Byron Lazine and Nicole White are two agents in Connecticut who give us their thoughts on the week’s news every Friday in “The Real Word,” a weekly video column on Inman.
Watch Byron Lazine and Nicole White give a real estate agent’s perspective on industry-related topics.
This week, Byron and Nicole get their questions about the National Association of Realtors’ new Clear Cooperation Policy answered by SmartMLS CEO Kathy Elson.
“It’s just ensuring that every property, every listing that is out there for public consumption is also in the MLS for professional consumption,” Elson told Byron and Nicole when asked what her definition of the rule is.
She said that Connecticut’s housing market became fragmented as of the past few years as agents started marketing and listing properties independently on their own private email lists, websites and Facebook groups.
The intention of the NAR policy is to allow every agent to access every property on the market on behalf of their clients through their local MLS.
Elson admitted that there are gray areas in the policy. However, one option for those clients who don’t want to be listed in the MLS is to register as “withheld.” And agents can market properties as they’re being fixed up if they want without putting the properties in the MLS. But when they eventually are listed publicly on the service, the “days on market” field has to reflect the days the properties have been available for purchase, and not just the days they’ve been listed in the MLS.
Elson, Lazine and White discuss all this and more in the above video. If you still have questions about the policy after watching it, leave them in the comments section below.
