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The nation’s second-largest multiple listing service will soon add the ability for listing brokers to signal concessions sellers are willing to make to buyers when listing their homes for sale.
Starting June 11, Bright MLS, which has more than 100,000 subscribers in six states in the Mid-Atlantic region, will open two data fields that listing brokers or their agents can choose (but are not required) to fill out at the time of submission .
The parcels come in response to a proposal by the National Association of Realtors to resolve multiple antitrust lawsuits filed by home sellers. In part, the deal requires real estate agents like Bright to affiliate with the MLS, eliminating the listing broker’s ability to compensate the buyer’s agent through the MLS.
In response, some MLSs, including the largest in the U.S., California, have decided to add listing seller concessions to their platforms. Such MLSs, including Bright, already offer a seller offer field at the time the listing closes, but not when it enters the MLS. Bright will also update its closed seller offer field.
“Bright must take steps to change our rules and systems to comply with the terms of the settlement and provide greater transparency for the consumers we serve,” MLS said in a notice on its website Thursday.
“Bright will soon be updating listings and our policies as we move into a new era of real estate together. Bright is working closely with our association, board of directors, legal counsel and leadership to help develop the most collaborative, transparent and effective paths toward the future of American real estate.”
Currently, Bright has closing-related fields that allow the listing broker or his or her agent to indicate whether the seller is giving a concession, the amount and to whom, as well as an open text box detailing the type of concession.
Starting in June, Bright will add two available fields for seller offers in listing entries. One is a Yes/No field that asks the seller if they will provide concessions. Another field will ask for the offer amount and whether the offer is a dollar amount or a percentage of the home’s sales price. Listing brokers and agents may choose not to fill out either field, or to fill out only the first yes/no field without specifying an amount or amount form if they wish.
“MLS subscribers will not be allowed to indicate specific buyer agent compensation amounts in these new fields, comments or anywhere within the MLS system,” Bright said.
Source: Guangming Mulinsen
When entering a listing, there will be no option to specify the type of offer being offered. But Bright will add four new concession fields at closing where listing agents and brokers can specify whether the seller will make concessions on home repairs or improvements, finance-related costs, buyer’s agent costs or closing costs, and each fee .
Rene Galicia
Rene Galicia, Bright’s executive vice president of customer advocacy, told Inman, “Although not required by the settlement agreement, the MLS can continue to obtain and display seller offers, which is consistent with the requirements of the settlement agreement and is addressed as part of the settlement agreement.”
“We looked at our data and what we found is that even though we don’t have a field today, subscribers include offers, points, etc. Without any loss of transparency, we are adding these fields.
Galicia added that agents and brokers write in “thousands of listings a year” with offers in agent or public comments because they don’t have a dedicated column for listing offers.
According to NAR’s proposed settlement, the deal does not prevent “sellers from offering concessions (e.g., buyer’s closing costs) to buyers on the Realtor MLS so long as such concessions are not limited to or conditioned on retention or payment to associates.” Broker, buyer’s agent or other buyer’s representative.
Galicia emphasizes that the information entered in the listing seller’s authorization field is non-binding.
“These are not mandatory,” Galicia said. “They are invitations to negotiate. So even though they are listed on the MLS, we still need to request and record them as part of the purchase agreement.
Galicia added: “We want the seller to send the message that they have a large sum of money and are willing to negotiate with it.”
“If a buyer needs help… they may ask the seller to pay a buyer’s agent fee, an inspection fee, a repair fee. An offer is a broad term we use here. We define it as any credit the seller has to the buyer .
The MLS involved have until August 17 to implement the changes required by the NAR settlement agreement. Since August 17th falls on a Saturday, Bright will be making changes on August 14th, including removing its compensation column and adopting new rules requiring a buyer’s broker agreement.
“The idea behind releasing the concession areas on June 11th and then adopting the NAR rules on August 14th is that we give our subscribers, our agents, our brokers a head start to make sure they can Smooth transition after reconciliation – the relevant changes come into effect,” Galicia said.
Source: Guangming Mulinsen
Galicia said the new franchise area will be open to third-party listing portals as well as agent and broker listing sites.
“That’s what we want to maintain – transparency in the marketplace – so buyers, no matter where they find the listing, they can easily see what the seller may be offering, or what they can try to negotiate based on the seller’s instructions, Galicia said.
So what’s to stop a new area of listed concessions from becoming a new area of compensation as a workaround to the solution?
“A couple of things: 1. We specifically prohibit in the rules and will prohibit compensation sharing on the MLS. It will come with enforcement of the rules, so there will be fines behind it, and 2. We will, through our employees, through The algorithm actively monitors,” Galicia said.
“The concession area does not represent compensation,” Galicia added. “Our rules specifically prohibit this. That’s exactly what the seller is compensating or paying the buyer. So it’s not about the commission. It’s not about the broker being compensated. It’s about the seller and their offer, or at least the They have something to do with the idea of accepting an offer.
He also highlighted that starting Thursday, Bright will launch a campaign to educate subscribers about the changes.
“We want to make sure everyone is positive,” Galicia said. “Over the next few months, we will be doing a lot of outreach with our subscribers through our local associations, broker office trainings, and working with our state associations to make sure we are all sharing the same information and do the same thing.
“You can’t escape our training. We will be contacting every subscriber to make sure they know how this all works and what the rules are. We want to make sure they follow the rules and, more importantly, behave in a consumer-friendly manner requirements and how they use our system.
When asked what would prevent a listing agent from deciding to just offer the buyer agent compensation they now offer (usually 2.5% or 3%, depending on the market), Galicia said Bright’s compliance team will be watching closely .
“We are fortunate to have a full-time compliance team, so through employee time, through algorithmic detection using artificial intelligence and other programming, we will be able to spot-check behavior so that if we consistently see certain behaviors , amounts coming from certain brokerages or certain agents, we can investigate that,” Galicia said.
“Part of what we do with any rule is we conduct random audits where we ask for a copy of the listing agreement or sales description, so if there’s anything that doesn’t comply with our rules we will take action.”
Send an email to Andrea V. Brambila.
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