After months of internal debate, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) opted to retain its Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires homes to be listed on an MLS within a day of being put on the market, but added a new listing option that allows sellers to delay broader marketing of their properties.
This new option, called “delayed marketing exempt listings,” allows sellers to instruct their listing agents to postpone marketing of their properties for a period of time to be determined by individual MLSs. During this period, the seller and their agent can market the listing as they see fit.
The new policy does not change Clear Cooperation’s requirement for Realtors to list the properties on MLSs within one business day of signing a listing agreement or an MLS’s local mandatory submission deadlines.
Under the policy, “Multiple Listing Options for Sellers,” listing agents must secure signed disclosures documenting the seller’s informed consent “to waive the benefits of immediate public marketing” of the property online, NAR said.
“NAR undertook a comprehensive review of [Clear Cooperation] as part of our efforts to ensure home sellers and home buyers have the information and flexibility they need to make decisions that work for them,” NAR President Kevin Sears said in a release. “These policy changes allow for greater choice for sellers in marketing their properties while considering buyers’ need to access information through MLSs.”
Clear Cooperation is intended to promote transparency, limit pocket listings and provide a level playing field for all Realtors and their clients, proponents say. Critics, however, have argued that it can drive down the value of a property by showing how long it has been on the market and its history of price cuts.
“In my opinion, the easiest way to create more inventory in this country is to take away the risk of listing your house — days on the market and price-drop history,” Compass Founder and CEO Robert Reffkin told Agent Publishing during NAR’s review period. “Forty percent of homes on the market have a price drop right now, which makes them look like damaged goods in the eyes of a buyer.”
The policy is effective today, March 25, and must be implemented by Sept. 30, NAR said.