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While some in the real estate brokerage industry advocate for MLS rules that facilitate hiding listings from consumers, Northwest MLS strongly believes that consumers should have access to all property listings and that sellers are entitled to the benefit of exposure of their property to the full marketplace.
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Unfortunately, over the past several years, the real estate industry has succumbed to the loudest voices, false narratives, intimidation and the threat of litigation — rather than facts, reason and responsibility.
Do the right thing
Northwest MLS, an independent organization in Washington State owned and governed by its member real estate firms and not affiliated with the National Association of Realtors (NAR), has taken a different approach. Northwest MLS is guided by a singular objective — to “do the right thing.”
When sellers criticized the industry’s policies related to broker compensation — instead of defending the indefensible, Northwest MLS changed its policies, and thus brokerage practices, to make them more consumer friendly — providing transparency, meaningful choice and clear opportunities to negotiate broker compensation.
For more than 40 years, Northwest MLS members have agreed to cooperate and share all listings of all properties with the entire brokerage community and the public. This open, fair, transparent and comprehensive marketplace benefits sellers, buyers, brokers and appraisers. The system also promotes competition among brokers and greatly supports and enhances fair housing principles.
Private, exclusionary listings only benefit the listing firm
On the heels of the recent seller class action litigation, some brokerage firms have gone to great lengths to exclude buyers and other brokers from access to listed properties and also lobbied the industry to accommodate those exclusionary practices. 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.
Proponents of hiding listings from consumers masquerade their self-dealing as offering “seller choice.” They argue that sellers somehow benefit from not making their listing available to all potential buyers. They don’t.
Northwest MLS agrees that sellers and their brokers should have choices. Indeed, Northwest MLS has long provided sellers and brokers with a myriad of choices to customize how the seller’s property is marketed and a variety of options to address sellers’ specific privacy and security concerns, without keeping listings hidden and excluding buyers and other brokers.
NAR is misguided
Northwest MLS’s open and transparent marketplace is at odds with a longstanding NAR policy that facilitates brokerage firms excluding consumers and other brokers from an equal opportunity to negotiate for the purchase of select properties. Last week, NAR announced a policy change that gives brokerage firms additional opportunities to restrict access to listings and forces buyers to hire a broker to learn about homes that are for sale.
These exclusionary policies set the industry back decades, limiting access to available homes to an exclusive group of buyers and brokers, and once again enabling certain brokers to become the gatekeepers of information. This is clearly not “doing the right thing.”
A marketplace for all promotes competition and innovation
When creating policy — particularly as it relates to housing — the interests of all participants in the marketplace must be taken into consideration, including sellers and buyers, and their brokers. Almost all sellers are also buyers, and as buyers, they most certainly want and need access to all properties that are available for sale.
The same is true for listing brokers who are also buyer brokers. The interests of all require that complete and accurate listing and property information be available to all. Comprehensive and accurate listing and sales data is necessary for all market participants to make informed, fact-based decisions about listing, buying and selling property.
An open, fair, transparent, and comprehensive MLS marketplace gives buyers the choice to work with the firm and broker of their choice, rather than being unfairly compelled to work with a listing firm that represents the seller and has excluded others from the opportunity to negotiate for the purchase of the property.
This system promotes competition among brokers, who compete on price and service, rather than “insider” information about available properties. An open and transparent marketplace encourages genuine innovation and improved services, and not restrictions on access masquerading as “choice.”
Private, exclusionary listings discriminate
Restricting the visibility of available homes to a select, exclusive group of buyers and brokers is fundamentally unfair and perpetuates inequities that have long plagued the housing system. Policies that further enable the proliferation of exclusionary practices, such as restricting access to listings, will lead to the dismantling of the real estate marketplace for the exclusive benefit of those brokerage firms that choose to exploit them.
The discriminatory effect and disparate impact that results from restricting access to listings to an exclusive group of buyers and brokers is just that — discrimination.
Again, do the right thing
Doing the right thing is not always easy. Succumbing to political pressure, threats and the safety of doing what others do is much easier. This is especially true in the face of persistent public pressure created with half-truths, misguided national policies and threats of litigation.
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. There is no place for exclusionary practices in our marketplace.
Justin Haag is the president and CEO of Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) — a broker-owned, not-for-profit organization with more than 2,500 member offices and 30,000+ real estate brokers in Washington state and Oregon. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Instagram.
