Why It’s About to Get Harder to Buy a Home in Missouri & Illinois

Thanks to recent litigation, it could become more difficult for buyers to purchase homes in Missouri and Illinois. Some say the change has already started.

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I was aware that a federal jury in Missouri had laid the hammer down to the tune of $1.8 billion dollars on some Chicago realtors they say artificially raised commissions on home sales, but I wasn't sure how that would affect real people like you and me. Now, a Yahoo Finance article says that lawsuit (which they say is under appeal) will likely make it more difficult for buyers to purchase homes.

Full disclosure: about a decade ago, I did take the time to obtain a real estate license, but never did anything with it. I only mention it because technically I suppose in some universe I'm a realtor, but have never been active.

With that out of the way, here's the layman's explanation that Yahoo Finance helped fill in the blanks on as to how this will affect buyers. As they tell it, over the years most buyer's agent commissions were "baked into the price of the home" as they say. Now, the fear is that buyers will suddenly need to come up with cash to pay their agents in addition to whatever down payment they are required to make. Let's emphasize again that this is a theory and not necessarily a reality - yet.

The story says that there is litigation happening right now in both Missouri and Illinois and the results will "significantly shake up the real estate industry" as Yahoo Finance says.

If you're interested in where the home buying market is going, I'd highly recommend reading the details of the Yahoo story.