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Real estate executives offered cautious optimism following the National Association of Realtors’ decision on Tuesday to uphold Clear Cooperation — but several voiced uncertainty over new rules that will authorize hundreds of individual MLSs to set policy, including how long listings stay off market.
Reaction to the 1.5 million-member trade organization’s decision to save the divisive policy and add an MLS option for homesellers came swiftly from brokerage CEOs, agents and search portals, many of whom lauded the news despite concerns it may not go far enough to ensure consumer choice.
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“I think the needle was moved in the right direction,” said Jason Haber, a New York-based broker with Compass who has been critical of the policy as a co-founder of the American Real Estate Association. “Now, was it the far-reaching change that a lot of us had hoped for? No, but let’s acknowledge that there is this new designation, there’s this new category.”
While keeping in place the policy that states agents must list properties on the MLS within 24 hours of publicly marketing them (with an exception for office exclusives), NAR also rolled out the “Multiple Listing Options for Sellers” policy.
The new rule allows listing agents to delay putting a listing on the Internet Data Exchange, or IDX, for a certain period of time that will be determined individually by hundreds of multiple listing services nationwide. The Internet Data Exchange acts as a middleman between multiple listing services and portals like Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and CoStar.
During that period of delayed marketing, MLS subscribers will be able to access those listings via the MLS, even though they won’t officially be listed until later. Sellers will be required to sign a disclosure document waiving their benefits of immediate public marketing through IDX and syndication in order to take advantage of the option, NAR documents state.
NAR OPTS TO UPHOLD CLEAR COOPERATION
The new policy went into effect on Tuesday and must be implemented by MLSs by September 30, 2025.
Jason Haber
Haber — a co-founder of the American Real Estate Association, a trade organization with similar aims as NAR — called the news “progress” and said NAR’s approach is close to what his own group proposed earlier this month.
Haber believes the conversation — and work on the issue — will now likely focus on MLSs and how they plan to implement the changes. He also believes the industry needs to emphasize “consumer autonomy” and ensure homesellers have the freedom to decide how their homes are marketed. But ultimately, Haber added that Tuesday’s news suggests “NAR is moving in the right direction.”
“Incrementalism is designed to move things forward and not upset the apple cart too much,” Haber said. “Maybe this does that.”
CCP advocates seem content
Bess Freedman
NAR’s decision found a middle ground that many in the industry believe is the best option moving forward — not a complete abandonment of Clear Cooperation, but something that offered more flexibility for homesellers looking for a marketing option with more privacy, executives told Inman.
“I think it’s always good to amend things, and we should let sellers decide and have flexibility,” Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman told Inman.
“At the end of the day, most sellers — and this is the key point with Clear Cooperation — when they’re listing their homes, they want them to get maximum exposure, to get maximum price — and no company should be able to keep listings internal, and I think that’s what’s really important here,” she added. “The exemptions are good for certain things, but I think overall, the golden rule of sharing, collaboration — that covenant is crucial, and I think that’s intact and I’m happy to hear about it.”
Anthony Lamacchia
Anthony Lamacchia, CEO of Lamacchia Companies Inc., who has spoken in favor of CCP in the past, also said at first glance — without yet having had the chance to do a deep-dive on the new policy — that it seemed like NAR “did what is best” for the consumer.
“As I have said all along, I fully support keeping CCP in place, and I applaud NAR for doing that by standing up strong in the face of threats and a lot of noise being made by some for selfish reasons,” Lamacchia wrote in an email. “The exemption for delay on sharing on IDX seems to give sellers some leeway, which is good. Insisting on a disclosure being signed by the seller is smart, to be sure sellers are fully informed.”
Vanessa Bergmark
Vanessa Bergmark, CEO and owner of the Bay Area’s Red Oak Realty, supported NAR’s decision on Clear Cooperation, going so far as to argue that it took courage to resist the pressure to ditch Clear Cooperation entirely.
“They’re making some tough decisions right now and I commend them for this one,” Bergmark told Inman Tuesday, noting that the trade organization has had a rough time recently thanks to antitrust litigation.
“They needed a pat on the back right now, and I will publicly applaud them.”
Damian Eales
Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales likewise praised the association’s move for “striking a balance” that both provided sellers with a bit more flexibility while “striving to provide equal access to listings for all,” something the portal has championed.
Side CEO Guy Gal applauded the balance NAR had achieved with the decision, saying, “Side does not believe that it is in the best interest of homeowners, buyers, and communities for large corporate brokerages to instruct thousands of agents to encourage sellers to keep their properties off-market.”
Guy Gal
Fellow portal executive Errol Samuelson, the Chief Industry Development Officer at Zillow, said the move reinforced the idea that withholding listings from the MLS “limits competition, reduces transparency and disadvantages” consumers and agents.
“NAR’s decision to uphold its Clear Cooperation Policy, including requiring a seller disclosure form for office exclusives and pre-marketing, reinforces what we have long known: withholding listings off the MLS and behind a velvet rope limits competition, reduces transparency and disadvantages buyers, sellers and agents,” Samuelson said.
Errol Samuelson
Real estate franchisor Anywhere has long been in the camp of keeping the policy while amending it to “balance buyer visibility and seller choice.” In a statement sent to Inman on Tuesday, the company acknowledged that “there is significant momentum around private listings” that would likely continue.
“As the industry evolves, we are focused on equipping our agents with tools and technology to leverage our scale and remain advantaged in any market,” a spokesperson for Anywhere said.
Michael S. Liebowitz
Michael S. Liebowitz, Douglas Elliman’s new CEO, also praised NAR’s “commitment to market transparency and integrity” with the decision on CCP. “NAR has demonstrated a willingness to be flexible with its rules and empower sellers while maintaining the core principles of Clear Cooperation,” he said in an email to Inman.
EXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja called the decision to keep CCP a victory for consumers, while adding that sellers should also have the right to choose how their property is marketed.
Leo Pareja
“My biggest concern is the practice of steering sellers into believing that limited exposure is the best option, even when empirical data suggests otherwise,” Pareja said in an email. “I support maximum transparency, education and disclosure, always keeping our consumers’ best interests in mind, and fulfilling the fiduciary responsibilities we all agreed to uphold when we earned our real estate licenses.”
Critics of CCP left wanting more
Thad Wong
Thad Wong, co-CEO of @properties, said NAR was “definitely heading in the right direction,” with the updates. But he said the decision to leave it up to the individual MLSs to set rules around the new policy showed a lack of leadership by NAR.
“This was a problem that NAR created, and it should be a problem that NAR solves,” Wong said. “These local MLSs are going to have to determine what their policy is. It just seems to me to be a recipe for disaster on something that’s garnering so much attention in the legal world.”
Compass CEO Robert Reffkin, who has continued to be vocal about his criticism of the policy, said that the move by NAR was a recognition that the policy alone impeded homeseller choice.
