Wisconsin REALTORS® Association: What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been

What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been

 Cori Lamont, WRA Vice President of Legal and Public Affairs  |    January 06, 2025
Trip

The Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’” is a tribute to a road trip, but it also captures the REALTOR® community’s journey of the past five years:

Sometimes the light’s all shinin’ on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it’s been

A federal class-action lawsuit that began in 2019 finally came to an end on November 26, 2024, when the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri granted final approval of the Sitzer settlement. 

This resolution releases liability for: 

  • More than 1.4 million members of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). 
  • All state/territorial and local REALTOR® associations.
  • REALTOR® Multiple Listing Services (MLSs).
  • NAR’s affiliate organizations and all brokerages with a NAR member as principal that had a residential transaction volume in 2022 of $2 billion or below of the claims made in the lawsuit.
  • And MLSs and real estate firms that chose to opt in to the agreement. 

Moving forward: key practice changes

To maintain your released status, you must follow the practice changes: 

  1. No offers of compensation in the MLS: The MLS will no longer include offers of compensation. Consequently, listing firms cannot offer compensation to cooperating firms via the MLS.
  2. Written buyer agreements are required before touring a home: Firms working with buyers need a written buyer agreement before touring a home with a buyer.

For a deeper discussion about the practice changes, check out the August 2024 Wisconsin Real Estate Magazine article, “The Best of the Legal Hotline: NAR Practice Changes."

Stay compliant

The WRA has numerous resources available at www.wra.org/antitrust to help guide you as well as avoid loopholes or workarounds of the settlement. 

If you have questions, please contact the WRA Legal Hotline. As members, we want to ensure compliance. For further insight about adapting to these changes, read the August 2024 Wisconsin Real Estate Magazine article, “Change Is Kind of Our Thing." 

And just like the end of “Truckin’,” it’s time for REALTORS® to “get back truckin’ on.” 

Copyright 1998 - 2025 Wisconsin REALTORS® Association. All rights reserved.

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