This appendix contains six sections. The first section compares our sample to the broader subprime mortgage market. The second section describes our algorithm for inferring broker race and ethnicity. The third section considers rejection and funding uncertainty as potential explanations for...

This paper documents uniformity in real estate commission rates offered to buyers' agents using 653,475 residential listings in eastern Massachusetts from 1998–2011. Properties listed with lower commission rates experience less favorable transaction outcomes: they are 5 percent less likely to...

Using a search-theoretical framework, we study how a home seller's choice of whether or not to use a broker depends on different market conditions. We analyze the role that the broker plays in the house-selling process by examining the expected time-to-transaction, the expected transaction...

This article examines the role of US real estate agents in redlining, reverse redlining, and greenlining practices. Redlining was the practice of the Federal government, private banks, and other institutions to deny credit to neighborhoods based on race. Reverse redlining is marketing inferior...

We examine the market structure for real estate brokerage services across six large metropolitan areas, to see whether low-income neighborhoods or neighborhoods where house prices are low are as well served by real estate professionals as higher income or higher price neighborhoods. We collect...

Real estate agents rely on current clients for referrals to generate future business; this paper aims to understand whether concern for referrals disciplines the agent. We compare the results for sellers who move to another area (and are thus less likely to provide referrals) with the results...

The current commission system in real estate brokerage misaligns agent and house seller interests, so real estate agents have strong incentives to mislead their clients by convincing them to sell their houses too cheaply and too quickly. This paper studies, being motivated by the commission...

This paper has two goals: (a) To model and inherent conflict of interest between a seller of a house and the real estate broker hired by the seller. In this environment, the pressure brokers exert on sellers to reduce prices generates faster sales and hence reduces sellers' expected profit. (b)...

This paper investigates the incentives of agents working with buyers (buying agents) under the fixed percentage commission system (FPCS) and the implications on housing market outcomes. Our model shows that the FPCS without a binding contract between the buyer and the buying agent could produce...

The author constructs a theoretical model to examine the effects of an inherent conflict of interest between a seller of a house and the real estate broker hired by the seller. The model is then used to calibrate the broker’s commission rates that would maximize the seller’s expected gain....