NAR opts to keep Clear Cooperation but adds a new option

After months of debate, NAR announced Tuesday it will keep its policy requiring properties to be listed on an MLS within one day of marketing while adding new “delayed marketing exempt listings.”

Real estate executives offered cautious optimism following the National Association of Realtors’ decision on Tuesday to uphold Clear Cooperation — but several voiced uncertainty over new rules that will authorize hundreds of individual MLSs to set policy, including how long listings stay off market.

Reaction to the 1.5 million-member trade organization’s decision to save the divisive policy and add an MLS option for homesellers came swiftly from brokerage CEOs, agents and search portals, many of whom lauded the news despite concerns it may not go far enough to ensure consumer choice.

“I think the needle was moved in the right direction,” said Jason Haber, a New York-based broker with Compass who has been critical of the policy as a co-founder of the American Real Estate Association. “Now, was it the far-reaching change that a lot of us had hoped for? No, but let’s acknowledge that there is this new designation, there’s this new category.”

While keeping in place the policy that states agents must list properties on the MLS within 24 hours of publicly marketing them (with an exception for office exclusives), NAR also rolled out the “Multiple Listing Options for Sellers” policy.

The new rule allows listing agents to delay putting a listing on the Internet Data Exchange, or IDX, for a certain period of time that will be determined individually by hundreds of multiple listing services nationwide. The Internet Data Exchange acts as a middleman between multiple listing services and portals like Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and CoStar.

During that period of delayed marketing, MLS subscribers will be able to access those listings via the MLS, even though they won’t officially be listed until later. Sellers will be required to sign a disclosure document waiving their benefits of immediate public marketing through IDX and syndication in order to take advantage of the option, NAR documents state.

NAR OPTS TO UPHOLD CLEAR COOPERATION

The new policy went into effect on Tuesday and must be implemented by MLSs by September 30, 2025.

Haber — a co-founder of the American Real Estate Association, a trade organization with similar aims as NAR — called the news “progress” and said NAR’s approach is close to what his own group proposed earlier this month.

Haber believes the conversation — and work on the issue — will now likely focus on MLSs and how they plan to implement the changes. He also believes the industry needs to emphasize “consumer autonomy” and ensure homesellers have the freedom to decide how their homes are marketed. But ultimately, Haber added that Tuesday’s news suggests “NAR is moving in the right direction.”

“Incrementalism is designed to move things forward and not upset the apple cart too much,” Haber said. “Maybe this does that.”

NAR’s decision found a middle ground that many in the industry believe is the best option moving forward — not a complete abandonment of Clear Cooperation, but something that offered more flexibility for homesellers looking for a marketing option with more privacy, executives told Inman.