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Bombshell lawsuit takes a new turn

The class-action lawsuit that could upend the real estate industry by effectively forcing changes in how buyer’s agents are traditionally compensated has been amended, adding more plaintiffs and defendants and emphasizing the role commissions play in steering buyers and raising costs for sellers.

Nine law firms filed an amended complaint consolidating two previous complaints with nearly identical claims: the first filed by home seller Christopher Moehrl on March 6 and another filed by homeseller Sawbill Strategic Inc. on April 15.

The June 14 amended complaint alleges NAR and the named real estate brokers and franchisors have violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by “agreeing, combining and conspiring to impose, implement and enforce anticompetitive restraints that cause home sellers to pay inflated commissions on the sale of their homes.”

The main restraint the complaint refers to is a NAR rule requiring listing brokers — and their agents who represent homesellers — to make a “blanket unilateral offer of compensation” to buyer brokers when listing a property in a Realtor-affiliated multiple listing service.

That offer of compensation must be made regardless of the fact that buyer brokers represent the buyer, not the seller, and because it is a blanket offer, it cannot vary according to the buyer broker’s experience, the services the buyer broker is offering or the buyer broker’s financial arrangement with the buyer, according to the complaint.

Unlike the original complaints, the amended complaint does not argue that the blanket offer of compensation is non-negotiable. But the amended lawsuit cites NAR’s Standard of Practice 3-2 and Standard of Practice 16-16 as evidence that NAR impedes effective negotiation of the offer of compensation.

A new Ikea campaign recreates the living rooms of three iconic TV shows with furniture that can be bought in its stores.

Titled ‘Real Life Series,’ the Ikea United Arab Emirates campaign features living rooms from “Friends,” “The Simpsons” and “Stranger Things.” Each room is created with furniture and accessories from the Ikea catalog. While the campaign was designed by Publicis Spain, the rooms will only be set up in select Middle East stores and through an online catalog checklist.

The “Friends” room recreates Monica and Rachel’s apartment with the purple walls and a beige armchair while “The Simpsons” room has an orange couch and bright round carpet. The “Stranger Things” room has the flowered wallpaper, Christmas tree lights and striped couch. Because the campaign has no financial ties to the iconic television shows, Ikea describes the “Simpsons” room simply as for “families,” the “Friends” room for “mates” and the “Stranger Things” room for “everyone” without calling out their titles by name.

 

1. While there may be other houses on the street for sale, especially during the "busy" seasons of spring and summer, an overwhelming number of houses on the market for an area can be a warning sign.

2. Class size in a school system says a lot, schools should be adding enrollment, not losing it.

3. If the neighborhood has lots of empty storefronts, be wary. Empty storefronts point to the area in decline.

4. If limited parking at the house you're looking at is something that you noticed while you were visiting the house for the first time, it has the potential for forever being an Achilles heel of the property.

5. If the solution to the parking situation at your house is off-street parking, what's the traffic like? Are there cars lined up and down the street? Will you potentially have to drive around a while in search of a spot to park? That inconvenience can quickly become a major hassle, especially with a car full of groceries or small children to bring into the house.

 

A Manhattan Real luxury Real Estate broker wrote a great blog in Forbes Magazine entitled, Yes, You Can Trust Your Real Estate Broker.

According to a 2018 Gallup poll on the subject of most- and least-trusted professions, 19% of Americans consider the ethical standards of real estate agents as either low or very low, while 54% of the population consider our honesty to be just about average. You may conclude that we real estate brokers have nothing to complain about, especially compared to members of Congress, whom, according to the poll, 58% of Americans consider to be unethical.

But when almost one-fifth of the country's population thinks of the profession that I’ve been dedicated to for two decades as not worthy of their trust, it makes me upset. I find such public opinion unfair, especially because the very thing that gives true value to our work is the ethical foundation upon which it's built.

The job of a real estate broker is trust-based. There is serious capital involved in every transaction, especially for those of us who specialize in luxury transactions, and in order for us to succeed in helping our clients achieve their goals, we must be trusted. Brokers who don’t earn their clients’ trust can’t close deals and don’t stay in business.

A Greenwich, Connecticut estate where President Donald Trump and his ex-wife Ivana Trump lived is returning to the market for $38.5 million—almost 29% less than its onetime $54 million asking price.

The Trumps bought the property after they were married in the early 1980s for about $4 million. When they divorced in the early 1990s, Ms. Trump kept the house. She sold it to the current owners, financier Robert Steinberg and his wife Suzanne Steinberg, for $15 million in 1998.

 

Best Airport Restaurant: Black Bear Saloon (Bradley International Airport)

Best All-You-Can-Eat Deal: Evergreens at the Simsbury Inn (Simsbury)

Best Bar: The Griswold Inn Tap Room (Essex)

Best Beer: Fuzzy Baby Ducks by New England Brewing Co. (Woodbridge)

Best Brunch: Engine Room (Mystic)

Best Burger: The Original Burger at Louis’ Lunch (New Haven)

Best Chinese Restaurant: Peking Edo (New Haven)

Best Chocolate Shop: Bridgewater Chocolate (West Hartford)

Best Cupcake: Sugar Cupcakery & Bakery (East Haven)

Best Doughnut: Dottie’s Diner (Woodbury)

Best Food Truck: The Mercado Food Truck (Glastonbury) 5 Stars on Yelp

Best Fried Chicken: Greer’s Chicken (Bristol)

Best Grocery Store: Stew Leonard’s

Best Hot Dog: Super Duper Weenie (Fairfield)

Best Ice Cream Stand: Ferris Acres Creamery (Newtown)

Best Lasagna: Rossitto’s Ristorante (Branford)

Best Mexican Restaurant: El Charrito (Riverside) Greenwich

Best Pancakes: Somewhere in Time (Mystic)

Best Pasta Dish: Lasagna, Consiglio’s (New Haven)

Best Pizza: Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana (New Haven)

Best Restaurant for Breakfast: Dottie’s Diner (Woodbury)

Best Restaurant: Oyster Club (Mystic)

Most Outrageous Restaurant Dish: 2-Foot Works Dog, Doogie's (Newington)

Best Sandwich: Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough (Noank)

Best Seafood Shack: Abbott’s Lobster in the Rough (Noank)

Best Soup: Clam Chowder, The Clam Castle (Madison)

Best Sports Bar: Bobby V's Restaurant & Sports Bar (Windsor Locks)

Best Steakhouse: David Burke Prime, Mashantucket

 

Cory Booker, once mayor of New Jersey’s largest city and now one of the most high-profile, media-savvy U.S. senators, declared his candidacy for president in February, joining an already crowded field of Democrats looking to be President Trump’s 2020 challenger. Booker announced his long-anticipated decision the same way many Americans have come to know him, on Twitter, presenting himself as a healer of the country’s deep divisions and stressing the importance of “collective action.” However, his campaign ad hit a little too close to home for some realtors.