Katerina Gasset ponders the possibility of banks being in violation of anti-trust laws if they conspire between each other to keep broker fees for short sale listings to a specific commission amount. (Notice no specific commission amount or percentage is stated herein).
WHAT A FASCINATING QUESTION.
Katerina. HA! I don't know a lot about anything. I know a little bit about a lot. I'm not an expert about anything. I am, OTOH, a wealth of trivia due to my lifelong fascination with research.
That said, I would guess that by conspiring to keep real estate commissions low, it if could be shown that it harmed the home owner by limiting the competition for their properties for sale, it makes sense.
Anytime anyone conspires to fix prices to benefit themselves as a group, they harm someone else.
It would be interesting for some smart anti-trust attorney to look into a class action model showing that the banks have forced many home owners into foreclosure by reducing competition for their properties listed for short sale.
In fact, the announcement on the 25th establishes that Fannie Mae may believe that there has been a coordinated effort to reduce broker fees on short sales. Otherwise it either wouldn't have been necessary or would have been published 2 years ago.
Perhaps someone at Fannie Mae is reading ActiveRain.
It wouldn't take much of an investigation to establish that the real estate fees have, in fact, been reduced by the heavy hand of the seller's bank through the short sale contingency. I don't believe it would take much of an investigation to establish that it is severely harmful to sellers when agents don't show short sale listings because, although a specific co-op is offered, the banks routinely engage in acts to limit the real estate fee. This causes properties to sit on the market buy limiting offers and often, if a home won't sell by short sale, it's not too far from foreclosure. Many of us have witnessed that.
Further, comments in the MLS will clearly establish links between banks through the listing agents REMARKS. Funny thing about anti-trust. IT ONLY TAKES TWO ENTITIES to establish an anti-competitive atmosphere for one group or another. In this case, I'm not sure who the victim would be, the agents who lose fees or the home owner who loses sale opportunities. Probably both.
What we don't know is, if banks are conspiring and if so, would it be massive enough to interest the FTC and/or DOJ.
The problem with these matters is that the wheels of justice turn slowly. Very slowly.
It is fun speculating.
for that reminder. That single act of Congress began the bank takeover of our economy. Of course, they got greedy and choked on it. But, that's another story for which we can thank Congress, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act gave the banks the power to do just what the did, pocket vast Trillions of profits and bring down the economy of the world. 
;)
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Lenn, what banks are cutting commissions? Have not come across a commission cut yet but would be interested to see which banks actually tried to cut commissions