All eyes are focused on clear collaboration: the download
It seems like everyone is talking about clear collaboration these days. Is the policy a power grab by NAR and the MLSs or a genuine attempt to level the playing field for buyers?
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Each week, Inman’s Christy Murdock on The Download delves deeper into the week’s best-read stories to give you what you need to meet Monday head-on. This week: It seems like everyone is talking about clear collaboration these days. Is the policy a power grab by NAR and the MLSs or a genuine attempt to level the playing field for buyers?
Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water, real estate has a new controversy in store. This time, everyone is concerned about the clear cooperation policy of the National Association of Realtors and faces opposing sides to argue its merits and demerits.
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Adopted in 2019, Clear Cooperation was presented as an effort to improve transparency and ensure brokers don’t hoard their listings at the expense of consumer choice – with consumers, in this case it means buyers. In the years since, the policy has repeatedly come under fire for being too restrictive and limiting sellers’ options in determining how and when their homes would hit the open market.
As NAR comes under increasing scrutiny and brokers and MLSs look for new ways to define their value and effectiveness, Clear Cooperation could be headed for the chopping block if some industry leaders have their way.
This week, founder and CEO of Compass Robert Reffkin weighed in with its assessment of Clear Cooperation, arguing that its intended benefits “pale in comparison to the limitations it places on homeowners’ consumer choice and an agent’s obligation to enforce NAR’s Code of Ethics and state law.”
“By blindly complying with the Clear Cooperation Policy, brokers risk perpetuating policies that do more harm than good. Therefore, it is an ethical imperative to challenge such policies in pursuit of a practice that truly aligns with our professional obligation to serve our clients. ,” writes Reffkin.
Whatever your views on Clear Cooperation, it’s essential to understand both sides of the biggest real estate debates so you can adapt to changes if and when they occur.
Pulse: Why do you want (or don’t want) the Clear Cooperation to be revoked?
From legal challenges to media calls, it seems everyone is talking about Clear Cooperation and whether it’s time to put the controversial policy on ice. Think along with this week’s Pulse questionnaire.
EXTRA: Anywhere joins NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy reform
In the meantime, maintaining an arsenal of strategies and best practices for working with sellers and buyers ensures that no matter what new practices and regulations emerge, you’ll always have plenty of ways to serve your customers.
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