Kansas City is ground zero for a major real estate case. Trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 16 in a class action lawsuit that targets the National Association of Realtors and other related parties. The trial focuses on listing brokers making offers of compensation to buyer brokers. The suit alleges that this practice unfairly forces home sellers to pay the commissions of the buyer’s brokers and inflates those commissions by preventing buyers from negotiating them down.
Both sides of this fight agree on little except that a ruling in favor of the group bringing the suit would likely change real estate sales forever. The current group that is bringing suit are people that sold a home between April 29, 2015, and June 30, 2022, who paid a commission to the buyer’s real estate broker or agent and listed the home for sale on the local MLS.
The National Association of Realtors has one of the strongest lobby groups in the world and they appear very nervous about this suit and have called for all hands on deck, including providing Kansas City members with talking points if the trial comes up with local media next week.
The case is in federal court and was brought by three law firms from Leawood, Kan. and Kansas City. I counted 22 law firms representing the defendants in the case. Gonna need a lotta chairs.
I am officially, “drive around and check out the harvest” years old. It’s like my thing now. Drive some gravel and make sure the crops are getting picked up. Early morning or early evening is prime viewing. It’s free, except for the gas.
I was young once, and now this is me. But honestly, have you seen corn flowing into a tractor trailer truck from a combine and never thought how cool that is? Looking at a freshly combined field gives me pleasure, kind of farm porn or something, don’t judge me.
The Republican party has decided to set themselves on fire to prevent the country from noticing that the Democrat president has lost most of his mental faculties. Seems like an odd strategy for governing or winning elections, but I guess it’s all too complicated for simple folks like us to understand.
I’m available to drive a combine if the need is out there. I last drove a tractor when I was like 10. I ran it into a guy’s pickup truck because they forgot to tell me how to stop it. That stopped it. I think they might have been drinking, hence forgetting to tell me the full driving and stopping process.
I suspect I’d be better now, but making no promises beyond the fact that I am always on time.
My favorite part of harvest is when the guys all lean on pickup trucks after a field is cleared and the women bring beer and food, and they admire their clear field with a beer and sandwich. I’m very good at that part of farming, call me!
(Guy Speckman can be reached at gspeckman@me.com or feeding the world)