2 more brokerages agree to settle in commissions case 

The settlements continue to roll in for the buyer agent commission lawsuits, with court filings showing John L. Scott and Real Estate One reaching agreements with the home sellers in the Gibson/Umpa case in Missouri.

The Gibson case was filed immediately after the jury reached a verdict in Sitzer/Burnett last year and was later combined with Umpa.

The announcements: The John L. Scott settlement was filed in court on Oct. 2. The documents didn't disclose how much the Pacific Northwest brokerage agreed to pay, but the parties said they plan to promptly file a request for preliminary approval, which will have further details. 

The brokerage company is based in Bellevue, Washington, and has 110 offices in the Pacific Northwest. In 2022, it had a sales volume of more than $11 billion, according to the Real Estate Almanac. 

Real Estate One's filing came late in the day on Oct. 1 and also did not offer details about damages. According to the filing, a preliminary approval request will be filed at a later date. Real Estate One is a fourth-generation family-owned business based in Michigan, and achieved more than $6 billion in sales volume in 2022.

Brokerages that brought in more than $2 billion in sales volume were left out of NAR's March settlement deal and could choose to opt in or reach their own agreements with plaintiffs.

The settlement fund: If the damages are on par with other recent settlements reached over the summer and last month, the fund will now exceed $1 billion.

Over $30 million is being added to the fund this week after plaintiffs in the Sitzer/Burnett case announced in a preliminary approval court filing that more than two dozen non-Realtor multiple listing services and brokerages opted into the NAR settlement.