The National Association of Realtors has reached an agreement to pay $52.25 million as part of a settlement agreement with a pool of homebuyers that had targeted some of the biggest names in the real estate industry.
The settlement agreement, which requires court approval, was reached as part of a case known as Tuccori vs. At World Properties.
The settlement agreement wouldn’t require further business practice changes beyond what was already agreed upon as part of the $418 million March 2024 settlement in the Sitzer | Burnett homeseller lawsuit. Instead, NAR agreed to ongoing compliance with those existing practice changes.
The settlement payments would occur over a multi-year period, with the majority of payments to be made after June 2028. That’s after the final payment NAR owes in the Sitzer settlement, which is scheduled to take place in February 2028.
NAR said the settlement was structured to cover a broad range of real estate professionals. Among them:
- NAR members
- State and local Realtor associations (including those that do or don’t operate an MLS)
- Realtor-affiliated MLSs
- Non-Realtor MLSs
- Real estate brokerages that haven’t already reached a buy-side settlement agreement, and whose principal is an NAR member
In a statement, NAR CEO Nykia Wright said that the proposed settlement was in line with the organization’s three-year strategic plan, specifically with regard to providing legal certainty to the real estate industry.
“This outcome, which provides a broader level of protection and release for the industry than has been secured in any previous NAR settlement, is a result of NAR’s new legal team’s diligent approach to addressing legal risk and reinforces our commitment to delivering greater value and stability for our members, so they can remain focused on their clients and getting to their next transaction,” Wright said in the statement.
Douglas Elliman, which was named in a separate lawsuit filed by a Florida plaintiff named James Lutz, also alerted the court that it planned to opt into the Tuccori settlement, though the terms of its agreement weren’t immediately known.
A master settlement agreement in the Tuccori lawsuit provided an opt-in feature for entities that weren’t named in the case. NAR wasn’t named as a defendant in the case.
The trade group has also been part of litigation in a separate buy-side class action lawsuit known as Batton vs. NAR, which was filed in 2021.
The plaintiffs in both the Tuccori and Batton cases argued that NAR, its members and other named industry defendants conspired to inflate home prices through real estate commissions.
Keller Williams agreed to pay $20 million to settle the Batton lawsuit earlier this year. REMAX reached its own $8.5 million settlement agreement two weeks ago.
NAR will ask the court in Batton to pause that case while it seeks final approval of the proposed settlement in Tuccori.
