Original air date: October 19th 2025

Today we begin with an important sea change that’s taken place in America’s $136 trillion dollar real estate market. It stands to impact nearly everyone buying or selling a home. It’s all due to a game-changing lawsuit homeowners filed against the National Association of Realtors challenging how realtors get paid. As a result, realtors now face new rules designed for consumer benefit. But the overhauled system and the fallout are still being sorted out.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

Craig Randolph: This is my BBQ. Great party pool, you can play volleyball.

The best part of Craig Randolph’s house is the back yard or maybe it’s the tricked-out garage.

Randolph: ’32 Ford with my matching Harley.

Either way, he’s hoping it attracts top dollar. Like millions of Americans each year he’s turning to a professional realtor to guide him through selling his home and buying another for a price.

Randolph: We are going to sell both my mother-in-law’s house our house and we are going to get in to a bigger house.

When it comes to how realtors are paid, a landmark lawsuit has upended the industry in ways you may not have heard about. But they affect nearly every homebuyer and seller.

Jerod Breit helped spark this real estate revolution. He joined a class action lawsuit challenging the longstanding structure of the entire U.S. real estate system.

Jerod Breit: When I sold my home in St. Louis, which was a huge part of this case, I just remember saying, why am I paying someone who I’ve never met before 3%? No one from the buyer’s side ever did anything for me. I was confused. I was, you know, it’s the first time I sold a home and I really wondered, where’s the fairness in paying 3% and 3%?

Historically, people selling their home typically paid about 3% of the sales price to their realtor, and another 3% to the buyer’s realtor.

Sharyl: What’s wrong with the three, three perceived non-negotiable fees that go to realtors, if people have been happy with that all these years?

Breit: Yeah, I think people haven’t been happy about that. It’s one of those things where it’s painful, but you have to do it. That’s the way it is. That’s the way it’s always been done.

The lawsuit claimed sellers having to pay the buyer’s realtor led to cozy deals between the supposedly competing agents, prioritizing their own shared profits over clients. The lawsuit also took on murky contracts and hidden fees.

Breit, a police officer when he sold his house, was promised a half percent “law enforcement discount” by his realtor. But long after closing, he discovered that was never put in the contract.

Sharyl: Do you have any idea what the average price of a house is today? A few hundred thousand dollars?

Breit: I think it’s around 350.

Sharyl: So if, let’s say 300,000 for the sake of simple math at 6% commission, three and three would be $18,000.

Breit: Correct.

Sharyl: So when you’re talking about paying a half percent more than you thought, that can be thousands of dollars.

Breit: It’s real money. On a public servant salary at the time, you know, it was a lot of money. And that is what drew kind of my attention to what am I at? Why am I paying this or what am I paying for?

The National Association of Realtors, and major companies that realtors work under, were found guilty of antitrust violations and settled for a half billion dollars. After the Department of Justice or DOJ weighed in, the realtors’ group agreed to overhaul its rules making realtors’ pay more competitive. They must now usually disclose compensation upfront in writing, clearly stating it’s negotiable.

Sharyl: What has changed in the real estate industry as a result of the lawsuit?

Breit: So now, because of the competition and the negotiation, there’s some up upfront paperwork that you’re agreeing to a certain price, a certain commission, and that’s our opportunity to negotiate these commissions. And that’s where you have to have an upfront conversation with your real estate agent and say, “What are you giving me?”

Breit says today, with tools like Zillow, many buyers and sellers do their own legwork and don’t need full realtor services, opening the door to new pricing models.

Breit: Look, I think if you’re a young real estate agent today and, and you wanna say, ‘I wanna sell as many homes as I can in one year’, then you have to look at, okay, for 1%, I only have to talk to this person one time at the beginning and one time at the end. If 2% says ‘I need to show them five homes that aren’t on Zillow that they find and send to me’, then that’s what I’m gonna do.

Sharyl (on-camera): After the landmark lawsuit, Arizona has emerged as a test market for innovative commission models, such as hourly rates for relators or flat-fee services.

Sindy Ready heads up the Arizona Association of Realtors.

Sharyl: Are you taking a position as to whether the changes are better or worse for the industry in your view?

Sindy Ready: What I’m seeing is that it’s different. So it’s broken down now in the contract, which is not a bad thing. However, it is still confusing. It’s confusing to the agents as well as confusing to the clients. And so the piece of the puzzle is for us all to just understand it’s a change. I don’t believe it’s good or bad. I just believe that we are figuring out how to make it work for all our clients.

Sharyl: Can you summarize what the lawsuit claimed was wrong with the business?

Ready: I don’t know if I can exactly summarize it, but what I’m gonna tell you from my perspective is the DOJ just felt that we needed to be, everything needed to be above board, which it always has been. And they’ve said that, you know, the commissions were set and not negotiable. And I’ve been doing this for 23 years and they’ve always been negotiable.

Sharyl: Realtors have told me, and will say “it’s always been negotiable. Everybody knows that.”

Breit: Yeah, it hasn’t. It’s one of those things where it might’ve been kind of this sense of we are okay if we say, you know, “it was always negotiable”, but I think 99% of homeowners out there roughly have never had the opportunity to negotiate that.

The National Association of Realtors declined our interview request. But according to one analysis, since the lawsuit settled late last year, average total realtor commissions have dropped from 5.64% to 4.96%, saving consumers nearly $3,000 on a typical home.

Sharyl: What would you like to think is the takeaway for people if they’re hearing there have been changes in the industry that maybe they don’t fully understand, what would you like them to know?

Ready: Well, number one, they should hire a realtor that really understands the market that they’re buying and selling in. Because that’s where the benefit comes in of having a professional help you with the process and also help you with the confusion of what’s happening.

As Craig Randolph checks out what could be his next home, he’s operating in a world of negotiable fees and different rules.

Sharyl: There have been some changes forced that some in the industry, some realtors think are bad. Some consumers argue they’re good. What are your thoughts about the process?

Craig Randolph: Honestly, all you have to do is find the right realtor and ask all the questions. They will be able to answer all of it.

Realtor: This is the bonus, three car garage.

Randolph: This is beautiful Stacy. Thank you for showing me this house.

Realtor: You’re welcome. You’re welcome.

Sharyl (on-camera): Before the lawsuit, U.S. real estate fees tended to run a total of 5-6% of the price of a house—that’s significantly higher than the 1-3% in other countries.

Watch video here.