The Clear Cooperation Policy and the Private Listing Database
NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy states that "within one (1) business day of marketing a listing to the public, the listing broker must submit the listing to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants."
The Private Listing Database, housed inside of connectMLS, is a separate database of properties with modified requirements that allow you to enter those listings and comply with MLS rules while limiting distribution. It will have fewer and different fields to be completed in order for the listing to be placed in the MLS as well as other unique requirements.
Read more about the backstory of this policy here.
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FAQs: Clear Cooperation Policy
The policy states: “Within one (1) business day of marketing a property to the public, the listing broker must submit the listing to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants.”
Public marketing is advertising intended to bring attention to a listing from agents outside of your brokerage including consumers/the general public. Public marketing includes, but is not limited to, flyers displayed in windows, yard signs, digital marketing on public-facing websites (including social media websites), brokerage website displays (including IDX and VOW), digital communications marketing (email blasts), multi-brokerage listing sharing networks, and applications available to the general public.
The Clear Cooperation Policy took effect on May 1, 2020.
No, the Clear Cooperation Policy applies to listings taken by a REALTOR® on or after May 1, 2020.
No. The Clear Cooperation Policy does not change the current 72 hour submission rule unless you begin public marketing of the listing. For example: You have just successfully completed your listing presentation and your client has signed a listing agreement with you. If you walk out of this appointment and get in your car and drive to your next listing appointment, you have 72 hours to put the listing in the MLS. However, if after you walk out of the listing appointment you place a sign in the yard and then drive to your next listing appointment, you would have started to publicly market the listing and have one (1) business day to submit your listing to the MLS.
Sellers are still allowed to decide that they do not want to advertise their home for sale to cooperating MLS participants through the MLS. A seller can execute the Authorization to Exclude the listing from the MLS and you can provide that form to SABOR. However, if the property is publicly advertised, regardless of any submitted documentation, then it will need to also be submitted to the MLS to avoid a violation of the Clear Cooperation Policy.
SABOR has decided that its implementation of the Clear Cooperation Policy will prioritize education over penalty. SABOR will focus on education throughout the remainder of 2020 and violations of the policy will result in notifications educating the Participant and Subscriber on the value of MLS cooperation.
The Clear Cooperation Policy will only apply to certain property types designated under Residential: Single Residential, Condominium, and Multi-Family 2-8 units. The Clear Cooperation Policy will not apply to commercial, residential rental, lots and acreage, or farm and ranch property types.
No. “Office exclusive” listings are an option for sellers concerned about privacy and wide exposure of their property being for sale. In an office exclusive listing, promotion of the listing between the brokers and licensees affiliated with the listing brokerage, and one-to-one promotion between these licensees and their clients, is not considered public marketing and such promotion would not trigger the Clear Cooperation Policy requirement to submit the listing to the MLS within one (1) business day. However, if the property is publicly marketed, submission to the MLS is required under the Clear Cooperation Policy.
Since November 2019, both SABOR’s MLS Committee and the 8.0 Workgroup have been working on various enhancements to the MLS. View the detailed breakdown of what the Private Listing Database looks like here.
The same listing agreement rules that have previously applied still apply which require submission of a listing to the MLS within 72 hours of executing the contract unless a listing date addendum is used. If your client has executed a Sellers’ Authorization to Exclude the property from the MLS and as long as the property is not marketed outside of your office, you do not yet need to put the listing into the MLS.
Once you place a sign in the yard, you have publicly marketed and triggered the Clear Cooperation Policy requirements. The listing needs to be put in the MLS within 1 business day. The Private Listing Database is designed to accommodate situations like these and enforcement of the Clear Cooperation Policy’s requirements won’t begin until long after the Private Listing Database is available.
FAQs: Private Listing Database
The PLD is a separate database housed within connectMLS, different from the more familiar General Listing Database (GLD). You can use it to quickly put a private listing into the MLS. This gives you the opportunity to enter listings into the MLS for cooperation with REALTORS® while restricting the information from dissemination outside the MLS and remaining true to a client’s request for privacy.
The PLD enables agents and brokers to introduce listings to other REALTORS® and publicly market listings that may not be ready for distribution to the general public through syndication, IDX or other broad exposure. These could be listings that would otherwise be “coming soon” or “scheduled” listings while complying with the NAR Clear Cooperation Policy. Whenever you and your seller determine it’s the right time, you can transition the listing to the General Listing Database and avail yourselves of all the benefits that come with the greater exposure.
- There are only a handful of fields in the PLD, and only some of those are required.
- Private Listings do not appear when conducting the typical search or when utilizing the SmartBar.
- Listings in the PLD are not distributed outside of the REALTOR®-facing MLS. They are not in IDX, VOW, or any type of data feed. These are not available in the client portal, nor is there an email function for Private Listings. They are not included in prospect matches (auto-search function for clients).
- Days on Market will not accrue in PLD.
- There is no time limit on listings in the PLD. They can stay there as long as desired by the agent/seller.
No. Unless a Seller has executed a Seller’s Authorization to Exclude their listing from the MLS, all listings must be submitted to the MLS within 72 hours from the seller executing the Listing Agreement. If the property is publicly marketed before the expiration of the 72 hours, the property listing must be submitted to the MLS within 1 business day from the first public marketing of the property.
Public marketing includes, but is not limited to, flyers displayed in windows, yard signs, digital marketing on public facing websites, brokerage website displays (including IDX and VOW), digital communications marketing (email blasts), multi-brokerage listing sharing networks, and applications available to the general public.
Yes. Submission of a property listing to either the PLD or the GLD will satisfy the Clear Cooperation Policy.
Yes. You need an exclusive right to sell/lease or an exclusive agency listing first.
Yes.
No. Market time will not accrue while in the PLD. Also, if a listing transitions from PLD to GLD, the Days on Market will begin calculating based upon the transition date.
These listings can only be viewed by SABOR MLS members from within a separate, secure database within connectMLS. All SABOR MLS members, regardless of whether they have an IDX or VOW website, have equal access to connectMLS to enter or search for private listings. Private listings are in a separate database, not included in any data feeds.
Once a listing has been publicly marketed and takes advantage of the network effect and larger feature set available in the General Listing Database, there is not a mechanism in the system to transition the listing to the Private Listing Database.
Mark the listing as “under contract” within 24 hours of your client accepting the contract. You may want to first transition the listing to the General Listing Database for future use as a comparable if permitted by your seller. Where the listing resides (Private or General) is subject to your seller’s direction.
Mark the listing as sold within 24 hours of your client accepting the contract. You must then close out the sale. You can decide to transition and close out the listing in the GLD for future use as a comparable, or if your Seller has instructed, you can close out the listing in the PLD. If you decide to leave the listing in PLD and close it out there, completion of the sales price field is optional to better address seller privacy concerns.
No. But if you need to, you can re-enter the listing very quickly.
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