“Thanks, NXT:” NAR avoids obvious collaboration during its big event
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The National Association of Realtors’ clear partnership policy is the most talked about rule in the real estate industry right now, but it’s nowhere to be seen at the trade group’s biggest annual event.
At the end of a committee meeting of several listing services executives at NAR NXT in Boston Saturday, an employee read a question from the audience: “Why aren’t we talking about Clear Cooperation? Everyone is talking about clear cooperation, but we are not talking about it.”
The question revealed a glaring omission from the event’s agenda. The CCP, which requires brokers to list properties in broker-affiliated MLSs within one business day of publicly listing them, came into the spotlight following rule changes resulting from NAR’s settlement of multiple antitrust cases.
Passionate opponents and proponents of the pocket listing rule have battled its pros and cons for months. NAR’s MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board met twice before the conference to consider changes to the rule before ultimately deciding not to recommend any changes and transferring the matter to the eight-member committee. NAR Leadership Team.
Rodney Gansho
When asked why the Clear Cooperation Policy wasn’t up for discussion at NAR NXT, NAR’s director of engagement, Rodney Gansho, told Inman in an interview, “We’re not moving forward with a recommendation, so what would be the point of that?”
Gansho said NAR already had “an opportunity to get feedback” and had met with “several stakeholders.” When asked what that path was, Gansho said anyone with feedback could contact him or Jason Sanchez, NAR’s director of MLS engagement.
In response to questions from the audience about why there was no discussion of the CCP on Saturday, Gansho told attendees of NAR’s Committee on Multiple Listing Issues and Policies that NAR was “very thoughtful” in the way it approached the policy. He pointed to a letter from the Council of MLSs (CMLS) warning NAR not to rush to a decision and said the trade group was following that advice.
“If you have any feedback that you want to be part of that information, please contact Jason, contact myself,” Gansho told the crowd.
“We would like to receive that information from you. I suspect we’ll probably talk about that more in the future and debate a recommendation or something along those lines about how we should move forward.”
In an emailed statement, a NAR spokesperson told Inman: “CCP is not on the agenda for NXT because the MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board chose not to make a recommendation on CCP at its last meeting and the received provided feedback to NAR leadership. Team.
“That feedback, in addition to other input we received after the last meeting, is being evaluated as NAR considers next steps.”
When asked if this means the CCP is not on the agenda because NAR has decided it has sufficient feedback to evaluate the policy and make a decision, the spokesperson said:[W]We continue to continuously collect feedback through many channels.”
The spokesperson referred Inman to one Message in the real estate agency magazine that refers to NAR evaluating the CCP “with particular sensitivity.”
NAR’s annual and semi-annual conferences include several gatherings aimed at allowing MLS leaders and those involved in MLS policy to share ideas and communicate with each other on any policy issues. These include MLS Breakout Groups, the MLS Association Executives Session, the MLS Forum, and the Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee. At this NAR NXT, the trade group also hosted a “The Future of the MLS” panel. None of them discussed the CCP.
Dionna Hall, CEO of BeachesMLS, chair of CMLS and member of NAR’s MLS Technology & Emerging Issues Advisory Board, confirmed to Inman in an interview that the CCP was not discussed during the MLS breakout groups, which she moderated.
Diana Hall
“There were a number of pre-approved questions that we had agreed to with NAR and so we stuck with those questions instead of talking about the CCP,” Hall said.
Hall noted that NAR’s legal team had placed some restrictions on the discussions, “just to make sure we stayed within antitrust law.
“Obviously there are a lot of people in that room who may not be as knowledgeable about the things that we shouldn’t be talking about, like standing committees and things like that,” Hall said.
“So if we’re moderators there, we all really have to educate ourselves to make sure that if someone talks about that, we end that conversation quickly. I’m just trying to make sure we stay on the right track.”
Moderators tried to steer people away from antitrust violations, Hall clarified.
“What I’m talking about is violating antitrust law by having certain discussions in a room full of people,” she said.
Hall said she was unsure why the CCP was not specifically addressed at the conference. But as a member of the advisory board, she said she thought there had been a lot of discussion about the policy and that, as CEO of MLS, she had reached out to brokers in her market to ask how they wanted the policy to change. if it became more flexible.
When asked if the NAR Leadership Team has provided any updates on its policy deliberations, Hall said no.
“I think we’re at an impasse right now while they probably sort out some surrounding issues,” she said.
Controversy surrounding MLS policy is nothing new to NAR. When the 1.5 million-member trade group considers changes to an MLS policy, there will typically be a formal discussion at its conferences, regardless of whether that policy will be voted on at that conference.
It has previously been the trade group’s modus operandi to extensively promote potential policy changes to the brokers and MLS executives most involved in the national association’s governance, sometimes over the course of multiple conferences. When the CCP was discussed at NAR’s annual conference in 2019, discussions arose about the policy-filled meeting rooms.
Throughout 2023, NAR’s Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee proposed no MLS policy changes for a vote by NAR’s Board of Directors for the first time in recent history. This was possibly due to the fact that antitrust litigation reached a boiling point with the litigation in a case known as Sitzer | Burnett, in which a jury ultimately found that NAR colluded with major real estate franchisors to increase agent commissions.
During Saturday’s MLIP committee meeting, Inman asked committee chairman Johnny Mowad why there was no discussion about the CCP. He said, “They were not matters at hand,” left the interview and called Charlie Lee, a NAR senior adviser and director of legal affairs. Lee asked questions about the CCP to NAR spokesperson Mantill Williams.
When asked whether the decision not to have CCP discussed at NAR NXT this year was made on the advice of legal counsel or out of fear of legal repercussions from any discussions at the event, NAR spokesperson Inman provided the same statement as the trade group . in the past regarding questions about CCP.
“NAR will continue to evaluate the CCP in the broader context of the issues facing NAR and the industry,” the statement said.
“As a national organization representing members from across the country, NAR continues to receive a range of passionate opinions about the CCP. We believe that changes in policies and practices as important as the CCP should carefully consider feedback from a wide range of members, stakeholders and industry experts.
“Specifically with regard to the CCP, the organization must also take into account ongoing litigation and the DOJ [Department of Justice] to research. As such, NAR will work carefully and diligently to ensure that we continue to review the CCP to ensure a decision is made in a manner that is in the best interests of members and consumers.”
When asked how NAR collects feedback on the policy, who specifically NAR collects feedback from, what the NAR Leadership Team did to evaluate the policy and when a decision was expected to be made, NAR did not respond.
NAR Senior Counsel and Director of Legal Affairs Matt Troiani told conference attendees at the NAR NXT Risk Management Issues Committee meeting that the trade group had “expanded its panel of existing outside experts and recently hired a firm to help lead” of a comprehensive risk assessment of NAR’s current policy. NAR CEO Nykia Wright announced the assessment to the NAR board in early October.
When asked if NAR’s decision not to put CCP on NXT’s agenda was related, NAR’s spokesperson said, “No, it is not related.” When asked which outside experts are on the panel and which company NAR hired and for how long, NAR declined to comment.
Email Andrea V. Brambila.
