Tuesday, October 16, 2007

How anticompetitive are your state laws?

In previous posts (Next time you buy or refinance a house), we have offered advice on how to better negotiate for mortgage loans. Now the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department has launched a new website that tells you how anticompetitive your local real estate laws are.

On the selling side, t
welve states currently ban rebates and/or inducements to sellers. From a survey of agents,
“If we give rebates and inducements, it would get out of control and all clients would be wanting something. The present law keeps it under control.”
  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Kansas
  • Louisiana
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Montana
  • New Jersey
  • North Dakota
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Tennessee

And eight states are trying to eliminate discount brokers
  • Alabama
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Missouri
  • Texas
  • Utah

1 comment:

  1. On the commercial real estate brokerage side of the business, rebates are not unusual - even in states which prohibit them (such as Tennessee). The way in which this law is circumvented is many corporations directly employ someone who is a licensed real estate broker, but will still engage a 3rd party brokerage firm to execute the transaction. Then, when a commission is paid, the company will require the 3rd party firm to share this fee with them. This practice sometimes even enables the company's corporate real estate department to generate a profit.

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