Exclusive listings on the MLS? Here’s how Bright is doing it 

Private listings, and the idea of whether or not they should appear on multiple listing services, is a hot — and divisive — topic these days.

Industry leaders and other real estate professionals are weighing in on the Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires agents to post listings to the MLS within one business day of publicly marketing a home for sale.

Clear Cooperation, which also has attracted renewed legal attention, is being considered this week by the National Association of Realtors' MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board, a step that could lead to changes in the policy.

Meanwhile, there is at least one MLS that is already getting agents to upload exclusive listings, also known as private listings or pocket listings, seemingly without controversy. Their experience could point to a potential way forward.

What is Bright doing? Maryland-based Bright, the nation's second-largest MLS, requires subscribers to enter all exclusive listings. This is not a new policy, Rene Galicia, executive vice president of customer advocacy, told Real Estate News this week. But it has evolved and received positive feedback from agents, Galicia said.

"Entering the information directly in Listing Management," an upgrade made by Bright in January, "makes it easy for listing agents to switch an Office Exclusive to a standard active listing — which happens for the vast majority of Office Exclusives," Galicia said. "Relatively few properties are marketed as pocket listings/office exclusives, and we believe that should remain the case."

Why it matters: Even people who don't see eye to eye on Clear Cooperation understand the stakes when it comes to including listings on the MLS. Complete and clean data is what the MLS system is known for, and what makes it the envy of the world, some say.

But it's about something bigger than data — it's about fairness, Galicia and others say.

"Bright's position remains that restricting access to property information opens the door to discrimination based on who you are, where you're from, and who you know," Galicia said. "Consumers working with a real estate agent to promote their listing on the MLS helps to create an open, clear and competitive housing marketplace that gives everyone a fair shot at finding a place to call home —– and sellers the best shot at getting the best price."

What's next? NAR is hearing from people who want to reinforce Clear Cooperation, change it, or remove it altogether as the policy approaches its fifth birthday. Whether it makes it to a sixth depends on what sort of proposal ends up in front of the NAR board of directors for approval (as early as November) — and potentially what legal moves are made by judges or the Department of Justice.