The decree’s core principle fits in one sentence: a broker may not decide what a rival broker’s customers are allowed to see. Display decisions belong to the seller. Data flows to every cooperating broker on cost based, equal terms.
On June 15, 2026, MLex reported that Stanley Woodward, the Associate Attorney General, has been placed in charge of running the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The step matters because of who Woodward is and how he reached it. It matters more because the division he now controls has spent the better part of a decade as the principal federal antitrust threat to organized real estate.
if you are not retaining emails and texts in a centralized, supervised system, let’s make 2026 the year that gets corrected. Pronto.
If an advertisement or promotional material described in paragraph (1) is posted on an internet website over which the real estate broker or salesperson, or person acting on their behalf, has control, they shall include the unaltered version of the images from which the digitally altered images were created in the posting
The one stage of the litigation that we haven’t covered is the DISCOVERY Stage – It’s the fun part where you get to see all the juicy facts that have been conjecture up to this point, but now the facts are presented in detail and made under oath.
The goal of this piece isn’t to spotlight what I know, but to illustrate what AI might not (at least not today). Ultimately, it’s the user behind the screen who must think critically before relying on AI for crucial information.
We already know sellers tend to price their homes on emotion, not logic. Logic is what we use to bring sellers back to reality. It’s how we remind them that they are entitled to their own opinion, but they are not entitled to their own facts. The vast majority of sellers understand that buyers determine market value.
But in real estate, in parenting, in everyday life, we’re already negotiating with a new kind of construct. AI isn’t a fantasy. It’s a framework we’ve invited in. The question isn’t whether it will change everything. It’s whether we’ll realize when we’re no longer in control.
Real estate isn’t a game, but it is a profession grounded in credibility and a belief in fairness. And right now, the Department of Justice is making one thing clear—competition in the industry isn’t just a value; it’s a legal imperative. Whether through antitrust litigation, scrutiny of cooperative compensation, or the push for open access to listing data, the message is the same: if consumers don’t have real choices, the system isn’t working.
Roger P. Alford will serve as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Mr. Alford previously served in the first Trump Administration as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division, including as an expert witness in the landmark 2023 real estate $1.8 billion litigation against the National Association of Realtors
It is time to take a “unified view” of real estate. What happens in one segment of the market has effects on other segments. What
The Language of Real Estate – Learning Real Estate one word (or phrase) at a time… Abstract of Title A full summary of all consecutive
