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During a heated debate Thursday, the opposing sides of the Clear Cooperation Policy were thrown into sharp relief.
On one hand, The Agency CEO Mauricio Umansky argued that real estate professionals will share their listings far and wide if given the chance.
“I can tell you 95 percent of the people in this room right now want to share their listings with everybody,” Umansky said. “They want to do the best job they can for their seller.”
On the other hand, NextHome CEO James Dwiggins argued that, if given the chance, companies will keep their listings private.
“You’re going to see brokerages who are going to twist the conversation into this idea that it is better to try everything off the MLS first,” Dwiggins said, adding a moment later that “every company will follow the same path.”
The two leaders met onstage at Inman Connect New York Thursday to debate one of real estate’s most polarizing issues. The National Association of Realtors rule, also known as CCP, requires Realtors to put their listings into an NAR-affiliated multiple listings service within a day once they begin marketing. In the past six months, it has become one of the industry’s most controversial topics.
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Umansky and Dwiggins have been among the most outspoken voices on the topic — with Umansky pushing to end the rule and Dwiggins supporting it. They met onstage for a session that was, atypically for a real estate conference, explicitly touted as a debate between opposing experts.
After remarks from moderator and Inman founder Brad Inman, Dwiggins kicked things off, arguing that Clear Cooperation is the foundation for the unique real estate market that exists in the U.S.
“We have spent the past 30 years building the greatest marketplace in the world, where you can go to an MLS and a website and find pretty much every home that is for sale,” Dwiggins said, contrasting that reality to both the U.S. of the past and foreign countries. In both cases, listings are scattered across disparate brokerage websites.
Dwiggins argued that homes sell for more when they’re marketed on the MLS, that steering occurs more easily in an off-market environment, and that consumers themselves want their listings public once they understand how the system works.
“Put the damn customer first,” Dwiggins said near the end of the debate.
But Umansky was not convinced. He said Clear Cooperation was actually “created to stop competition” and that it forces agents to work with existing MLSs. He also said that while homes generally might sell for more on the MLS, the data doesn’t take into account the skills of some individual agents who are talented enough to do better via atypical marketing strategies — for example by not listing on the MLS.
“I can tell you right now without a question that not every single house will sell for more money on the MLS,” Umansky said, adding later, “I’m talking about allowing the free market to create things.”
From left to right, moderator Brad Inman, Mauricio Umansky and James Dwiggins at Inman Connect New York Thursday. Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services
The conversation at times became intense. At one point, Brad Inman attempted to take questions from the audience — in an effort to “let some of the gas leak here,” he said — but Umansky jumped in with a comment before any questions came in. Both debaters then ran with the conversation.
At issue seemed to be a basic divergence over the nature of real estate agents. In Umansky’s view, agents have “integrity and good ethics” and are “not out just to give our own profits.” His point was that if Clear Cooperation were to disappear, that would lead to more innovation, creativity and free market behavior. Rather th… Read More
