NJ Passes Real Estate Consumer Protection Enhancement Act

New Jersey buyers and sellers will be interested to know that on July 10th, Governor Murphy signed into law Bill S3192/A4454, known as the Real Estate Consumer Protection Enhancement Act. This law became effective August 1st, and this summarizes the bill’s impact on the real estate landscape:

• All real estate licensees will be required to use written brokerage agreements, which outline services they will provide to all clients throughout a respective transaction and how they will be compensated.
• Per the above, this includes buyers must now sign a representation agreement before touring homes with an agent.
• Per the above, sellers will sign listing agreements that will outline the amount of compensation they would like to offer to both their agent and a buyer’s agent.
• Sellers must provide a fully completed property condition disclosure form before buyers sign a contract. Previously, this was optional.
• Listing agents will be required to explicitly disclose who they represent at open houses through the display of signage that explains this to visitors. Buyers will be required to sign in at an open house and indicate if they have signed a buyer representation agreement with an agent.
• “Designated agency” is now allowed in New Jersey. This enables a brokerage to appoint an agent to either side of a transaction at the client’s request.
• Sellers’ agents can no longer disclose compensation in Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) or notify MLSs about cooperative compensation. Consumers and agents will have to go to other sources of information to find out if a seller is offering compensation to the buyer’s agent and, if so, how much.

If you have questions about the new changes for NJ real estate and consumers, please reach out to us. We are here to help you navigate them.

The Allison Ziefert Real Estate Group is a top-producing real estate team based at Compass in Short Hills, New Jersey. We are local market experts, specializing in real estate and homes in Maplewood, South Orange, Millburn/Short Hills, Montclair/Glen Ridge, West Orange, Morristown, and the surrounding New Jersey towns. We’ve also got you covered coast to coast with the best connections to top agents around the country in any market you are exploring. We are driven by earning great testimonials and referral business from happy clients.