Anyone who bought a home through a multiple listing service and paid a commission may sit inside the $120,334,500 homebuyer antitrust settlement, but the answer depends on two things: which brokerage was involved and which state the home was in. The settlement administrator’s FAQ lists separate class periods for the defendants, and they start on dates ranging from January 25, 2006 in Puerto Rico to December 8, 2019 in most states. The claim window is open until October 27, 2026.

That spread is the whole story for a household trying to work out whether a past purchase counts. A buyer in Puerto Rico can reach back more than twenty years, while a buyer in Texas is held to a much later start date for the same national firms.

Two sets of defendants, two sets of calendars

The settlement FAQ splits the class periods into two groups, and each one runs to June 25, 2026. The first covers the National Association of REALTORS® and the national firms among the defendants, including Anywhere Real Estate, Compass, eXp and HomeServices. The second covers regional brokers such as At World Properties, Baird & Warner and Real Estate One.

Whatever the class period, the FAQ says claims must be submitted or postmarked by October 27, 2026, and recommends mailing a week early or using certified mail so the envelope reaches the processing facility in time. The administrator’s page described claims as open on the date it was read, October 6, 2026.

For buyers sorting out which of these date ranges their closing falls into, The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and a step-by-step filing walkthrough.

Open the four-date rule to read the home-commission class periods →

For the regional brokers the periods are short. Most states start on December 8, 2019. Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri start on December 8, 2018. Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming start on December 8, 2017.

For NAR and the national firms the calendar is much longer and steps by state:

• Puerto Rico: January 25, 2006
• Rhode Island and Louisiana: January 25, 2011
• Wyoming: January 25, 2013
• Alabama, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and Wisconsin: January 25, 2015
• Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Utah and West Virginia: January 25, 2016
• Arizona, California, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia: January 25, 2017
• Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Washington: January 25, 2018
• Texas and all other states: January 25, 2019

Puerto Rico’s January 25, 2006 start is the earliest of any period on the FAQ. A home in a state such as Wyoming shows how the groups overlap, since it appears under the regional brokers’ list with a 2017 start and under the national firms’ list with a 2013 start.

Who counts as a class member, and what the form asks for

According to the FAQ, the settlement class is made up of persons who purchased a home that was listed on a multiple listing service anywhere in the United States and where a commission was paid, during the applicable class period. The FAQ says this includes MLSs that are not NAR affiliates, naming REBNY, Northwest MLS and West-Penn Multi-List. Anyone who separately settled related claims or opted out is excluded.

The claim itself asks for class membership and for property and commission details, per the FAQ. Online claims go through the administrator’s claim submission page. Paper claims go by mail to Homebuyer Antitrust Litigation, Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 4258, Portland, OR 97208-4258. The administrator also lists a phone line, 1-877-417-7662, and an email address, [email protected].

The court has not yet signed off

Claims are being collected before the settlement is finally approved. The final approval hearing is set for November 2, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. before Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins at the Everett McKinley Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, 219 South Dearborn Street in Chicago, with a phone or video option. The deadline for exclusion requests, objections and notices of intent to appear was September 17, 2026, so that window has already closed.

Payment follows approval and is described as multiple installments over several years. The FAQ says the money is distributed pro rata after fees and costs, and that exact amounts depend on total valid claims and on the commission each class member paid. It gives no per-person estimate, so any figure circulating for an individual payout does not come from the administrator.

Where the $120,334,500 comes from

The fund is a combined amount from the defendants. The FAQ lists NAR at $52,250,000, HomeServices of America and its affiliates at $30,000,000, Anywhere Real Estate at $9,602,500, Hanna Holdings at $8,250,000, Compass at $7,331,250, eXp World Holdings at $4,335,000 and Douglas Elliman at $2,041,250. Seventeen additional defendants contribute smaller amounts.

Matching a closing date to the right list

The job before October 27 is matching. A buyer needs the closing date, the state, the property address and, if possible, the commission shown on the settlement statement, then compares those against the two lists above. The place to start is the administrator’s FAQ, which is the authoritative source for every date in this article.

Anything that looks like a notice, an email or a text asking for payment or a bank login in connection with the settlement deserves suspicion. The administrator’s own site, phone line and mailing address above are the routes it lists. A claim sent by mail should leave early enough to be postmarked on or before October 27, 2026.

The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes a claim log and payment tracker, plus the scam-proof rules, for keeping a submitted claim and later installments in one place.

Open The Settlement & Refund Recovery System for the home-commission claim →

This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the figures and dates were checked against the settlement administrator’s FAQ linked above.