Is NAR’s move to allow non-Realtors MLS access a nothing burger?

Starting in January, local MLSs will have a lot more control over things like disciplinary actions and even who can access the MLS. These changes are the result of an 18-policy update approved by the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) executive committee during the trade group’s NXT conference this past weekend in Houston. 

The 18 updates were recommended by a presidential advisory group created by NAR’s immediate past president Kevin Sears and were based on the findings of an antitrust risk assessment conducted by NAR earlier this year. According to the trade group, these changes represent the most extensive update to the MLS Policy Handbook in two decades. 

MLS membership access to non members

Among the adopted policy changes is a repeal of an MLS that stated that  NAR was “firmly and unequivocally committed” to requiring membership for access to Realtor-affiliated MLSs. Now, whether or not an MLS requires Realtor association membership for MLS access is a “matter of local discretion.” Additionally, NAR will also no longer be requiring local Realtor associations to alert the state and national associations if someone requests access to the MLS but isn’t a Realtor member. According to NAR, this policy was rarely enforced. 

While this may seem like a major change, NAR has allowed local Realtor boards and associations to decide whether they wanted to allow non-Realtors to subscribe and participate in their owned MLSs since adopting an optional rule surrounding Realtor membership and MLS access in 1994. 

For this reason, Chad Jacobson, the CEO of the New Hampshire-based Prime MLS, said there was “nothing earth shattering” about the changes. 

“Many of the items being retired by NAR were related to Open MLS, and since we have been an Open MLS since we were founded, they were not really of concern to PrimeMLS,” Jacobson wrote in an email.

Across the country in San Diego, the CEO of San Diego MLS Saul Klein, said he doesn’t really see any of these changes having a significant impact on his MLS, as the state of California has allowed non-Realtors to access the MLS since the 1970s. 

“For us it is almost a nothing burger because we already deal with most of these things on a daily basis,” Klein said. “But people are wanting more local discretion and NAR is giving it to them.” 

Emily Girard, the CEO of Austin-based Unlock MLS, which began providing access to non-Realtors in June of this year, expressed a similar view.

“I think it’s positive news that they’ve moved forward with allowing for that further separation between Realtor association membership and MLS subscription,” Girard said. “I think it’s a smart move both for the association and for the MLS in the sense that it allows each to offer a unique value proposition to its member and subscriber without having contingency.”

Like the other smaller MLSs, Bright MLS is glad to see NAR making these changes.

“We are glad to see that the MLS Policy Handbook is being adjusted to allow for local responsiveness to the needs of real estate professionals and the consumers they serve. Bright has always approached evaluating our rules and policies in this way, and also believe it’s good for the industry,” a Bright MLS spokesperson wrote in an email.

Don’t be fooled

MLS executives agree that this move is clearly part of NAR’s strategy to lower legal liability at the national level, but some industry leaders are warning local MLSs and associations to not be fooled into thinking that this move is all good news for them.

“​​Is this policy change a bad thing? No. But now the business and legal bullseye is on every local association, and their MLS partners, to determine how much they want to lean into the past or create a new future,” Russ Cofano, the co-founder and principal of Alloy Advisors, as well as a former president and general counsel at eXp, and former CEO of Missouri Realtors, wrote in a post on LinkedIn. 

For its part, NAR maintains that these policies “strengthen and modernize NAR’s policies” and reflect its “to align MLS policies with how real estate professionals do business today.”

“NAR will continue to review and implement policy modifications, when necessary, with transparency and in a timely manner, to ensure that policies remain current and in line with the evolving needs of our members and the industry,” Sears said in a statement.