HousingWireHousingWire
Real estate industry executives may not see eye to eye on the National Association of Realtors‘ (NAR) Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP), but there is one thing they do agree on — the vast majority of sellers receive the most benefit from listing transparency and broad exposure of their listings.
“The average people that our agents are working with everyday are thinking about things like affordability and how they can maximize the value of their home — and typically that comes from exposure,” Ginger Wilcox, the president of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, said during a panel discussion at HousingWire’s The Gathering.
Mauricio Umansky, the CEO of The Agency, who does not support CCP, agreed with Wilcox that in most situations, sellers get the most benefit from listing on the MLS.
“The easiest path to selling a property is to put it on the MLS and broadcast it on all the portals. I think agents should be trained to say, ‘In order for me to give you the most exposure and to maximize your value, you should be on the market,’” Umansky said.
“Every off-market listing I’ve been on — and I’ve been selling real estate for 29 years now — I’ve tried to convince my sellers to put it on the market. I’ve never told them that an off-market listing was their best strategy.”
Despite this assertion, Umansky said there have been occasions when ultra-luxury listings have benefited from being sold off market. Due to this, he feels that there is no one right way to sell real estate.
“There should be flavors for everybody, and everybody should have the choice as to what they want to pick,” Umansky said. “Restricting what we can and cannot do stops creativity, and it stops innovation.”
Umansky said it’s important to remember that there are two parties involved in a real estate transaction — a buyer and a seller — and that both should have choices.
“Sellers have to have the autonomy to make decisions about how they want to sell,” Umansky said.
Errol Samuelson, the chief industry development officer at Zillow and a staunch supporter of CCP, noted that even with the policy as it currently stands, sellers do have many choices as to how to market their listing.
“If you’re a seller who prioritizes privacy over maximizing sales price, the policy allows for office exclusives, or you can put a listing on the MLS and indicate that you don’t want it shared on the internet,” Samuelson said. “You can also suppress the address or only share one main exterior photo.”
Despite his company’s strong feelings about listing transparency, Samuelson noted that there are some instances, such as privacy and security reasons, where it makes the most sense for a seller to do an off-market or private listing.
Wilcox also acknowledged this and noted it’s why her firm has an internal private listing platform.
“We think it is an important part of seller choice, and it is part of having that holistic view of listing strategies that are going to support every seller depending on what their needs are,” Wilcox said of BHGRE’s internal listing platform.
“Our expectation is that we’ll be using it in limited instances because we believe that for the majority of listings, broad exposure is best for buyers and sellers.”
If brokerages move to siloed private listing networks, Umansky believes this will harm competition in the industry.
“We should be collaborating even when things are private,” Umansky said. “There are a lot of independent brokers, family-owned brokerages that have been around for generations, and it is not fair for them to not have access to those listings and to not have the opportunity to share them with their clients.”
As the real estate industry looks to navigate its way through the debate about CCP, Samuelson said it’s important to remember who agents and brokerages ultimately serve.
“This is about what is best for consumers — what is best for buyers and what is best for sellers. If that becomes our North Star, the industry will thrive,” Samuelson said. “What makes the U.S. industry work so well is that cooperation. All agents in the market should get a crack at bringing a buyer to a listing, and that is only possible if there is equitable access.”
