Move CEO Damian Eales Comes Out In Support Of Clear Cooperation Policy

The official listing site of the National Association of Realtors has weighed in on the private listings debate.

Move CEO Damian Eales, who oversees listing website Realtor.com, came out in favor of NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires listings to be uploaded to the multiple listing service within one day of being publicly marketed.

NAR and Realtor.com are more intertwined than most other industry players. Realtor.com was originally the only listing site with the ability to publish listings on the MLS, and prior to News Corp.’s deal for Move, NAR held a seat on Move’s board of directors. Realtor.com also pays NAR an annual royalty fee for the use of the Realtor.com trademark.

Eales pointed to the turning tide in the housing market, which has seen inventory surpass pre-pandemic levels, as a critical moment for sellers to get their listings in front of as many eyes as possible. He also criticized arguments for a repeal of CCP would be good for “seller choice,” a concept that Compass CEO Robert Reffkin has invoked in his argument for the relaxation of NAR’s listing requirements.

Not publishing listings to the MLS “incontrovertibly leads to less competition in the form of fewer buyers, fewer offers and potentially a lower sale price,” he said. “It is utter nonsense, and never-more-so in an emerging buyers’ market.”

Eales also pointed out that Realtor.com has not taken the aggressive stance of Zillow and Redfin’s, whose updated listing policies mirror CCP by requiring sellers to upload listings onto the MLS within one day of public marketing.

“Our obligations under our MLS agreements require us to show all listings,” he said. He added that Realtor.com would “be open” to working with MLSes to better enforce CCP.

Eales’ entrance to the conversation adds another detractor from Compass’ increasingly lonely push for listing flexibility. After NAR announced a CCP update on March 25 that affirmed the use of office exclusives and allowed sellers to delay the public marketing of a listing through syndication or IDX, it appeared that the tide was turning in the direction of the unfettered use of private listings.

But Zillow’s announced clampdown on private listings on April 10, in which the platform will ban listings from its platform that are publicly marketed without being uploaded to the MLS within 24 hours, disrupted that momentum. The announcement came in tandem with eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja committing to publish all the company’s listings to the MLS.

As part of its listing policy, Zillow began notifying agents of noncompliant listings at the end of May and will start banning those listings from its platform on June 30.

Unsurprisingly, Eales finds himself on the other side of the aisle from CoStar Group CEO Andy Florance, who chastised Zillow for its listing policy.

“Whether or not you support the Clear Cooperation Policy, it is never acceptable for a real estate portal to threaten agents this way,” he wrote in an April LinkedIn post. “Real estate portals must remain neutral.”
Florance and Eales’ beef goes back before private listings became the trending conversation topic. The two firms have been bickering about whose traffic numbers are better, and in April, Move dismissed a trade secrets lawsuit it had filed against CoStar last year, which Florance called a “PR stunt.”