Thanks to nearly a year of reporting from KIRO 7′s Jesse Jones, there’s a new law on the books to protect homeowners from signing controversial decades-long real estate listing agreements.
These are 40-year deals that would follow homeowners to their graves. Sign with the company and get a little money upfront — use another agent and you could be on the hook for up to 3% of the homes’ worth.
Viewers called Jesse Jones to investigate. As a result of his work, legislation was written, passed, and on Tuesday, signed by Gov. Jay Inslee.
Florida-based MV Realty signed hundreds of people in Washington to these 40-year deals, but thanks to the new legislation, those types of contracts can be no longer than five years.
“The biggest thing here is this is just a really nice consumer protection day for the people of the state of Washington,” said Sen. Mark Mullet (D-Issaquah). “It seems like when you have contracts, people are signing that they end up regretting. That’s not what we want in our state. We want people to sign contracts they actually want to be signing and they have no regrets about them afterwards. And so I’m really glad the bill passed and hopefully things are much better going forward.”
MV Realty is currently being sued by Attorneys General in five states for unfair and deceptive business practices.
The company says it operates with transparency and in full compliance with the law.
Through the votes in the Senate and the House, not a single vote was cast against the bill.
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