“We’re not going to get involved,” Kevin Brown said on stage at Inman Connect New York as the industry heads into a debate over the future of multiple listing services.
If a new era for the National Association of Realtors means modernizing our tools and better serving our members, it also means getting out of the way.
NAR President Kevin Brown said Thursday that the 1.47 million-member organization’s leadership will continue to look for ways to remove itself from rulemaking at the local level.
“We’re not going to dictate what’s right or wrong in the system. We’re going to let the market dictate what’s best for our members,” Brown said on stage at Inman Connect New York. “Locally, we believe that the local market should decide what is best for that local market.”
That stance was largely determined by heavy losses in court and the guidance NAR received from the Department of Justice.
“About a year ago, a few years ago, when we were taken to the Department of Justice, they were criticizing our rules and rulemaking,” Brown said. “We asked them, “Do you want us to have no rules at all?” And they said, “Oh, no, no, no, no.” I want you to set rules. ”
(Left to Right) Brad Inman and Kevin Brown |Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services
“But we want to create rules that benefit our members, protect consumers, provide transparency in the process, provide clean and accurate data, and give consumers maximum access to the marketplace.”
NAR worked with law firms to assess the risks associated with some of its policies, including rules regarding access to multiple listing services. Some of the resulting changes center around national rulemaking, Brown said.
In November, the NAR Board of Directors rescinded a policy in the MLS Handbook that said the organization was “firmly and unequivocally committed” to the principle of requiring real estate agent members to access realtor-affiliated MLSs.
The group said in a statement after the vote that access to MLS is rather a “matter of local discretion,” and moved to approve various changes aimed at reinforcing that principle during its twice-yearly meeting in Houston.
The future of MLS systems was a big topic at this week’s Inman Connect conference.
On Tuesday, Compass CEO Robert Refkin proposed creating a single national MLS shared equally by brokerages that rely on data sharing to facilitate real estate transactions. He also said agents shouldn’t be required to pay NAR if they don’t want to and called for more permissive MLS rules that would give agents more control over how homes are sold.
CanopyMLS CEO Anne Marie DeCatsye suggested that it may be more appropriate for the number of MLSs to be closer to 25, down from the current 500-plus.
Brown’s comments Thursday signaled that NAR will be on the back burner as the industry moves toward discussions that could rewrite the structure of the MLS system.
“We feel the market should decide what’s best,” he said. “Whether it’s a competing system or an existing system, we’re not going to get involved.”
Like NAR CEO Nikia Wright the day before, Brown noted that NAR has developed a data sharing product called Realtor Property Resource and suggested it could be part of the future of MLS.
“It’s similar in some ways in terms of data collection,” Brown said. “It’s the largest database in the United States and it’s a great tool.”
But he stopped short of publicly calling for RPR to be central to the future of MLS.
Instead, Brown said NAR will focus on leveraging its national advocacy network, doubling capital gains tax exemptions on home sales and removing local zoning barriers that inhibit housing supply.
“NAR will focus on issues that impact our members’ daily operations, including financing, insurance, inventory, barriers to homeownership, and zoning restrictions,” Brown said.
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