Fighting Illini (Anti-Rebate Bill "Crushed") - Redfin Real Estate News

Fighting Illini (Anti-Rebate Bill “Crushed”)

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Updated on October 5th, 2020

A bill introduced by the Illinois legislature to outlaw refunding real estate commissions to consumers, which we complained about last month, finally died today. An obscure group called the Homeowners Club of America had supported the bill as a response to “West Coast brokers attempting to change Illinois commission structures.” Since the bill came just as Redfin was planning to enter the Illinois market, we wondered if we were the primary target.

The U.S. Department of Justice applied behind-the-scenes pressure, and the Illinois Association of Realtors, which we had earlier assumed would support the bill, openly lobbied against it. Several delays, and eleventh-hour modifications (some made as recently as last night) to require only that brokers show a property before claiming a commission on behalf of a client, were not enough to save the bill. In the words of one Redfin correspondent, “the bill was crushed” in the Illinois legislature’s Judiciary Committee. It didn’t even get a motion.

Hooray! And thanks to the Illinois Association of Realtors, and to Redfin reader Mark Reitman for taking the fight to Springfield. Illinois, here we come!

Bonus link, from our devblog: why Redfin chose Bricolage.

Glenn Kelman

Glenn Kelman

Glenn is the CEO of Redfin. Prior to joining Redfin, he was a co-founder of Plumtree Software, a Sequoia-backed, publicly traded company that created the enterprise portal software market. In his seven years at Plumtree, Glenn at different times led engineering, marketing, product management, and business development; he also was responsible for financing and general operations in Plumtree's early days. Prior to starting Plumtree, Glenn worked as one of the first employees at Stanford Technology Group, a Sequoia-backed start-up acquired by IBM. Glenn was raised in Seattle and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a regular contributor to the Redfin blog and Twitter.

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