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☆ How Real Estate Became Showbiz and Agents Became Stars
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-28 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The crowd began gathering at 5 p.m., into the movie-perfect backyard of a 1920s Spanish-style Los Angeles estate once owned by Madonna. Unlike the Oscars or the Golden Globes, these awards didn’t go to actors, directors or screenwriters. They went to real estate agents, crowned in categories like “Stratospheric Sale of the Year.” (The winner of that award was Kurt Rappaport, who represented Beyoncé and Jay-Z as they closed on a $190 million Malibu pad last May.) As a real estate broker with two seasons of “Buying Beverly Hills” and 13 seasons as a real husband on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” under his belt, Mr. Umansky was the consummate M.C. for the evening’s Power Broker Awards.

Persons: Mauricio Umansky, Kurt Rappaport, Beyoncé, Umansky Organizations: Madonna, Globes, Malibu, Housewives, Beverly, evening’s Locations: Spanish, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills

☆ Real Estate Fantasies
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-28 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There are few acts more optimistic than shopping for a home. You walk through its doors, run your fingertips along its appliances and see your face reflected in its windows and mirrors. Real estate agents understand this allure. And the really good ones are so adept at spinning the fantasy that they’re building careers on television out of it. For a new story for The Times’s real estate section, which published this morning, I spent time with agents from shows like “Million Dollar Listing” and “Buying Beverly Hills” to understand how they became stars in their own right, and what that tells us about the state of housing in the U.S.Hollywood luxuryLate last year, I flew to Los Angeles to attend an awards show for some of Hollywood’s most famous real estate agents.

Persons: Mauricio Umansky, Kurt Rappaport, Beyoncé Organizations: Hollywood, Madonna, Malibu Locations: U.S, Los Angeles

☆ Warren Buffett’s Real Estate Brokerage Agrees to $250 Million Settlement
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

HomeServices of America, the largest residential real estate brokerage in the United States and owned by Warren E. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, has agreed to settle a series of lawsuits that could change the way commissions are paid to real estate agents. On Thursday, the brokerage signed off on adding $250 million to the mounting pile of damages won by home sellers who have successfully sued several brokerages and the National Association of Realtors over what they described as inflated commissions. That settlement received preliminary approval from a federal judge on Tuesday, and now N.A.R. will pay $418 million in damages and significantly change its rules on agent commissions and the databases, accessible only by those who hold membership to N.A.R. The settlement will introduce competition to the market for real estate commissions, driving down the fees that consumers are required to pay when selling a home and eventually lowering home prices across the board as a result, some industry analysts say.

Persons: Warren E Organizations: Warren, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, National Association of Realtors, The New York Times, Industry Locations: America, United States

☆ Justice Department Says It Will Reopen Inquiry Into Realtor Trade Group
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department will reopen an antitrust investigation into the National Association of Realtors, an influential trade group that has held sway over the residential real estate industry for decades. The investigation will focus on whether the group’s rules inflate the cost of selling a home. about broker commissions and how real estate listings are marketed. Pending federal court approval, N.A.R. will pay $418 million in damages and will significantly change its rules on agent commissions and the databases, overseen by N.A.R.

Organizations: Department, National Association of Realtors, U.S ., Appeals, District of Columbia, N.A.R

☆ The Rent Was Too High So They Threw a Party
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Minnie Pindar’s name reappears as Minnie Gilmore in a 1952 marriage license to Scotty Eckford, a union organizer of Black hotel employees in New York City. Mr. Eckford was also the uncle of Elizabeth Eckford, the American civil rights activist who made history in 1957 when she enrolled in the all-white Little Rock Central High School and attended class. Her younger son, Cleveland Gilmore, was 2 on that unseasonably warm November night in 1929. As an adult, he never talked about rent parties, or life in Harlem at all. He would tell us little things, like how he would buy watermelon for a nickel, but I never knew about his family.”The elder Mr. Gilmore died of a brain aneurysm in 2004, when Amir was 14.

Persons: Minnie Gilmore’s, Minnie Pindar’s, Minnie Gilmore, Scotty Eckford, Eckford, Elizabeth Eckford, Pindar, Cleveland Gilmore, “, ”, Gilmore, Amir, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Calloway, Fats Waller, Harry Dial, Herman Autrey Organizations: Rock Central High School, Harlem Renaissance, Alhambra, Cotton Club Locations: New York City, Bronx, Harlem, Cleveland

☆ The Homeowners Who Beat the National Association of Realtors
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Rhonda Burnett went to sell a home in 2016, she knew she would have to pay a commission to her real estate agent. Ms. Burnett was instructed to select one, and she picked 6 percent. “I shop sales,” Ms. Burnett, 70, said with a laugh. She spent three decades as a stay-at-home mother while her husband, Scott Burnett, 72, worked for a waste management company and spent 20 years working as a local legislator. But when I asked her if I could negotiate, she said, ‘No, you really can’t.’”

Persons: Rhonda Burnett, Scott Burnett, Burnett, “, Ms, “ I’m, ‘, ’ Locations: Kansas, Hyde, Kansas City

☆ Black Couple Who Said an Appraisal of Their Home Was Biased Settle Lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Black couple who claimed an appraisal company undervalued their Baltimore home based on their race have settled their lawsuit against their mortgage lender, loanDepot, which has agreed to a number of sweeping policy changes that could offer significant relief to homeowners who allege racially biased appraisals in the future. Dr. Connolly and Dr. Mott, both faculty members at Johns Hopkins University, sued loanDepot, a mortgage lender, as well as Shane Lanham, an appraiser hired by a contractor for the company, in August 2022. A year earlier, the couple had opened their home to Mr. Lanham, who is white, for an appraisal, and he put the value of their four-bedroom house in Baltimore’s Homeland neighborhood at $472,000. After the couple stripped their home of family photographs and had a white colleague pose as the homeowner, an action known as “whitewashing,” a second appraiser offered a value of $750,000. The couple said that the difference in value — nearly $300,000 higher — came because the second appraiser believed that the home’s owners were white.

Persons: Nathan Connolly, Shani Mott, . Connolly, Mott, loanDepot, Shane Lanham, Lanham, ” Organizations: Johns Hopkins University Locations: Baltimore

☆ Shani Mott, Black Studies Scholar Who Examined Power All Around Her, Dies at 47
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Campbell Robertson | Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Shani Mott, a scholar of Black studies at Johns Hopkins University whose examinations of race and power in America extended beyond the classroom to her employer, her city and even her own home, has died in Baltimore. She died of adrenal cancer on March 12, said her husband, Nathan Connolly, a professor of history at Johns Hopkins. Though Dr. Mott spent her career in some of academia’s elite spaces, she was firmly committed to the idea that scholarship should be grounded and tangible, not succumbing to ivory tower abstraction. She encouraged students to turn a critical eye to their own backgrounds and to the realities of the world around them. In a city like Baltimore, with its complicated and often cruel racial history, there was plenty to scrutinize.

Persons: Shani Mott, Nathan Connolly, Johns Hopkins, Mott, Mott’s, ” Organizations: Johns Hopkins University, Johns, university’s, Africana Studies Locations: America, Baltimore

☆ Five Ways Buying and Selling a House Could Change
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Rukmini Callimachi | Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A settlement reached this week threatens to strike a blow to an established standard of residential real estate: the 6 percent sales commission. It also will change who pays it. The deal, reached after a yearslong court battle initially brought by a group of home sellers in Missouri, calls for the powerful National Association of Realtors, which has long regulated the way U.S. homes are sold, to amend its rules on how Realtors for sellers and buyers are compensated. In most real estate transactions in the United States, both the seller and buyer have an agent representing them. For decades, there’s been a standard for paying these agents: a commission of between 5 and 6 percent of the home’s sale price, covered by the seller and split between the two agents.

Persons: there’s Organizations: National Association of Realtors, Realtors Locations: Missouri, United States

☆ 4 Ways a Settlement Could Change the Housing Industry
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the early hours of Friday morning, the National Association of Realtors agreed to a global settlement deal that would resolve several lawsuits against the trade group. rule requiring home sellers to pay commissions to their agents and the agents of their buyers led to inflated fees and price fixing. The lawsuit also called into a question another rule requiring agents to list homes on N.A.R.-affiliated databases in order to sell them. With the settlement agreement, N.A.R. will pay $418 million in damages, but more important, it has agreed to rewrite a number of rules that have long been central to the U.S. housing industry.

Persons: N.A.R Organizations: National Association of Realtors, N.A.R Locations: Missouri, N.A.R

☆ Powerful Realtor Group Agrees to Slash Commissions to Settle Lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

American homeowners could see a significant drop in the cost of selling their homes after a real estate trade group agreed to a landmark deal that will eliminate a bedrock of the industry, the 6 percent sales commission. The National Association of Realtors, a powerful organization that has set the guidelines for home sales for decades, has agreed to settle a series of lawsuits by paying $418 million in damages and by eliminating its rules on commissions. Legal counsel for N.A.R. approved the agreement early Friday morning, and The New York Times obtained a copy of the signed document. “This will blow up the market and would force a new business model,” said Norm Miller, a professor emeritus of real estate at the University of San Diego.

Persons: ”, Norm Miller Organizations: National Association of Realtors, The New York Times, N.A.R, University of San Locations: U.S, University of San Diego

☆ The Youngest Senior
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Debra Kamin | More About Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When residents at Sun City Center, a sprawling retirement community in West Central Florida, struggle with their electronics, many of them now know who to call on: Maria Hodge, one of their newest residents, and also one of their youngest. Since moving to this 55-plus community last year, Ms. Hodge, 59, has become a fixture among the nearly 11,500 residents, where the average age is 79. She serves as secretary of the synchronized swim team. “We have people here who still have what we call the dino-phone,” she said. And most of the women on my swim team are challenged when it comes to electronics.”

Persons: Maria Hodge, Hodge, dino, ”, “ Organizations: Sun City Center, EMT Locations: West Central Florida

☆ Home Sellers Win $1.8 Billion After Jury Finds Conspiracy Among Realtors
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Debra Kamin | More About Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The realtors’ group and brokerages were ordered to pay damages of nearly $1.8 billion. The verdict allows the court to issue treble damages, which means they could swell to more than $5 billion. rule, a home seller is required to pay commissions to the agent representing the buyer, which sellers claimed forced them to pay excessive fees to the agents. The home sellers said the brokerages collaborated with N.A.R. For example, a home seller with a $1 million home can now pay as much as $60,000 in agent commissions — $30,000 to their agent and $30,000 to the buyers’ agent.

Persons: brokerages Organizations: National Association of Realtors, realtors ’ Locations: United States

☆ Leah Remini Lists Her Los Angeles Home a Third Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Debra Kamin | More About Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The actress Leah Remini has listed her home in the picturesque Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles — and is doing so at a price cut. Ms. Remini bought the six-bedroom, nine-bath property in 2003 for $3.75 million and first listed it on the market in September 2022 for $12,995,000. Now, she’s slashed half a million dollars off the price for the property, which stretches more than 10,000 square feet on a manicured and gated 1.58-acre lot, asking $12,499,000. The home is in the neighborhood of Fryman Canyon, one of Los Angeles’s most prestigious and star-studded corners. Neighbors in this pocket of Hollywood, where idyllic residential blocks are lined with sycamore trees and graceful Tudor Revival style houses, include George and Amal Clooney, Lucy Liu and Bruno Mars.

Persons: Leah Remini, Remini, she’s, George, Amal Clooney, Lucy Liu, Bruno Mars Locations: Studio City, Los Angeles, Fryman, Hollywood

☆ An Oscar Winner Scouts Her New Location: an Uptown Pad for Less Than $500,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

When her son, Jack, was born 36 years ago, Ms. Leo, now 63, thought about putting down real roots. At the time, she was renting a place on 83rd Street, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I rent places for temporary housing when I do television work,” Ms. Leo said. Earlier this year, she decided to try again, focusing on Yorkville, a historic swath of the Upper East Side. Ms. McCormack showed Ms. Leo a handful of studios and one-bedroom apartments in the area.

Persons: Melissa Leo, Leo, Alice Eklund, Ward, homeownership, Jack, Carl Schurz, Oscar, ”, Louie ”, “ I’ve, ” Ms, Janina McCormack, Ms, McCormack, “ Organizations: Upper East Locations: Upper, “, Manhattan, Stone Ridge, N.Y, New Yorker, Washington Heights, ”, Yorkville, New York

☆ The Latest Cool Amenity? A Name Brand. How About Porsche?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Debra Kamin | More About Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Chart a 10-mile path down the Miami coast, and the options for luxury shopping are endless. But from Fendi to Missoni to Porsche to Bentley, the branded products many shoppers are buying aren’t items you can take home. Branded real estate is surging: The market for name-brand luxury condominium units is projected to grow 12 percent each year between now and 2026, according to a report from the global real estate consultants, Knight Frank. Like blue jean makers and handbag designers, developers have long understood the power of a label, and today in nearly every major city, homeowners can shop residences from well-known hospitality brands like Four Seasons, Aman and Ritz-Carlton. Now more surprising brands are getting in on the trend, with purveyors of both luxury cars and couture looking to condos for their next frontier.

Persons: Knight Frank, jean, Aman, Armani Casa Organizations: Porsche, Bentley, Ritz, Carlton, Armani, Bentley Residences Locations: Miami, Fendi, Missoni, Dade County, British

The next day, Jason Haber, a real estate agent with Compass, started a Change.org petition demanding that Mr. Parcell resign. “I reached out to representatives for speakers at their upcoming conferences, asking them to withdraw their speaking slots. We were putting a lot of pressure on the organization.”Complaints about Mr. Parcell began to surface after Janelle Brevard, a former employee who said she had had a consensual relationship with Mr. Parcell, sued the group for racial and sexual discrimination and harassment. Ms. Brevard, who is Black, handled the group’s podcasts and videos and much of its marketing materials from 2019 to 2022. She said that after their relationship ended she was excluded from meetings and business trips and that Mr. Parcell, who is white, threatened to have her fired, according to her lawsuit.

Persons: Parcell’s, Jason Haber, Parcell, “, Mr, Haber, Janelle Brevard, Brevard Organizations: Times, Compass Locations: N.A.R

☆ Women Say Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Is Rife in Group for Realtors
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Debra Kamin | More About Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Parcell said that he had never made such references or gestures. She also shared photographs that Mr. Parcell sent them of his crotch in April 2022. When asked about the memo by The Times, N.A.R. said it did not contain sexual harassment complaints and described the photographs sent by Mr. Parcell as “of a belt buckle.” The organization said all issues identified in the memo had been investigated and addressed. Mr. Parcell said he was asking for input on the design of a promotional N.A.R.

Persons: Braun, Parcell, it’s, Ms, Jennifer, ”, N.A.R, “ Organizations: Times, The Times Locations: Washington, Chicago, Utah

☆ Are You Ready to Buy a Home? Should You Rent? Take Our Quiz.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

Before you even start looking, ask yourself a crucial question: Should I rent, or should I buy? A financial gut check First and foremost, the decision to rent or buy will depend on your financial situation. Unless you’re independently wealthy and ready to purchase a home with cash (if you are, why are you reading this article? The decision to buy a home isn’t only about finances, and owning isn’t right for everyone who can afford it. If the answer is exactly where you are, it might be a sign that you’re ready to buy.

Persons: Mark Conlan, Read, you’re, Don’t, you’ll, Sellers, it’s, I’ll Locations: Youngstown , Ohio, Manhattan

☆ What You Can Do at Home to Help Stem Climate Change
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Debra Kamin | More About Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Among Ms. Piper’s recommendations for simple shifts you can make to help stem climate change:Keep an Eye on the ThermostatThe global reliance on heating and cooling systems requires immense energy usage, resulting in immense carbon emissions. Composting, which instead allows food scraps to break down into a nutrient-rich material that feeds soil, breaks this cycle. Many citiesnow have public composting bins available to drop off their food scraps. And there’s a bonus: Heat pumps rely on heat exchangers, the same mechanisms that run refrigerators and freezers, and they can work in reverse. Think Sustainable LandscapingOne of the most powerful tools for fighting climate change might be hiding in your yard.

Organizations: Department of Energy, Protection Agency, Electric, York State, University of California Locations: —, Davis

☆ With Just a 5 Percent Down Payment, What Would $650,000 Buy in Bed-Stuy?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Bed-Stuy feels like a smaller universe within the larger New York City.”Mx. Saving to buy a home, which had felt like fantasy before the pandemic, suddenly felt possible. Haymon returned to Bed-Stuy, they were able to rent a two-bedroom with a balcony for $2,350 a month — a “Covid deal” that wouldn’t last forever. They reached out to Dalia Glazer, a real estate agent with Compass, and explained that they could spend up to $650,000 — as long as the down payment was only 5 percent. “I couldn’t go above 5 percent for a down payment,” Mx.

Persons: Miranda Haymon, “, Haymon, ”, Dalia Glazer, Ms, Glazer Organizations: North Brooklyn ., Wesleyan University, Compass, ” Locations: New York City, Bedford, Stuyvesant, North Brooklyn, Boston, Connecticut, New York, Midtown Manhattan

☆ Alone in an Empty House, Female Real Estate Agents Face Danger
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-08 | by ( Debra Kamin | More About Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Across the nation, the overwhelming majority of real estate agents are women — and they are vulnerable to abuse in an industry that offers few protections, demands that they meet clients alone in empty homes and encourages them to use their appearance to help bring in buyers. Reports of harassment and occasionally physical violence, including rape and even murder, highlight the risks they face. But the industry is also structured so that 90 percent of agents are not actually employees of the agencies they work with. They are independent contractors, which means they are not protected under Title VII — the federal law that prohibits discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. It also means that many real estate agencies that rely on these agents for the vast majority of their income do not feel obligated — or even inclined — to offer them any kind of institutional protection or training.

Persons: —, VII Organizations: National Association of Realtors

☆ French Montana Lists His Los Angeles Mansion
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Karim Kharbouch, better known by his stage name French Montana, is bidding adieu to his 1.35-acre compound in Los Angeles’s exclusive Hidden Hills neighborhood, asking $22.75 million for the seven-bedroom, nine-bath home in one of the city’s most celebrity-studded communities. The Moroccan-born rapper bought the home in late 2020 from the basketball player Paul George, an all-star forward for the Los Angeles Clippers. He paid $8.4 million, which was something of a bargain: Mr. George had initially asked $9.5 million for the property, which is tucked behind gates on grounds that include a full-size basketball court, a fire pit, pool and spa with stone decking, and garages for five cars, and was willing to take the $1 million price cut after the property languished on the market for six months.

Persons: Karim Kharbouch, adieu, Paul George, George Organizations: Los Angeles Clippers Locations: French Montana, Moroccan

☆ A Family Trio Starts a New Chapter in the City. Where Could They Find Three Bedrooms?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Ms. Secor, a design consultant, looked out the window at Broadway and saw a stream of people fleeing north. Ms. Secor sold her TriBeCa co-op in 2005, and the couple welcomed twin girls, Romy and Naia, in 2006. But Ms. Secor had lived in New York for more than a decade before 9/11, and she missed the city. But Ms. Hill had different advice. Ms. Hill found some condos that fit the profile, streaming her visits on FaceTime so Ms. Secor could see them from Quebec.

Persons: Anne Secor, Secor, ”, “, Romy, Hill, Ms Organizations: World Trade, TriBeCa, Naia, New, Estate Agency Locations: TriBeCa, Manhattan, Canada, Quebec, Morin, Laurentian, New York, “ New York, Harlem, Flatbush , Brooklyn, FaceTime

☆ The Thrill of New York, Despite an Awful Lot of One-Month Rentals
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“I messaged the girl whose room we rented, and I remember asking her, ‘How did you move to New York? How much did it cost?’ I got all the information I could from her, because I was so interested in hopefully living there one day,” said Ms. Pearce. By late 2021, with international travel again sanctioned, she had waited long enough. She got the windowless sublet, but knew that if she didn’t also get a job, she would have to leave the country when her 90-day tourist visa expired. So she focused on her job search, as well as studying for a graduate certificate in marketing and digital strategy, which she was earning online.

Persons: ”, Pearce, “, didn’t Locations: New York, Australia, United States

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