Amid an ongoing brouhaha with Compass, Northwest MLS fired back on Friday, slamming off-MLS listings as “exclusionary” and calling brokerages that favor private listings “self-dealing.”
The Washington-based multiple listing service weighed in via a statement posted to its website. The statement initially notes that “some brokerage firms have advocated for MLS rules that facilitate hiding property listings from consumers and lobbied the real estate industry to accommodate those exclusionary practices.” The statement goes on to condemn such practices.
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“Those efforts are not for the benefit of sellers or buyers, but are instead designed to benefit those brokerage firms by entrenching them as the gatekeepers of property listings,” the statement continues. “Northwest MLS has declined to adopt those misguided, exclusionary rules.”
The statement goes on to argue that everyone benefits from an “open, fair, transparent, and comprehensive marketplace” and that restricting visibility of some listings is “fundamentally unfair and perpetuates inequities that have long plagued the housing system.”
“Proponents of hiding listings masquerade their self-dealing as offering ‘seller choice,'” the statement adds. “They argue that sellers somehow benefit from not making their listing available to all potential buyers. They don’t.”
The statement does not mention any brokerages by name. However, it came less than a week after Compass CEO Robert Reffkin called out NWMLS by name in a series of Instagram posts. Reffkin framed NWMLS as uniquely restrictive with regard to listings, saying the multiple listing service’s rules have prevented the use of offerings such as Compass Private Exclusives — which makes listings exclusively available via Compass’ platform.
He additionally argued in this Instagram posts that NWMLS’ “rules are not laws. Their rules are just policies created by a self-interested brokerage-owned trade group.”
Reffkin also used the Instagram posts to congratulate Compass agents who were beginning to use the Private Exclusives option in Washington. However, it was not immediately clear what the debut of Private Exclusives in Washington meant for Compass’ relationship to NWMLS or its rules. Inman has requested comment on the matter from both Compass and NWMLS, but neither has provided any.
Either way, the dust up began against the backdrop of an intense industry-wide debate over Clear Cooperation, a National Association of Realtors’ rule requiring agents to put their listings into their MLS within a day of marketing them. Reffkin was among the most outspoken critics of the rule.
NWMLS is broker-owned and not affiliated with NAR, but it has its own rule that similarly compels agents to share their listings. For that reason, Reffkin’s criticisms of NWMLS’ policies echoed his criticisms of Clear Cooperation. For example, Reffkin’s Instagram posts mentioning NWMLS also criticizes “publicly-displayed days on market and price drops” — something he has referred to as “negative insights” and which are key parts of his argument against Clear Cooperation as well.
However, in the case of NWMLS, Reffkin also called the organization a “monopoly” and said “there are ~600 MLSs in the United States, and Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) is the ONLY MLS in the country that” prevented sellers from using Compass Private Exclusives.
For NAR’s part, it announced last week that it will keep Clear Cooperation in place while also creating a new category of listings called “delayed marketing exempt listings.”
In addition to NWMLS, Reffkin also criticized Windermere in various Instagram posts. Windermere is based in Washington and holds six of NWMLS’ 16 board seats. Company President OB Jacobi responded to the criticism via Instagram, slamming what he characterized as “hoarding inventory.”
In NWMLS’ case, the organization ultimately indicated that despite criticism it plans to stand its ground.
“Northwest MLS is committed to doing the right thing and continuing to promote and support the open, fair, transparent, and comprehensive marketplace that its members have advanced over the past four decades.” the statement concludes. “There is no place for exclusionary practices in our marketplace.”
