To provide greater transparency about compensation for buyer’s agents, the National Association of Realtors® made key changes to MLS policy.
If you’re a buyer’s agent, you better not claim that your services are free. The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) recently implemented policy changes, including prohibiting MLS participants and subscribers from representing that their brokerage services to a buyer client or customer are free.
Looking to provide greater transparency and disclosure of compensation offered to buyer’s agents, the NAR Board of Directors approved changes to the MLS, which go into effect this month.
These policies include:
- Display of listing broker offer of compensation.
- Prohibit MLS participants and subscribers from representing that their brokerage services to a buyer client or customer are free.
- Prohibit MLS participants and subscribers from filtering out or restricting listings, in listing information that’s searchable and displayed to consumers, based on the level of compensation offered to the cooperating broker or the name of a brokerage or agent. It also prohibits MLSs from enabling the ability to filter out listings based on compensation or name of brokerage or agent.
U.S. Department of Justice scrutiny
Most of these changes came about to counter scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which has had the Realtor® association in its sight since November 2020, when the government agency filed an antitrust lawsuit against the National Association REALTORS® alleging that NAR established and enforced illegal restraints on the ways that Realtors compete.
See the complete list of MLS Changes>