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With the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reportedly set to vote on the future of its Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) in the not-too-distant future, the leader of Coldwell Banker Realty is not holding back her feelings about the controversial rule.
In an op-ed published Wednesday by Newsweek, Coldwell Banker president and CEO Kamini Lane let loose about the potential repeal of CCP, which requires brokers to list a property on the MLS within 24 hours of publicly marketing it.
Debate over the rule has heated up in recent months. After NAR’s advisory board met a couple times last fall, the trade group announced that it was not yet ready to make a decision on whether to keep the policy in place, revamp it or remove it.
“As a national organization that represents members across the country, NAR continues to receive a range of passionate opinions about CCP,” a spokesperson said at the time. “We believe any changes to policies and practices as important as CCP has to carefully weigh feedback from a wide range of members, stakeholders and industry experts.”
Coldwell Banker is brand affiliate of Anywhere Real Estate, which has publicly stated that it wants the policy to be reformed rather than repealed. Lane offered more thoughts in her op-ed.
She wrote that removing CCP in its entirely would be harmful to home buyers and sellers alike because some brokerages will hoard private listings, making them available only to consumers who work with one of their agents.
“The reasoning behind all of this is simple — to grow their business regardless of how it may harm buyers and sellers,” Lane wrote. “… It’s a strategy that presents very clear winners and losers, helping these companies consolidate power while sacrificing the broad transparency and choice many Americans rely on to enter the ranks of homeownership.”
She went on to mention that housing market headwinds — including high home prices, high mortgage rates and a persistent inventory shortage — make today an inopportune time to “restrict access to new homes.”
Repeating her company’s stance on CCP, Lane advocated for revisions that would “allow some flexibility in marketing strategy, while maintaining the guardrails that have protected consumers for decades.”
Specific circumstances in which a seller could initially list to a smaller group of prospective buyers might include unique luxury homes or when the seller is a public figure who wants to “list without controversy,” she wrote.
