Anywhere encourages offers of comp, asks ‘big question’ of MLSs
Top execs discussed how the company is addressing industry practice changes, including its intention to display compensation on its listings.
Key points:
- CEO Ryan Schneider told agents that voluntary offers of compensation are “actually helpful to sellers.”
- He said the company will display buy-side comp on Anywhere’s brokerage websites: “Offers of buyer broker compensation are not banned.”
- Both Schneider and Sue Yannaccone, president and CEO of Anywhere Brands, questioned how MLSs will continue to serve agents.
Anywhere Real Estate CEO Ryan Schneider and Anywhere Brands President and CEO Sue Yannaccone spoke to their agent community on August 21 to discuss the rule changes that took effect on Saturday and share their path forward for the coming months.
While the execs noted that it's too early to say how the practice changes will play out, Schneider said he was "happy with the weekend from an Anywhere Real Estate perspective" but added that there's "a lot of confusion and misinformation out there in the industry."
Schneider and Yannaccone also shared what Anywhere and its brokerage brands may be doing differently from others in the industry.
Encouraging voluntary offers of compensation
While MLSs can no longer display offers of compensation, Schneider has continued to encourage listing agents to promote the benefits of offering buy-side compensation when talking with their sellers. Schneider recently discussed this theme with Real Estate News, and this week, spoke directly to his audience about it.
"We actually think a voluntary offer of buyer broker compensation is actually helpful to sellers, both to secure the best offer and — very importantly — to secure the highest certainty of closing their transactions," he said yesterday. "We really encourage agents to educate their sellers on this — you know, that it is voluntary — and it's always recognizing that it's the seller's choice to make."
Sharing buyer agent comp online
Schneider went a step further and explained that Anywhere plans to include any such voluntary offers of compensation on their website.
"Buyer broker offers of compensation are not allowed to be displayed on MLS anymore. That's a new change. We're going to display them on our website for our listings as permitted, of course, by the settlement," Schneider said. "Contrary to some misinformation out there, offers of buyer broker compensation are not banned."
Are MLSs still relevant?
Schneider and Yannaccone questioned the role that MLSs will continue to play and the value they offer agents.
"There's over 500 MLSs out there that are in some version of implementing these changes and new rules," Yannaccone explained.
"I think a big question for the MLS world is, do they support their customers — who are the agents — and I think that's going to have to be at the core of how this ecosystem evolves. We're going to continue to watch that."