Dear {"ANONYMIZED":"2022-02-06"},
NAR’s MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board recently proposed a new MLS policy, known as the “Clear Cooperation Policy.” While we believe that the proposed policy aims to honor the value of cooperation between brokerages within the MLS, more work needs to be done on crafting the policy, which currently reads as follows:
Within 24 hours of marketing a property to the public, the listing broker must submit the listing to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants. Public marketing includes, but is not limited to, flyers displayed in windows, yard signs, digital marketing on public facing websites, brokerage website displays (including IDX and VOW), digital communications marketing (email blasts), multi-brokerage listing sharing networks, and applications available to the general public.
ACTRIS MLS seeks to maintain an orderly and comprehensive marketplace that benefits consumers in enabling the broadest exposure for all Central Texas listings, while allowing consumers to make their own decisions about how their property should be marketed and sold. Cooperation is foundational to the MLS and threats to MLS cooperation are many, but a policy that hinders a seller’s marketing choices is not pro-consumer.
The policy is also inconsistent with the NAR Code of Ethics we adhere to as REALTORS®, which states: "REALTORS® shall cooperate with other brokers except when cooperation is not in the client's best interest” (Article 3). Forced cooperation through a public marketing policy does not allow you the flexibility to assess what’s in your clients’ best interests.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to the rise in limited exposure listing activity. We believe NAR should refine this policy and ensure that sellers have a clear waiver process and that individual MLSs have a local choice to adopt the proposed policy. Texas is a non-disclosure state with heightened consumer sensitivity which necessitates a broader policy.
It is critical that NAR hear from you now on how the proposed policy will impact you and your business, before NAR’s Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee addresses this policy on Saturday, November 9. You can provide feedback online, as well as read the full proposed policy, here.
You can also send feedback or questions to the ABoR and ACTRIS Boards of Directors at board@abor.com.
Thank you,
The Austin Board of REALTORS® & ACTRIS MLS
