last Tuesday in a Nevada federal court by Reno-based real estate agent Misty Carter. In the complaint, Carter accuses former eXp team leader Chris Nevada of a variety of sexual harassment behaviors, including making sexual remarks in the workplace, offering to pay Carter for sex, “unwanted touching” and attempts at kissing, and sexually oriented texts.

In addition to Nevada, the suit names eXp Realty and Nevada’s team, the Nevada Real Estate Group as defendants. Nevada and his team are no longer brokered at eXp Realty, as he and his team moved to LPT Realty in 2023, where they currently remain.

The lawsuit specifies that Carter was an employee of the Nevada Real Estate Group and not an independent contractor. She worked on Nevada’s team between December 2021 and June 2022.

According to the complaint, when Carter refused Nevada’s sexual advances, her “employment was terminated.” The complaint also alleged that eXp knew about Nevada’s behavior, however it did not elaborate on what the firm knew exactly.

In an emailed statement, an eXp spokesperson confirmed that Nevada and his team had moved to LPT Realty and that the firm did not know of the allegations against him until Carter filed the lawsuit.

“eXp Realty’s investigation began immediately upon receiving the allegations,” the spokesperson wrote. “We take our responsibility to foster a safe and inclusive environment very seriously. eXp Realty has zero tolerance for abuse, harassment, or misconduct of any kind — including by the independent real estate agents who use our services.”

This is the third sexual harassment lawsuit for the Glenn Sanford-helmed firm in the past year. In mid-December, the New York Times published a story examining allegations of sexual assault at the firm.

After conducting over 30 interviews with current and former eXp agents, and examining two lawsuits alleging sexual assault by former eXp agents and recruiters, the Times reported that eXp has “a yearslong pattern of predatory behavior by two marquee agents.”

Allegations of sexual assault relating to eXp Realty surfaced in February of 2023. A complaint filed by Fabiola Acevedo, Tami Sims, Christy Lundy, and an anonymous husband and wife in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California alleges that two eXp agents, Michael Bjorkman and David Golden, have a history of drugging and sexually assaulting women at eXp Realty recruiting events across the country, in violation of the federal sex trafficking statute.

According to the February 2023 civil complaint, Bjorkman and Golden would “entice women to travel in interstate commerce, recruit enthusiastic real estate agents with the promise of career advancement and coaching, and use their considerable influence in the real estate industry on these other real estate agents’ behalf, knowing that they would use means of force, fraud or coercion to cause these women to engage in a sex act.”

The second lawsuit, which makes similar allegations, was filed in December by Anya Roberts. In this complaint, Roberts claims she was given substances at eXp Realty events that caused her to black out. She believes she was sexually assaulted by both Golden and Bjorkman while unconscious.

Both Golden and Bjorkman are no longer agents with eXp. Bjorkman was removed as an agent in 2020 after allegations of sexual assault first surfaced, while Golden was suspended as both an agent and a recruiter in February 2023 pending the results of the investigation and the Acevedo lawsuit, according to an eXp spokesperson.

In the end, the court agreed with the state’s Real Estate Commission, finding that MV Realty had violated state license laws and rules.

The story was first reported by WTVD Channel 11.

MV Realty first came under fire in the state in March 2023, when it was sued by Attorney General Josh Stein, who claimed the firm was violating state laws “prohibiting unfair and deceptive practices, usurious lending, abusive telephone solicitation practices, and unfair debt collection practices by tricking homeowners into signing oppressive, 40-year real estate agreements.”  

Under MV Realty’s Homeowner Benefit Agreement, the homeowner signs over the right to list their home for the next 40 years to MV Realty in exchange for a cash payment ranging from $300 to $5,000. This means that if a homeowner decides to sell their house sometime in the next 40 years, the company is entitled to list the home for a 3% commission, which is separate from the commission earned by the buy-side agent.

If the homeowner breaks the agreement or decides to terminate it early, they must pay the firm 6% of the appraised value of the home.

Since starting the program in August 2020, MV Realty says it has enrolled more than 35,000 homeowners in 33 states and has paid homeowners nearly $40 million.

The firm announced it was pausing its right to list agreement program in late February 2023, after it had been sued by attorneys general in several states beginning with Florida, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in late 2022. In Sept. 2023, MV Realty filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the 33 states it operates in.

Despite pausing its right to list agreement program, MV Realty was hoping to continue operating as a traditional brokerage in North Carolina, but the ruling from the Real Estate Commission makes that impossible. The court gave the firm 120 days to wrap up its remaining business in the state.

MV Realty did not return a request for comment.

The filings did not provide any insight into why the suit was dismissed.

Friedman’s suit was in regard to the 2021 sale of his Park Slope home, in which he paid a buyer broker commission.

At the time of Friedman’s transaction, REBNY, despite not being affiliated with the National Association of Realtors, had a rule similar to NAR’s Participation Rule, that required the listing broker to split the commission they earned in a home sale transaction with the buyer’s broker. According to Friedman’s initial complaint, this artificially inflated real estate agent commissions.

In Oct. 2023, REBNY announced changes to its rules, including a rule preventing listing agents from paying or offering to pay buyers’ agents compensation. Instead, if a seller wishes to compensate the buyer’s agent, they must pay the agent themselves. It is not required for a seller to compensate a buyer’s agent. The rule went into effect on the first of this year.

In addition to REBNY, the lawsuit named Douglas Elliman, Christie’s International Real Estate, Brown Harris Stevens, SERHANT., Compass, The Agency, Elegran, Engel & Völkers, R New York, Terra Holdings, Leslie J. Garfield & Co., and Anywhere, as well as some of its affiliates, as defendants.

Since the start of the year, four new copycat lawsuits have been filed. While REBNY is no longer facing a suit from Friedman, it is still a defendant in the March suit, filed in early November, just days after a Missouri jury found  NAR, Keller Williams, and HomeServices of America liable for colluding to artificially inflate real estate agent commissions.

Compass, Christies and The Agency did not wish to comment on the dismissal, while the other defendants and counsel for the plaintiff did not return a request for comment.

Founded in 2017 in Greensboro, North Carolina by David Keener, the PREMIERE Group operates as a teamerage, providing agents with marketing and operations resources. The teamerage was previously brokered at eXp Realty.

Although it is based in North Carolina, PREMIERE Group operates in 38 markets across 20 states, and it has a goal of being in all 50 states by the end of 2025, according to the release.

“Dave’s decision to bring PREMIERE to Real is a monumental testament to the Real model and what our company offers top teams,” Sharran Srivatsaa, the president of Real, said in a statement. “In less than three years, Dave and his team have grown PREMIERE from less than two dozen agents to more than 200. His vision of building a tech-first, agent-centric brokerage aligns with our mission at Real. I’m thrilled to welcome Dave and the entire PREMIERE team to Real and to be able to provide a platform that helps them achieve their national expansion goals in a manner that supports their culture and dedication to serving clients.”

Keener’s teamerage was ranked No. 61 nationwide by transaction sides among all mega teams in the 2023 RealTrends + Tom Ferry The Thousand rankings, after the teamerage closed 701 transaction sides in 2022. This transaction side count earned PREMIERE Group the distinction of the No. 5 ranking in its home state of North Carolina. Additionally, the teamerage’s $180.853 million sales volume in 2022, earned it the No. 7 ranking in the state in the 2023 rankings.

“PREMIERE was built to be a different kind of brokerage team, so this was not a move we entered lightly. It was important to us to be able to maintain the values that differentiate PREMIERE,” Keener said in a statement. “After looking at a lot of models, Real is the only brokerage ideally set up for teams – it’s not only got a strong agent-centric culture that offers wealth-building opportunities, the Real platform is designed to ensure agents provide a great experience for clients.”

The Real Brokerage currently has over 14,000 agents across all 50 states. In Q3 2023, the firm reported a 92% annual gain in revenue to $214.6 million, but it still recorded a net loss of $4.0 million.

The lawsuit names MetroList Services, the area’s MLS, Sacramento Association of Realtors, Placer County Association of Realtors, El Dorado County Association of Realtors, Lodi Association of Realtors, Yolo County Association of Realtors, Central Valley Association of Realtors, Amador County Association of Realtors, Nevada County Association of Realtors, and Sutter-Yuba Association of Realtors as defendants. Brokerages RE/MAX, Anywhere, Keller Williams, eXp World Holdings, NorCal Gold, Williams L. Lyon & Associates, Guide Real Estate, Paul M. Zagaris Real Estate, and Anywhere franchise Century 21 Select Real Estate, are also defendants in the lawsuit.

Unlike other MLSs, MetroList is not exclusively owned or operated by Realtor associations affiliated with the National Association of Realtors. Instead MetroList is owned and operated by local Realtor associations and California Real Estate Brokers, Inc.

Despite not being affiliated with NAR, MetroList adopted a rule similar to NAR’s Participation Rule, requiring listing agents to make a blanket offer of compensation to buyers’ brokers in order to list a property on the MLS.

“By agreeing to adopt, implement, and enforce the Anticompetitive Broker Rules, the Defendants participated in a conspiracy to restrain trade by requiring Class Members to pay the broker representing the buyer of their homes, and to pay inflated commissions,” the complaint states. “Defendants’ conspiracy inflated buyer broker commissions, which in turn inflated the total commissions paid by Class Members. Plaintiff and Class Members each incurred, on average, thousands of dollars in overcharges and damages due to Defendants’ conspiracy.”

The lawsuit is seeking class action status for all persons in the U.S. who paid a buyer broker commission in connection with the sale of residential real estate listed on MetroList MLS between Jan. 18, 2020, and the present.

The plaintiffs in the suit are demanding a jury trial, as well as damages and a permanent injunction that prevents the defendants from retiring that sellers pay the buyer broker.

Both eXp and Keller Williams now face several of these copycat commission lawsuits.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for eXp wrote that the firm has been tracking the initial Sitzer/Burnett suit for years and is confident in its ability to defend itself.

“We are committed to upholding fair and transparent practices compliant with law and we already have mechanisms and a plan in place that enables buyers and sellers to negotiate commissions,” the spokesperson wrote. “Our agile business model allows us to make adjustments seamlessly and effectively, no matter the jurisdiction.”

Over at Keller Williams, which was found liable for colluding to inflate agent commissions in the Sitzer/Burnett trial, Darryl Frost, a spokesperson for the firm said the company is focused on post-trial motions in the Sitzer/Burnett suit.

“There were serious errors in the Sitzer trial that was tried in Kansas City,” Frost wrote in an email. “Because of the disturbing verdict, many plaintiffs’ attorneys continue to file baseless copycat suits.” 

Defendants RE/MAX and Anywhere, as well as Anywhere franchise Century 21 Select Real Estate, are all part of settlement agreements in the Sitzer/Burnett, Moehrl and Nosalek commission suits, which has been preliminarily approved by the court.

The other defendants in the suit did not return a request for comment.

“Slow home sales in 2023 were accompanied by higher mortgage rates, with the average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage hitting a 23-year high in early November. But we can’t blame high mortgage rates for the deficit in transactions last year. In reality, the demand for housing—and homeownership, in particular—has remained high, despite higher rates,” Lisa Sturtevant, the chief economist at Bright MLS, said in a statement. “Prospective homebuyers have been shut out of the market by a lack of inventory. If there had been more listings on the market in 2023, we would have had more home sales.”

A consequence of the tight inventory situation, the median sales price for an existing home rose to a record high of $389,800 in 2023. In December, the median sales price was $382,600, up 4.4% compared to a year ago.

“Despite sluggish home sales, 85 million homeowning households enjoyed further gains in housing wealth,” Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist said in a statement. “Obviously, the recent, rapid three-year rise in home prices is unsustainable. If price increases continue at the current pace, the country could accelerate into haves and have-nots. Creating a path towards homeownership for today’s renters is essential. It requires economic and income growth and, most importantly, a steady buildup of home construction.”

Befitting a challenging year for the housing market, existing home sales closed out 2023 at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 3.78 million units in December, down 1.0% drop from a month prior.

The monthly drop came after existing home sales rose 0.8% in November, breaking a five-month streak of declines.

On a yearly basis, existing home sales were down 6.2% in December.

Despite the grim numbers, Yun is optimistic.

“The latest month’s sales look to be the bottom before inevitably turning higher in the new year,” Yun said in a statement. “Mortgage rates are meaningfully lower compared to just two months ago, and more inventory is expected to appear on the market in upcoming months.”

Heading into 2024, there were 1 million existing home units on the market, representing a 3.2 month-supply at the current sales pace. Compared to a month ago, housing inventory was down 11.5% at the end of December, but it was up 4.2% from a year prior.

“Continued strength in the homebuilding sector will be important to adding to supply in 2024,” Sturtevant said in a statement. “But listings of existing homes will continue to remain low as current homeowners, many holding sub-three percent mortgage rates, will be reluctant to move.”

Regionally, existing home sales fell in two of the four regions month over month, with the Midwest (900,000 units), and the South (1.72 million units), falling 4.3% and 2.8%, respectively. The sales pace in the Northeast held steady at 470,000 units, while the sales pace rose 7.8% on a monthly basis in the West to 690,000 units.

On a yearly basis, all four regions also recorded decreases in the existing home sales pace, with the Midwest falling 10.9%, the South dropping 4.4%, the Northeast falling 9.6% and the West dropping 1.4%.

The Northeast also recorded the largest year over year price change, rising 9.4% from a year prior to a median sale price of $428,100.

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Denver, Qualia claims that its former senior manager of product at Resware Krista Myers, who is now a product manager at Settlor, secretly stole data from Qualia before she resigned from her position. The suit alleges that Myers then uploaded these files onto Settlor’s computer systems and used them to “unfairly compete against Qualia.”

Qualia claims that Myers stole roughly 900 files, which the firm said included “the plans for scale-up of ResWare, the software itself, key customer contacts, lists of actual and potential customers, specifications of future product features, customer experience and feedback data, research regarding new software upgrades and features, historic and planned customer pricing methodologies, market research and data, product roadmap documentation, and customer facing documentation.”

The plaintiff also states that as the former leader of the Resware team, Myers knew the value of the information she took.

Myers joined Qualia in 2021 through the firm’s acquisition of Resware from Adeptive Software, which closed in December 2020. Prior to the acquisition, Myers had been with Adeptive for nearly 10 years. According to the complaint, Myers resigned from her position at Qualia in May 2023, after she “secretly” interviewed for an accepted the position at Settlor. Qualia also claims that during her time at the firm, Myers was “highly disgruntled with her employment” and that she “openly disagreed with Qualia’s business plans for what was formerly ResWare.”

Settlor is a spin-off of Land Title Guarantee Company, but Qualia noted in its complaint that it is still investigating how much governance and oversight the title firm has over its title production software startup.

In the complaint, Qualia states that is reached out to Myers on Sept. 1, 2023, to remind her of her agreement to keep any confidential information and trade secrets private, which it says she ignored. Nearly two months later, in late November 2023, Qualia said that it found forensic proof that Myers had stollen intellectual property and trade secrets.

The complaint states that upon this discovery, Qualia sent a letter to Settlor and Myers on Dec. 1, 2023, in an effort to resolve matter. In the letter, Qualia asks Myers and Settlor to disclose and return the allegedly stolen data and it cautioned them against deleting or altering the files. Despite this warning, Qualia claims that within hours of receiving the letter, Myers and Settlor deleted all of the Qualia data she had uploaded to the Settlor system.

“Based on the facts currently known and in connection with its ongoing investigation, Defendants Myers’ and Settlor’s actions were not inadvertent, but rather intentionally and willfully undertaken as part of a larger plan, to quickly build a competing product by cutting corners and illegally using stolen Qualia data to do it,” the complaint states.

Qualia is suing both Settlor and Myers for misappropriation of trade secrets, and it is suing Myers for breach of contract, and Settlor for intentional interference with a contract. The company is asking for damages and injunctive relief, and it is demanding a jury trial.

“Qualia respects the rights of its employees to leave and work elsewhere, but cannot permit former employees or competitors to steal and use our Intellectual Property. Qualia attempted for weeks to resolve its legitimate concerns that Ms. Myers, a former employee, and her new employer, Settlor, had taken, used and destroyed hundreds of Qualia’s confidential documents and proprietary materials. When it became clear that informal resolution was not progressing, Qualia was forced to file a lawsuit. We believe this lawsuit will reveal the full extent of the confidential materials taken, and the breadth of the improper use by Settlor and Ms. Myers once she began working at Settlor.”

The defendants in the suit did not return a request for comment.

The suit, known as Fierro, after its lead plaintiff Gael Fierro, a Californian home seller, accuses the real estate industry of colluding to artificially inflate real estate agent commissions. It was filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Patrick Thurber, a California home seller, is an additional named plaintiff in the suit.

The complaint names 35 entities as defendants, including the National Association of Realtors, local and national brokerages, MLSs and local Realtor associations.   

The brokerage defendants include The Agency; Compass; eXp World Holdings and its local branches eXp Realty of California, Southern California, Great Los Angeles and Northern California; Berkshire Hathaway and its affiliates; First Team Real Estate Orange County; Rodeo Realty; and Pinnacle Estate Properties.

The two MLSs named in the suit California Regional MLS and Combined L.A./Westside MLS.

Additionally, California Association of Realtors, Greater Los Angeles Realtors, Acadia Association of Realtors, Burbank Association of Realtors, Citrus Valley Association of Realtors, Glendale Association of Realtors, Inglewood Board of Realtors, Montebello District Association of Realtors, Palos Verdes Peninsula Association of Realtors, Pasadena-Foothills Association of Realtors, Rancho Southeast Realtors, South Bay Association of Realtors, Southland Regional Association of Realtors, Tri-Counties Association of Realtors, West San Gabriel Valley Realtors, Malibu Association of Realtors, Southwest Los Angeles Association of Realtors, Madera Association of Realtors, Fresno Board of Realtors, Merced County Association of Realtors and Mariposa County Board of Realtors, were also named as defendants.

In the complaint, the plaintiffs take aim at NAR’s Participation Rule, which requires listing brokers to make a blanket offer of compensation to buyers brokers in order to list a property on a NAR-affiliated MLS.

“The conspiracy has led to various illogical, harmful, and anticompetitive effects, including: (a) requiring sellers to pay overcharges for services provided by buyer brokers to the buyer; (b) maintaining, fixing, and stabilizing buyer broker compensation at levels that would not exist in a competitive market; and (c) promoting steering and actions that hinder innovation and entry by new, lower-cost real estate brokerage service providers,” the complaint states.

Like the other copycat commission lawsuits, Fierro is seeking class action status for a class defined as anyone who listed a property of an MLS in Madera, Fresno or Los Angeles Counties using a listing agent or broker affiliated with one of the brokerage defendants and paid a buyer broker commission between Jan. 17, 2020, and the present.

The plaintiffs are also demanding a jury trial, damages, and injunctive relief.

In an emailed statement, Mantill Williams, the vice president of communications at NAR, wrote that the trade group will respond to the complaint in court and that it upholds the belief that “the cooperative compensation practice makes efficient, transparent, and accessible marketplaces possible.”

Brokerage defendant eXp shared a similar view, with a spokesperson writing in an email that the firm “committed to upholding fair and transparent practices compliant with law and we already have mechanisms and a plan in place that enables buyers and sellers to negotiate commissions.”

For his part, David Kissinger, the CEO of Glendale Realtors, stated that the suit is “meritless.”

“The fundamental of the case are simply incorrect and we look forward to vigorously fighting this in court,” Kissinger said.

Compass and CRMLS did not wish to comment and the other defendants did not return a request for comment.

New construction starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.460 million units, down 4.3% month over month, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Despite the monthly drop, housing starts in December were up on an annual basis, jumping 7.6%.

The mixed results came in both the single family and multifamily sectors. While single family housing starts dropped 8.6% from November to a rate of 1.027 million units, this was up 15.8% compared to a year ago. However, multifamily starts were up 7.5% on a monthly basis to a rate of 417,000 units, but this figured was down 9.5% compared to a year prior.

Overall, an estimated 1.413 million units were started in 2023, a drop of 9.0% compared to 2022.

Looking ahead, homebuyers who may be looking to purchase a new construction home may continue to struggle with lack of inventory in 2024, as the overall estimated number of building permits issued in 2023 was down 11.7% annually to 1.469 million units.

“The market has tailwinds including the fact that mortgage rates dropped in December and the demand for housing remains high because overall new housing starts remain below household formation levels,” Kelly Mangold, the principal of RCLCO Real Estate Consulting, said in a statement. “Looking ahead, buyers who have been sidelined in 2023 may enter the market in 2024 if conditions improve, and lower rates will bring increased affordability to buyers.”

Despite the overall drop in 2023, the rate at which building permits were issued in December was up 1.9% monthly and 6.1% annually to a rate of 1.495 million. Notably, the number of single-family authorizations was up 32.9% year over year in December to a rate of 994,000 units, while multifamily authorizations were down 26.6% annually to 449,000 units.

“Single-family permits, a leading indicator of future starts, reached the highest level since May 2022. This is consistent with the latest builder survey, which showed an uptick in builder sentiment and future sales expectations,” Odeta Kushi, First American’s deputy chief economist, said in a statement. “The jump in single-family permits and the upward trend in single-family housing starts alongside improving builder sentiment is an encouraging sign for the housing market. While headwinds remain, notably ongoing affordability constraints, the green shoots of a housing recovery have emerged alongside lower mortgage rates.”

The one statistic that did post a yearly increase for all of 2023, was housing completions, which was estimated to come in at 1.4525 million units, up 4.5% compared to 2022.

Housing completions were also up on a monthly basis, rising 8.7% to 1.574 million units.

Regionally, housing starts were down month over month in the Midwest (8.8%), the South (5.1%) and the Northeast (16.9%) but were up 4.7% in the West.

On a yearly basis, homebuilders’ housing starts were up in three out of the four regions, with the Midwest posting the largest annual gain at 46.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 187,000. Housing starts fell in the Northeast, dropping 46.8% to a rate of 108,000 units.