Jesse Williams

Above, a screenshot from one of Homes.com’s new ads featuring Dan Levy of “Schitt’s Creek” fame and SNL’s Heidi Gardner.  During one of America’s most enduring traditions, Super Bowl Sunday, Homes.com plans to make history, regardless of who takes home the championship trophy.  Through four commercials reaching some 113 million viewers, the rapidly ascending real…

Attendees walk past the REALTOR® logo Sunday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. Three months ago, NextHome CEO James Dwiggins, speaking on an RISMedia webinar, took a forceful—and somewhat unexpected position—on controversies and questions currently dogging the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). A vocal critic of the organization, Dwiggins took a…

Opendoor, the largest and oldest iBuyer, is still struggling to adjust its business model to a more restrictive, sluggish market but is carefully watching the recent National Association of REALTORS’® (NAR) settlement as the company ramps up home purchases and looks for profitability “across seasons and market environments.” On an earnings call yesterday, Opendoor CEO…

HomeServices of America, after paying $250 million to settle seller suits and being dropped from the largest buyer suit, for a few short days was maybe the only large real estate company not directly facing commission litigation. That changed Monday, when lawyers behind the largest buyer suit (known as Batton) re-filed their accusations in a…

In a post-National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) settlement world, buyer agents know they will need more than a quick stat or a flashy presentation to win clients. More and more, people are being told that they can find all the guidance they need in a home search on the portals. Whether or not this is…

The settlement domino effect appears to be accelerating.  Only one company—Keller Williams—chose to settle commission-focused lawsuits in the three months between November 2023 and February 2024, even as hundreds of companies were named in dozens of Burnett copycat suits across the country following a $1.8 billion verdict against the industry. Now, in the last month…

Lawyers for Keller Williams fired back at former CEO John Davis in a court filing this week, claiming he is using the judicial system as a vehicle for publicity—the latest volley in an acrimonious legal saga that has included a withdrawn sexual assault claim, accusations of wild self-dealing and high-level leadership shake-ups at the mega-franchisor.…

Editor’s Note: The Mortgage Mix is RISMedia’s weekly highlight reel of need-to-know mortgage-industry happenings. Watch for it each Friday afternoon. –Rates continue to push above 7%, according to the latest data from Freddie Mac, as new inflation data and slower than expected economic growth have tempered hopes that the Federal Reserve will significantly slash rates…

Pushing forward with his own unique take on portal monetization, CoStar CEO Andy Florance said on a recent earnings call he believes incumbents like Zillow, realtor.com® and Redfin are facing major headwinds from changes agreed to by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) as part of a recent lawsuit settlement. “With recent seismic legal settlements…

The parent company of @properties and Christie’s International Real Estate today became the latest brokerage to settle seller commission lawsuits, according to court filings, and also the first independent to do so. At the same time, Realty ONE Group indicated it had reached an agreement to end litigation by sellers. The @properties and Christie’s International…

A federal judge today promptly issued preliminary approval to the landmark settlement agreement struck last month between the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and a class of recent homesellers, a major, if expected step toward finalizing a deal that will see NAR pay $418 million and make major changes to policies and practice. Judge Stephen…