The National Association of Realtors announced it will maintain its Clear Cooperation Policy, with an important distinction.
NAR has for months been deliberating the fate of CCP, a rule instituted in 2020 that requires agents to list homes on multiple listing services (MLSs), amid a whirlwind of commentary from industry leaders and the Department of Justice. The trade group announced it will not change the policy, but introduced an exemption allowing sellers to withhold listings from syndication for a set period of time.
The policy, called the Multiple Listing Options for Sellers, will allow individual MLSs to determine a delayed marketing period most suitable for their local marketplace.
During the delayed marketing period, the agents and sellers will be able to market the listing as if it were public, and other MLS participants will have access to the listing on the MLS.
“These policy changes allow for greater choice for sellers in marketing their properties while considering buyers’ need to access information through MLSs,” NAR president Kevin Sears said in a statement.
The policy is effective March 25 and must be implemented by the end of September, according to the release. It does not change the CCP requirement that agents file a listing with the MLS within one business day of public marketing.
The decision comes just days after a footnote from the Department of Justice appeared to remove some of the regulatory pressure that NAR may have been feeling on CCP. The note read that the DOJ had not taken a position that policies like CCP, standing alone, were anticompetitive.
It remains to be seen if the announcement will settle the ongoing debate that has pitted Robert Reffkin, chief executive of residential giant Compass, against aggregators like Zillow and industry leaders like Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman and Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman.