NAR Amends Clear Cooperation Policy After Months of Speculation

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has amended the terms of its Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) after months of speculation that included a real possibility of it being rolled back entirely.

On Tuesday this week, NAR President Kevin Sears announced that the association’s Clear Cooperation Policy will remain in place.

However, the NAR Leadership Team has introduced a new MLS policy statement that will work alongside CCP to give brokers the flexibility to meet the needs of selling clients while also supporting fair housing by providing buyers and their agents with equal access to MLS property information.

CCP has historically required that listings be submitted to a multiple listing service (MLS) within 24 hours of public marketing. The controversial rule has come under increased scrutiny in recent months, particularly after lawsuits and settlements involving U.S. brokerages eroded confidence in the trade body’s leadership.

Under the new terms, NAR announced it would maintain the CCP, but added a new category—“delayed marketing exempt listings”—allowing sellers to withhold listings from public platforms like Zillow temporarily, while still entering them into the MLS. The timing of that delay will be left up to regional MLSs.

The new 'Multiple Listing Options for Sellers' policy states that sellers should have a choice to what extent they allow a broker or listing agent to market a property without uploading it to the MLS, while the NAR will no longer be able to dictate the length of a delayed marketing window. Listing agents will also need to secure a signed disclosure form a seller stating they are waiving the benefits of immediate public marketing.

In short, sellers have more power than ever to limit the visibility of their property, thereby selling it how they see fit. NAR has not defined the maximum period a property can be 'premarketed', however.

The new policy comes into effect immediately, but MLSs have until September to implement their interpretations.

Source: NAR

As expected, the industry has shared a wide range of opinions on the ruling.

For Zillow, the announcement will ease concerns that policy shifts could curb its data access or undermine its listing coverage; a full rollback of CCP would have presented a potentially existential threat to the business.

Errol Samuelson, Zillow's chief industry development officer, said:

"[The revised policy] 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."

Compass CEO Robert Reffkin said:

"With NAR introducing a new MLS policy to 'expand choice for consumers,' they acknowledged the clear cooperation policy restricted home seller choice. Expanding choice means that NAR is still not letting homeowners choose precisely how to market their homes, but this is a small step in the right direction."

Brian Boero, CEO at 1000Watt, told Business Insider:

"Compass didn't get what they wanted. They want to make Compass.com a destination where they control the inventory publicly, and they want to have free rein to continue to expand their private listings program."

Meanwhile, Redfin has already branded the new look rules "a mess", with CEO Glenn Kelman calling the new ruling "pocket listings" (when a seller signs a listing agreement with a broker on condition that it isn't published to the MLS).

In a blog posted on Redfin's site, Kelman said:

"The new policy is being framed as 'delayed marketing' but it is pocket listings by another name: the duration of the delay hasn’t been specified, and many listings will accept an offer without ever being publicly marketed. In at least some of those cases, the seller could’ve gotten a higher price via broader exposure, and many homebuyers will wonder why they never saw the home for sale.

"What’s good about the delayed-marketing policy is that any homebuyer, regardless of the broker she hires, will be able to find out about these homes through her broker. This is better than the longstanding policy of office exclusives, which some brokers will still use to market their listings exclusively to the buyers working with that broker. We expect many brokers will prefer delayed-marketing listings.

"[However], homebuyers may still have to hire a broker to be able to see all the homes for sale. For our entire history, Redfin has upheld one bedrock principle: you shouldn’t have to engage a broker to see all the homes for sale, or even to buy one. The only reason people should hire us is because they value our service.

"Redfin would prefer that all consumers know the listing exists, even if that means that we don’t show how long the listing has been for sale. On our own, we could give sellers the ability to control how our site markets their listing, but that wouldn’t solve the problem on Zillow.com or Realtor.com."