Robert Reffkin said on Wednesday that clear cooperation would bring “negative insights” to the listing and predicted that polarizing anti-wallet listing rules were ultimately doomed to fail.
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Compass CEO Robert Reffkin argued Wednesday that the National Association of Realtors’ “unequivocal cooperative policy” is “anti-homeowner” and ultimately destined to disappear.
Revkin made the comments during the company’s second-quarter earnings call with investors, where he discussed plans to make the company’s website a consumer destination — one that “has more customers than third-party sites.” Inventory”. The comments suggest Compass may be eager to engage more directly in the so-called portal wars, and it also believes it can include listings on its site that don’t appear elsewhere.
Such a program may encounter obstacles in the form of formal or NAR explicit cooperation policies. The policy, introduced in 2019, requires brokers to submit listing information to the local Multiple Listing Service within 24 hours of marketing. The goal of the policy is to combat pocket listings and the discrimination that can occur when certain listings are only visible to certain agents and their clients.
Robert Revkin
However, Refkin said Wednesday that consumers would not benefit from an explicit collaboration.
“I think explicit cooperation is anti-homeowner,” Refkin said.
He went on to assert that mandating listings on the MLS would mean those listings would have “negative insights” attached to them, such as days on the market or price declines. Revkin added that this negative insight can be a “value killer,” meaning consumers have good reasons to want their listings no Appear on MLS. Refkin also noted that in some other countries, such as Australia, data points such as days on market do not appear in listings.
Instead, Refkin said, “private exclusives” — in other words, listings sold outside of the MLS — allow homeowners to “test the market” without repercussions.
“You can test the market without having a negative view of the market,” Refkin said. “The problem with explicit collaboration is that it forces negative perceptions on homeowners.”
As a result, Refkin believes the explicit partnership and the “enforcing mechanism” it created to push all listings onto the MLS will eventually come to an end. He also pointed out that there are parts of California and Massachusetts where the MLS is not affiliated with the NAR and therefore not subject to explicit cooperation, adding that “everything is working fine” in those places.
In a statement to Inman late Wednesday, Revkin also noted that “the Department of Justice has reopened its investigation into Clear Cooperative and the Top Agent Network (TAN) has refiled a lawsuit alleging Clear Cooperative violated antitrust laws.” .
The lawsuit Revkin mentioned began in 2020 and was filed by TAN against NAR. The lawsuit challenged the explicit collaboration on antitrust grounds, but a federal district court dismissed it in August 2021.
The Justice Department investigation has also been the subject of legal wrangling between regulators and NAR. In April, an appeals court ruled that the Justice Department could reopen the investigation, despite NAR’s objections.
Regardless, Refkin finally ended his comments on the subject on Wednesday by saying that “the vast majority of inventory will end up in one place.” However, he said that process in the future may not be as nearly instantaneous as it is today. occur.
“There’s a reason homeowners don’t want their homes to be public or listed on the MLS immediately,” he added.
Update: This article was updated after publication and added additional comments from Refkin and background on the cases mentioned by Refkin.
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