My report on the Real Estate Board of New York's (REBNY) contract checklist: law.buffalo.edu/content/dam/la… Some of the worst drafting I've ever seen! (See the redline at the end of the document for "how not to" draft a contract). Featured in The Real Deal: therealdeal.com/new-york/2024/…

New York City Brokerages: do not use the REBNY checklist. Here's an example of how terribly it is drafted!

Real estate folks: I've created a sample buyer representation agreement that is simple, fair and easy to understand: law.buffalo.edu/content/dam/la… Detailed explanation of every term: law.buffalo.edu/content/dam/la… Read about it on Inman: inman.com/2024/09/30/law…

Last week, I filed a 135-page objection in Burnett et al. v. The National Association of Realtors et al., Case No. 19-CV-00332-SRB challenging the recent settlement with the National Association of Realtors (NAR): law.buffalo.edu/content/dam/la…

NAR settlement doesn’t pass the ‘real world’ test realestatenews.com/2024/10/29/nar…

The fee request in the Burnett case is outrageous. In a BILLION dollar ("mega fund") case, the attorneys are asking for 33%. Normally, fee awards in mega fund cases are about 10-12%. To illustrate the absurdity of this, I've requested over $225,000 in attorneys' fees.

The district court in the NAR settlement case has ordered all objectors to appear at the fairness hearing in person. Today, I filed a motion arguing that the order is unconstitutional: law.buffalo.edu/content/dam/la… #law #lawtwitter #classactions #NARSettlement

As real estate continues to evolve in a post-Sitzer | Burnett era, contract documents are likely to be refined and modified to reflect current trends, broker Cara Ameer writes. inman.com/2024/11/19/7-e…

Maybe not the best plan for a realtor to be giving advice about "airtight" contracts, especially when they discuss all the problematic workarounds in one place:

Reddit moderators actively deleting posts showing realtors not understanding and/or circumventing the NAR settlement.

Plaintiffs finally clarified what is *NOT PERMITTED* under the NAR Settlement. 1. Modifying a Buyer Agreement Upward 2. Collecting Seller Bonuses 3. Touring Agreements Supplemented by Brokerage Agreements 4. Min/Max Range 5. Property-Specific Compensation Agreements /1

All this available at: realestatecommissionlitigation.com/admin/api/conn… (pp. 41-44). Why did they wait 6 months to clarify?! There's going to be a lot of retraining and redrafting going on . . . /2

From their motion: "And finally, if agents or brokers violate the practice change requirements, then they are not released and Prof. Monestier (or any person) can sue those agents or brokers herself." /3

Big real estate news: DOJ files a statement of interest in NAR case! linkedin.com/posts/tanya-mo…

Thanks to James Dwiggins and Keith Robinson for having me on their podcast. It was a fun time talking about forms, workarounds, class actions and attorneys' fees. #NARSettlement #realtor #classactions #realestate youtube.com/watch?v=FZIogS…

People sometimes ask me why I went into teaching instead of big law. Here's why:

Democracy.

"Clear Collaboration" just keeps listings exclusively in the purview of agents, meaning that unrepresented buyers won't even have access to them. Terrible idea.

Great article by Debra Kamin: nytimes.com/2025/03/15/rea… "What was hailed as a watershed has so far produced a mere drizzle." I love the line -- but even the word "drizzle" might be generous.

Check out Rob Hahn's very cogent analysis of my 8th Circuit brief arguing that the court should vacate NAR settlement approval. #NAR #Narsettlement #realtor #realestate