Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
As soon as Wednesday, June 4, the National Association of Realtors may vote to rescind its controversial “no-commingling” policy, which currently allows multiple listing services to prohibit brokers from displaying listings from MLSs together with those from non-MLS sources.
NAR’s Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee voted on Tuesday to rescind the policy, formally known as “the no-commingling rule,” at the trade organization’s annual midyear conference, the Realtors Legislative Meetings, in Washington, D.C.
The rule is currently under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and was the subject of an antitrust lawsuit brought against NAR and Zillow by now-defunct real estate brokerage REX. NAR and Zillow prevailed in that case, in part because the rule is optional, not mandatory. According to legal filings in that case, 29 percent of Realtor-affiliated MLSs have chosen not to adopt the rule.
NAR’s MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board, which is part of the committee, put forward the recommendation to revoke the policy to the full committee Tuesday afternoon.
“Rescission of these optional model MLS rules and the corresponding policy language is in response to requests for its removal due to its outdated application under current marketing strategies and diminished benefits,” the advisory board’s rationale for the change reads.
The committee voted to eliminate the policy without any discussion, and it was the only proposal the committee voted on, committee members and attendees told Inman after the meeting. Panelists also reportedly did not take questions, and audience mics were turned off.
The MLIP Committee meeting was closed to the press this year for the first time in at least 13 years, if not for the first time ever.
“The meeting was an internal NAR member event, and it was decided that it should be closed,” NAR spokesperson Tori Syrek told Inman in a statement.
Inman has asked NAR whether the meeting was therefore live-streamed so that non-attendee NAR members would have access to the event. Inman also asked why the meeting was not therefore labeled “NAR members only” and therefore left open to non-member attendees, such as vendors. Inman will update this story if and when responses are received.
NAR’s Executive Committee will vote on the rescission tomorrow, and it will become final if approved. Due to NAR’s governance changes, if the Executive Committee approves the change, it does not need to go to the NAR board of directors.
Matt Consalvo, CEO of Arizona Regional MLS and a member of the committee, told Inman he doesn’t like NAR’s optional rules and believes removing the no-commingling rule provides brokers with greater clarity. ARMLS never adopted the rule.
“When brokers operate in multiple MLSs and there are the optional rules, it confuses them because one MLS may adopt something and another MLS may not,” Consalvo said.
Asked what happened in the rest of the meeting, Consalvo said NAR Senior Counsel Charlie Lee had given “a great presentation,” making sure everyone had a common understanding of Internet Data Exchange (IDX) and Virtual Office Website (VOW) policies.
There was also a discussion about the new Multiple Listing Options for Sellers (MLOS) policy, though the attendees Inman spoke to said they did not hear anything new.
“Nothing in it was enlightening for myself,” Consalvo said.
According to Consalvo, ARMLS’s Coming Soon status “checks all the boxes” of the new policy. ARMLS added it in 2020 in response to the passage of NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires listing brokers to submit listings to Realtor-affiliated MLSs within one business day of publicly marketing them.
“We saw what needed to happen for choices for brokers to be able to comply … and we put a very robust Coming Soon in that is exactly the intent of what that policy is,” Consalvo said.
“So we have no change needed.”
Listings can stay in that status for 30 days, it allows for showings and offers, and listings aren’t distributed across the internet until they’re ready to be active, “but all the agents know about it and the agents can grab the listing and share with their clients freely,” he added.
Here is the policy language set to be eliminated:
Section 18.3.11
Listings obtained through IDX feeds from REALTOR® Association MLSs where the MLS participant holds participatory rights must be displayed separately from listings obtained from other sources. Listings obtained from other sources (e.g., from other MLSs, from non-participating brokers, etc.) must display the source from which each such listing was obtained.* (Amended 05/17) O
Note: An MLS participant (or where permitted locally, an MLS subscriber) may co-mingle the listings of other brokers received in an IDX feed with listings available from other MLS IDX feeds, provided all such displays are consistent with the IDX rules, and the MLS participant (or MLS subscriber) holds participatory rights in those MLSs. As used in this policy, “co-mingling” means that consumers are able to execute a single property search of multiple IDX data feeds resulting in the display of IDX information from each of the MLSs on a single search results page; and that participants may display listings from each IDX feed on a single webpage or display. (Adopted 11/14)
Section 19.23
A Participant shall cause any listing displayed on his or her VOW obtained from other sources, including form another MLS or from a broker not participating in the MLS, to be searched separately from listing in the MLS.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a comment from NAR, as well as additional questions from Inman that NAR has not yet responded to.
