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The National Association of Realtors on Tuesday announced it would keep its divisive Clear Cooperation Policy while rolling out an exemption to the rule, ending months of speculation on the changes and their impact on brokerages.
The “Multiple Listing Options for Sellers” policy introduces a new category of listings called “delayed marketing exempt listings,” NAR announced. The MLOS policy took effect on Tuesday and must be implemented by Sept. 30, NAR said.
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The new exemption would allow sellers to have their listing agent delay putting a listing on the Internet Data Exchange (IDX) for a set period of time that would be determined by each multiple listing service.
“The new policy does not change an MLS’s local mandatory submission deadlines or CCP and its requirement to file a listing with the MLS within one (1) business day from public marketing,” NAR said.
NAR board members first approved Clear Cooperation in 2019. The rule required Realtors to submit their listings to NAR-affiliated multiple listing services within 24 hours after they began marketing those listings. Critics of the rule — including high-profile figures such as Mauricio Umansky and Gary Gold — were vocal from the beginning. But proponents argued that, among other things, getting rid of pocket listings would cut down on discrimination.
The news followed months of wrangling and positioning by brokerages that had strongly opposing views on what to do with CCP, which requires agents to put a listing on the MLS within one business day of marketing the property.
Compass CEO Robert Reffkin led a campaign aimed at repealing the policy, likening it to a monopoly by the MLSs.
“You get the listing. You pay for the photos. You take the photos. And then the MLS, in the agreement that every brokerage firm has to sign, they legally own your content afterward,” Reffkin said. “We have no choice. And the definition of monopoly is you have no choice.”
Compass’s drive to add more private listings within its network gave way to a belief by some industry insiders that repealing CCP could result in more large brokerages keeping housing inventory out of public view.
At industry events and on social media, as well as in op-eds, Reffkin claimed that the Department of Justice believed Clear Cooperation “restricts homeseller choices” and “prevents competition from listing systems.”
However, the DOJ later clarified it didn’t believe the policy itself was anticompetitive, giving NAR cover to keep it in place.
Eventually, many of real estate’s biggest names lined up on one side of the issue or another. Those who wanted to keep the rule in place included eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman, NextHome CEO James Dwiggins and others.
Supporters of the policy argued that keeping the rule in place benefits consumers by giving them equal access to the largest number of listings. Meanwhile, proponents of the rule argued that ditching it would fragment the real estate ecosystem and make it look more like markets overseas, where MLSs typically don’t exist.
The debate reached a crescendo in recent months, and in early March, the American Real Estate Association — a rival to NAR — proposed a kind of work-in-progress compromise solution. And even as recently as last week, figures including Corcoran CEO Pam Liebman, Coldwell Banker CEO Kamini Lane, Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman and others continued to weigh in.
Anywhere, meanwhile, was a proponent of keeping the policy. Just Monday, during the company’s annual stakeholder meeting, the firm noted that changes to the CCP represented a risk to the industry at large.
“Changes to the Clear Cooperation Policy could, among other things, reduce the availability of broadly listed properties, leading to more unlisted inventory and potentially limiting access to comprehensive housing market data,” the company wrote.
But overall, the industry was left to wait for a decision from NAR, which came down Tuesday.
More on the changes
NAR MLOS policy
NAR made clear on Tuesday that CCP has not been changed and remains in effect.
With the creation of the new policy, NAR will leave it up to hundreds of MLSs across the country to determine how long agents can delay marketing a property.
“NAR is also clarifying its policy interpretation that one-to-one, broker-to-broker communications about listings do not trigger CCP requirements,” NAR wrote. “However, multi-brokerage communications about a listing will constitute public marketing under CCP.”
Agents must obtain a signed disclosure document showing the seller’s intent to “waive the benefits of immediate public marketing through IDX and syndication,” NAR wrote in an FAQ it released on Tuesday.
That disclosure is required for both delayed marketing and for office exclusive exempt listings, NAR said.
NAR said it wasn’t setting a nationwide delayed marketing period because MLSs were better positioned to determine that timeframe.
Those MLSs would also determine whether the number of days a seller delays marketing their property under the MLOS policy counts toward total days on market.
NAR also noted that other MLS subscribers would have access to the delayed properties.
“A delayed marketing exempt listing will still be available to other MLS Participants and Subscribers through the MLS platform so they can inform their consumers about the property,” NAR said.
This story is developing and will be updated.
