#ICYMI: May 2019 Real Estate News

By Jessie Trapp, Marketing Coordinator & Tiana Baur, Marketing Manager

The May madness has quickly come and gone and we’re full speed ahead into the busy season. A lot happened in May. We said goodbye to Game of Thrones, hello to Pikachu, and started working on our summer bodies – but what happened in real estate? We have the scoop!

In case you missed it, here are the top five May 2019 real estate news stories to know:

1. “RE/MAX and Redfin end exclusive partnership after 2 months”

Like a summer romance, the partnership between RE/MAX and Redfin has ended almost as quickly as it started. What happened to this budding relationship, you ask? Redfin introduced a new tool that allows people without buyer’s agents to place offers online on Redfin-listed homes in Boston.

According to Inman, the RE/MAX CEO had this to say about it: “Given Redfin’s recent announcement regarding a program that would encourage buyers not to use agents on listings where the seller is represented by Redfin, we cannot continue with an official, corporate-level relationship at this time.” We’re with him on this one.

2. “CENTURY 21 Scheetz First-to-Market in Indiana to Offer Affordable Healthcare to Its Relentless Sales Professionals”

RISMedia recently published a Century 21 announcement that stated, “CENTURY 21 Scheetz has announced that it is offering affordable healthcare plans to help its 350-plus relentless sales professionals.” The plan was built specifically for real estate agents which includes 24/7/365 care, reduced healthcare costs by up to 50%, coverage for physician visits, and more.

Mic drop.

3. “Airbnb will hand over data on 17K listings to New York City officials”

Airbnb and the Big Apple aren’t exactly getting along. In the aftermath of a subpoena that NYC issued back in February, Airbnb has finally agreed to give New York City officials data on 17,000 listings. According to Inman, “city officials specifically wanted information on Airbnb stays that lasted less than 30 days and involved entire apartments — a type of booking that is actually illegal in New York. The city also wanted data on certain Airbnb listings for private and shared rooms.”

To be continued.

4. “NAR Moves to Dismiss ‘Baseless’ Lawsuit, Hopes to Consolidate All Cases”

So, here’s the scoop: Allegedly, NAR conspired to inflate commissions by requiring all real estate agents to “make a blanket, non-negotiable offer of buyer broker compensation when listing a property on a Multiple Listing Service (MLS),” which also happens to violate federal antitrust laws. Queue lawsuit. NAR filed a motion to dismiss said lawsuit saying it was baseless and that the other side of the aisle didn’t know how real estate works. TBD on how this all plays out in court.

Read more about it here.

5. “The Amazon Effect: Prices Up, Listings Down Near Its New HQ2 in Virginia”

As pretty much every single person predicted and no one doubted, the real estate market has rapidly changed where Amazon is launching their new headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. In fact, home sales in this town have jumped 50% compared with the previous year, according to a recent realtor.com® report.

As Seattle natives, we know all too well about the “Amazon Effect.” Our advice to Arlingtoners is: get really comfortable with being in your car or on public transit and queue up those podcasts and audiobooks – you’re going to need them.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for another #ICYMI next month!

P.S. If you’re into podcasts (and if you’re not, you should be) we have our very own! The latest episode of the REAL with MoxiWorks podcast featuring Greg Scott, VP of Branch Services at Long & Foster Real Estate, is out now. Have a listen!