Investigative Piece: Prices and Fees for Real Estate Brokers

I’m commissioning an investigative article that digs into how residential real-estate brokers in major U.S. cities use commission models that seem to resemble a industry-wide fixed price. The work should go beyond surface explanations: if it is a price fix, the article should describe why recent DOJ and private lawsuits have had trouble breaking the price- cartel.

Scope of work
• Identify and interview multiple on-record sources— including legal cases that seek to break the fixed high commission model in the US
• Collect and interpret any available, public filings, or policy documents by think tanks and professors that commissions in the US are super-high relative to other countries and other industries and possibly a result of a price-fix.
If the literature proves the price-fix, why is it that legal claims by private actors have failed.
• Deliver a tightly argued, 1,500–2,000-word article (ready for publication), fully fact-checked with inline citations and a short bibliography of sources.

Acceptance criteria
• Minimum three on-record interviews, plus additional background sourcing.
• Balanced analysis that clearly explains what has happened to prevent fees from being set by market forces as the law would prescribe.
• Polished narrative with an engaging lead, strong nut-graph, and logical flow.
• File submitted as a Word or Google Doc, along with separate notes containing source contact info and any supporting data spreadsheets.

Timeline is short—I’ll share exact dates once we connect, but expect research to start immediately and the finished draft within ten to twenty days of kickoff. It will be important to have a call with the think tank that is commissioning the work before the project is assigned.