After drawing the ire from four attorneys general and being warned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), right-to-list agreement firm MV Realty announced it would suspend the signing of new Homeowner benefit agreements.
“MV Realty has temporarily suspended entering into new customer contracts while we address concerns raised by regulators. “The Company is confident that the Homeowners Benefit Program fully complies to the law and benefits consumers who get a cash incentive” an MV Realty spokesperson said in an email.
The firm did not say how long it would pause onboarding new Homeowner Benefit Agreement clients.
“It is not surprising that MV would stop the program due to the direct regulatory scrutiny and legal scrutiny they are getting. This happens often in such situations,” Ken Trepeta (executive director of the Real Estate Services Providers Council) wrote in an email. “I would expect that the program would be halted until the legal and regulatory cases are resolved.”
The Homeowner Benefit Agreement by MV Realty allows homeowners to give up the right to list their home for 40 years in exchange for a cash payment ranging from $500 to $5,000 depending on the home’s value. This means that MV Realty can list a homeowner’s home for a 3% commission if they decide to sell their house within the next 40-year period. This commission is separate from the commission earned through the buy side agent.
If the homeowner violates the agreement or terminates the agreement before the due date, MV Realty will charge 3% of the property’s current value.
The firm is currently facing lawsuits from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Florida, and Pennsylvania. These lawsuits claim that MV Realty misleads homeowners through its so called Homeowner Benefit Program.
According to the Massachusetts suit, “MV Realty conceals in marketing and sales material terms that it can foreclose on the house, including that it acts as a non-agent facilitator’ and that if the heirs don’t assume the agreement following a homeowner’s passing, MV Realty may foreclose.”
The complaint states that a non-agent facilitator is a type transaction broker that has no duty to the seller and is not required to seek the highest market price. It also has no obligation to maintain confidentiality.
The FCC called MV Realty in January for “an apparent homeowner-focused robocall fraud campaign.”
MV Realty is currently licensed in more than 500 agents and operates in 33 states. MV Realty claims that it has enrolled more than 35,000 homeowners since its inception in August 2020 and has paid homeowners nearly $40 million.