Latest news with #Brobeck
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
2 charged, accused of selling ‘burner' gun out of Altoona house
ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ) — Two men, one of whom with a third-degree murder conviction, were accused of selling a 'burner' gun to an Altoona police informant Tuesday. Kenneth M. Brobeck, 33, and Eugene Martin Morales, 36, both of Altoona, were charged Wednesday, May 14, after allegedly selling a gun the day before to an informant. The informant is also a felon not to possess firearms, police noted in the criminal complaint. According to charges, an informant went to police and said they could buy a gun illegally from someone they know as '9.' Police noted they're familiar with '9,' who is actually Brobeck. A sale was set up at a home on the 1800 block of 10th Street in the City. Police watched as the informant entered the home, and they were able to identify Brobeck when he came out to the porch. According to the complaint, the informant later emerged and left the house, handing a backpack to police that had the gun inside. According to the informant's information, police said they went inside the house and mostly dealt with 'Taliban,' a man known to police as Morales, to get the gun and handed him $500. The informant also claimed the duo works together to sell guns and drugs from the house. They also alleged it's not the first time they've bought a gun from the two. It was noted that police discovered who the owner of the handgun was, and it's not Bobeck nor Morales. Police executed a search warrant where a third person in the house claimed she watched the gun purchase between Brobeck, Morales and the informant. According to the complaint, the same caliber bullet for the gun was found in the home. According to the complaint, both men are felons not allowed to possess firearms. A 2010 story from Lehigh Valley Live shows that Morales was sentenced to 10 to 40 years after a woman was killed when he crashed a stolen SUV in the Allentown area. Court documents show he entered a guilty plea for aggravated assault, receiving stolen property, and murder in the third this time, Morales has not been arraigned. Brobeck, however, was arraigned and placed in Blair County Prison with bail set at $100,000. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
08-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
A change to real estate commissions was supposed to transform the housing market. It hasn't happened.
Fast forward: The residential real estate market seemed poised for its own seismic shift last year after the National Association of Realtors Advertisement The plaintiffs' lawyers said that Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Requiring buyers and sellers to pay their own agents directly, they said, would encourage more fee negotiations and help ease upward pressure on home prices. 'This will blow up the market and would force a new business model,' one real estate academic told Advertisement What happened: But as the spring selling season kicks into high gear, there's still no May Day-style explosion. While the NAR agreed to pay $418 million in damages and tweak its rules, the settlement didn't ban fee-splitting or require buyers to compensate their agents. It was a major win for the NAR. Its members can still share commissions but must make fuller disclosure of the terms to clients. With just a few changes, the way we buy and sell homes is largely the same. Nearly eight months after new guidelines took effect, the 5–6 percent rate remains standard. Home prices continue to escalate. 'Not a lot has changed,' said Kim Powers, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Milton. 'What has changed is the transparency.' She was referring to the rule that prospective buyers sign a contract spelling out their agent's compensation before seeing properties, something Massachusetts hadn't required before. Also new: Listing agents must get written client approval before offering to share a commission with a buyer's broker. A closer look: There's a reason the status quo survived. As part of the settlement, NAR agreed to remove commission-sharing terms from the multiple listing services run by its affiliates. But agents can still work out splits by text or email, and contracts can specify that a portion of the seller's fee goes to the buyer's broker. 'The spirit of the agreement is no collusion among agents,' said Stephen Brobeck, a senior fellow at What's next: Brobeck still expects commissions to fall over time, for two reasons. First, the Justice Department's antitrust division is investigating industry practices. The probe began after the department withdrew from a 2020 deal that would have required NAR to boost transparency around broker compensation. Advertisement 'DOJ could put a lot of pressure on the industry. I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up suing,' Brobeck said. The department didn't reply to an email seeking comment. Second, Brobeck said, broker surveys show more buyers are pushing for smaller fees. While commissions have always been negotiable, the new disclosure rules and publicity around the settlement are starting to have the desired impact. 'If a significant minority of consumers do tough negotiations, it will open up the floodgates. The only debate we will have is how quickly that erosion will take place,' he said. Counterpoint: Theresa Hatton doesn't share Brobeck's view. The chief executive of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors said the commission-splitting system has worked well for decades, especially for first-time and less-affluent buyers who struggle to scrape together a down payment. Piling on a broker's fee would force many of them out of the market, reducing demand. 'It's a beautiful theory, but it's not happening in reality,' she said. Final thought: It's easy to say commissions should be lower — until you see how much work a good agent does for their client. My wife and I have sold three houses since 1990. Our agents earned every dollar of the commissions we paid. I can't speak for the sellers of the four homes we have bought, but our brokers deserved the share of the fees they received. Go ahead — haggle with your broker if you like. Just know: you don't get high-touch service at cut-rate prices. Advertisement Larry Edelman can be reached at
