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The National Association of Realtors’ Clear Cooperation Policy is the most hotly debated rule in the real estate industry right now, but it is nowhere to be seen at the trade group’s largest annual event.
At the end of a committee meeting of multiple listing service executives at NAR NXT in Boston Saturday, a staffer read out a question from the audience: “Why aren’t we talking about Clear Cooperation? Everybody’s talking about Clear Cooperation, but we’re not talking about it.”
The query highlighted a conspicuous omission from the event’s agenda. The CCP, which requires listing brokers to list properties in Realtor-affiliated MLSs within one business day of publicly marketing them, burst into the limelight following rule changes due to NAR’s settlement of multiple antitrust lawsuits.
Passionate detractors and backers of the pocket listing rule have been duking out its pros and cons for months. NAR’s MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board met twice before the conference to consider changes to the rule before ultimately deciding not to recommend any changes and handing the issue over to the eight-member NAR Leadership Team.
Rodney Gansho
Asked why the Clear Cooperation Policy was not up for discussion at NAR NXT, NAR’s director of engagement, Rodney Gansho, told Inman in an interview, “We’re not moving forward with a recommendation, so what would be the point of that?”
Gansho said NAR already had “an avenue to gain feedback” and had been meeting with “various stakeholders.” Asked what that avenue was, Gansho said anyone with feedback could reach out to him or Jason Sanchez, NAR’s director of MLS engagement.
In response to the audience question about why the CCP was not being discussed on Saturday, Gansho told attendees of NAR’s Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee that NAR was being “very thoughtful” in how it was approaching the policy. He pointed to a letter from the Council of MLSs (CMLS) warning NAR against rushing into a decision and said the trade group was following that advice.
“If you have feedback that you want to be part of that information, please reach out to Jason, reach out to myself,” Gansho told the crowd.
“We’d love to get that information from you. I suspect that sometime in the future, we’re likely to be talking more about that and debating a recommendation or something along those lines as to how we move forward.”
In an emailed statement, a NAR spokesperson told Inman,”CCP is not on the agenda for NXT because the MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board opted not to make a recommendation about CCP at its last meeting and turned feedback it received to the NAR Leadership Team.
“That feedback, in addition to other input we have received following the last meeting, is in evaluation as NAR considers next steps.”
Asked whether that meant the CCP is not on the agenda because NAR has decided it has enough feedback to evaluate the policy and make a decision, the spokesperson said, “[W]e continue to gather feedback through many channels on a rolling basis.”
The spokesperson directed Inman to a Realtor Magazine post that refers to NAR evaluating the CCP “with particular sensitivity.”
NAR’s annual and midyear conferences feature several meetings whose purpose is to have MLS leaders and those involved with MLS policy share ideas and communicate with each other about any policy concerns. These include MLS breakout groups, the MLS Association Executives Session, the MLS Forum and the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee. At this NAR NXT, the trade group also hosted a “The Future of the MLS” panel. The CCP was not discussed at any of them.
Dionna Hall, CEO of BeachesMLS, chair of CMLS, and a member of NAR’s MLS Technology & Emerging Issues Advisory Board, confirmed to Inman in an interview that the CCP was not discussed during the MLS breakout groups, which she moderated.
Dionna Hall
“There was some pre-approved questions ahead of time that we agreed to with NAR and so we stuck to those questions instead of discussing CCP,” Hall said.
Hall noted that NAR’s legal team had put some limitations on the discussions “just making sure that we were staying within antitrust compliance.
“Obviously there’s a lot of people in that room that maybe are not up to speed as much about the things that we shouldn’t be talking about like set commissions and what have you,” Hall said.
“So we just all have to really educate ourselves when we’re moderators in there to make sure that if anybody does talk about that that we shut down that conversation quickly. Just trying to make sure we’re operating on the up-and-up.”
Moderators were trying to keep people away from antitrust violations, Hall clarified.
“What I’m talking about is violating antitrust law by having certain discussions in a room full of people,” she said.
Hall said she wasn’t sure why CCP specifically was not being addressed at the conference.
As a member of the advisory board, she stated that there had been extensive discussions about the policy and, as an MLS CEO, she had reached out to brokers in her market to gather input on potential changes to make the policy more flexible. She mentioned that there had not been any updates provided by the NAR Leadership Team regarding the policy deliberations, and she believed they were currently at an impasse while working through surrounding issues. The controversy surrounding MLS policies is not new for NAR, and typically changes to policies are discussed formally at conferences, even if no vote is scheduled. However, in 2023, the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee did not propose any MLS policy changes for a vote by NAR’s board of directors, possibly due to ongoing antitrust litigation. When asked about the lack of discussion on the CCP at a recent committee meeting, the chair stated it was not the current focus and referred questions to NAR spokesperson Mantill Williams. NAR’s stance on CCP remains that they will evaluate it in the broader context of industry issues, considering feedback from members, stakeholders, and legal implications. NAR is currently undergoing a comprehensive risk assessment of its policies with the help of outside experts, though specifics on the panel and firm involved were not disclosed. Email Andrea V. for further information.
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