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It is convenient to depict this as the straw man of "junk fees," but that misses the real point. If your firm can negotiate with customers, clients and/or cooperative brokers to be paid solely by a percentage, it should be allowed to do so. If your firm can negotiate to be paid solely by a flat dollar amount, it should be allowed to do so. If your firm can negotiate its pay as the sum of a formula -- part set amount and part percentage, it should be allowed to do so. If it chooses to get paid in M&Ms and can negotiate that, why should the courts interfere? No judge should get involved at this level. Whether your firm negotiates its pay the way RealtySouth does or not, you should support the RealtySouth position in this case unless you want regulators and/or judges to determine how you get paid. The explanation of the compensation to the public and to licensees is important, but is simply a part of the details, not the larger issue. The real estate industry should press HUD to do its job and clarify finally every major question it has been dodging for years. For now only the lawyers are the winners.
The judge in Alabama got it toally wrong. This was a commission ... charged in part by a flat dollar amount and in part by a percentage. Portraying this as some "fee" is incorrect handling of the facts by anyone discussing the Busby case. Do not lump the Busby case in with discussions of various "fees."
Okay, not long after I typed that, we finally got to see the screen, but this is the first time in all the videos I've viewed so far and only after we missed countless needed views in this one presentation. Just trying to help ...
