by Andrea V. Brambila | Jun 3, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
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As soon as Wednesday, June 4, the National Association of Realtors may vote to rescind its controversial “no-commingling” policy, which currently allows multiple listing services to prohibit brokers from displaying listings from MLSs together with those from non-MLS sources.
NAR’s Multiple Listing Issues and Policies Committee voted on Tuesday to rescind the policy, formally known as “the no-commingling rule,” at the trade organization’s annual midyear conference, the Realtors Legislative Meetings, in Washington, D.C.
The rule is currently under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and was the subject of an antitrust lawsuit brought against NAR and Zillow by now-defunct real estate brokerage REX. NAR and Zillow prevailed in that case, in part because the rule is optional, not mandatory. According to legal filings in that case, 29 percent of Realtor-affiliated MLSs have chosen not to adopt the rule.
NAR’s MLS Technology and Emerging Issues Advisory Board, which is part of the committee, put forward the recommendation to revoke the policy to the full committee Tuesday afternoon.
“Rescission of these optional model MLS rules and the corresponding policy language is in response to requests for its removal due to its outdated application under current marketing strategies and diminished benefits,” the advisory board’s rationale for the change reads.
The committee voted to eliminate the policy without any discussion, and it was the only proposal the committee voted on, committee members and attendees told Inman after the meeting. Panelists also reportedly did not take questions, and audience mics were turned off.
The MLIP Committee meeting was closed to the press this year for the first time in at least 13 years, if not for the first time ever.
“The meeting was an internal NAR member event, and it was decided that it should be closed,” NAR spokesperson Tori Syrek told Inman in a statement.
Inman has asked NAR whether the meeting was therefore live-streamed so that non-attendee NAR members would have access to the event. Inman also asked why the meeting was not therefore labeled “NAR members only” and therefore left open to non-member attendees, such as vendors. Inman will update this story if and when responses are received.
NAR’s Executive Committee will vote on the rescission tomorrow, and it will become final if approved. Due to NAR’s governance changes, if the Executive Committee approves the change, it does not need to go to the NAR board of directors.
Matt Consalvo, CEO of Arizona Regional MLS and a member of the committee, told Inman he doesn’t like NAR’s optional rules and believes removing the no-commingling rule provides brokers with greater clarity. ARMLS never adopted the rule.
“When brokers operate in multiple MLSs and there are the optional rules, it confuses them because one MLS may adopt something and another MLS may not,” Consalvo said.
Asked what happened in the rest of the meeting, Consalvo said NAR Senior Counsel Charlie Lee had given “a great presentation,” making sure everyone had a common understanding of Internet Data Exchange (IDX) and Virtual Office Website (VOW) policies.
There was also a discussion about the new Multiple Listing Options for Sellers (MLOS) policy, though the attendees Inman spoke to said they did not hear anything new.
“Nothing in it was enlightening for myself,” Consalvo said.
According to Consalvo, ARMLS’s Coming Soon status “checks all the boxes” of the new policy. ARMLS added it in 2020 in response to the passage of NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy, which requires listing brokers to submit listings to Realtor-affiliated MLSs within one business day of publicly marketing them.
“We saw what needed to happen for choices for brokers to be able to comply … and we put a very robust Coming Soon in that is exactly the intent of what that policy is,” Consalvo said.
“So we have no change needed.”
Listings can stay in that status for 30 days, it allows for showings and offers, and listings aren’t distributed across the internet until they’re ready to be active, “but all the agents know about it and the agents can grab the listing and share with their clients freely,” he added.
Here is the policy language set to be eliminated:
Section 18.3.11
Listings obtained through IDX feeds from REALTOR® Association MLSs where the MLS participant holds participatory rights must be displayed separately from listings obtained from other sources. Listings obtained from other sources (e.g., from other MLSs, from non-participating brokers, etc.) must display the source from which each such listing was obtained.* (Amended 05/17) O
Note: An MLS participant (or where permitted locally, an MLS subscriber) may co-mingle the listings of other brokers received in an IDX feed with listings available from other MLS IDX feeds, provided all such displays are consistent with the IDX rules, and the MLS participant (or MLS subscriber) holds participatory rights in those MLSs. As used in this policy, “co-mingling” means that consumers are able to execute a single property search of multiple IDX data feeds resulting in the display of IDX information from each of the MLSs on a single search results page; and that participants may display listings from each IDX feed on a single webpage or display. (Adopted 11/14)
Section 19.23
A Participant shall cause any listing displayed on his or her VOW obtained from other sources, including form another MLS or from a broker not participating in the MLS, to be searched separately from listing in the MLS.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a comment from NAR, as well as additional questions from Inman that NAR has not yet responded to.
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by Andrea V. Brambila | Jun 3, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
NAR’s Professional Standards Committee on Tuesday moved to make the Realtor Code of Ethics applicable only to real estate-related activities. The board of directors will take a vote on Thursday.
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Following hours of passionate debate, proposed changes to the National Association of Realtors’ hate speech policy went forward largely unchanged Tuesday morning and now head to the trade group’s board of directors.
At its meeting on Tuesday, NAR’s Professional Standards Committee approved the changes to the Realtor Code of Ethics’ Standard of Practice 10-5, which currently prohibits Realtors from using “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The policy, which was approved in 2020, currently applies to all of a Realtor’s activities, not just those related to real estate. A Realtor who violates the policy is charged under Article 10 of the Code of Ethics, which prohibits denying equal professional services to anyone in those protected classes.
At the meeting, which took place at NAR’s midyear conference, the Realtors Legislative Meetings, the committee voted to amend SOP 10-5 so that it reads:
“Realtors, in their capacity as real estate professionals, in association with their real estate businesses, or in their real estate-related activities, shall not harass any person or persons based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
As used in this Code of Ethics, harassment is unwelcome behavior directed at an individual or group based on one or more of the above protected characteristics where the purpose or effect of the behavior is to create a hostile, abusive, intimidating environment which adversely affects their ability to access equal professional services or employment opportunity.”
The amendment removes the language referencing “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs” and adds a definition of harassment that NAR says aligns with its Member Code of Conduct.
The committee also voted to amend Policy Statement 29 to change the Code of Ethics’ applicability so that Realtors would be encouraged, but not required, to follow the code “in all of their activities.” That amendment reads:
“While Realtors are encouraged to follow the principles of the Code of Ethics in all of their activities, a Realtor shall be subject to disciplinary action under the Code of Ethics only with respect to their capacity as real state professionals, in association with their real estate businesses, or in their real estate-related activities.”
The NAR board of directors will vote on the proposed changes at its meeting on Thurs. June 5.
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by Andrea V. Brambila | Jun 2, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
At NAR’s midyear conference, Kevin Sears told brokers he was “cautiously optimistic” about improving the trade group’s relationship with the antitrust enforcer.
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When National Association of Realtors President Kevin Sears invited questions from a room full of brokers at NAR’s midyear conference Monday morning, broker-owner Byron Menke asked a question he’s hearing a lot from other brokers: “[The Department of Justice] seems to be on us like a dog with a bone, and it doesn’t seem to be going away,” Menke said.
“If we have such a good advocacy relationship with our legislators and we do such a good job, why does that not transfer over? And why are we not putting some pressure there?”
Menke is chair of NAR’s Broker Engagement Council, which met Monday at the Realtors Legislative Meetings in Washington, D.C., and invited Sears to their meeting.
“Yeah, it doesn’t translate too much,” Sears said.
According to Sears, NAR had “a rocky relationship” with the DOJ last year, in part because the trade group had been suing the agency for the previous four years over a settlement agreement the DOJ withdrew from. That case ended with an appeals court ruling in the DOJ’s favor and the U.S. Supreme Court declining to take the case.
Sears told attendees he had met with the DOJ twice in Washington, D.C., and “there was a clear lack of understanding of how we do business by some of the people that were there in the room.”
“They think we take advantage of the consumer. We protect the consumer. Without the consumer, we don’t exist. Why are we going to take advantage of them? So we explained to them about that,” Sears said.
In one of those meetings, Sears said he and a handful of members of NAR’s Leadership Team sat down with 36 DOJ attorneys: 24 in person and another dozen on Zoom.
One of those present was Jonathan Kanter, former assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s antitrust division, who informed Sears that the DOJ had investigated NAR 35 times in the last 70 years.
Menke asked what the DOJ’s “issue” was with NAR — was it the association’s Clear Cooperation Policy? The DOJ is currently investigating the CCP, which requires listing brokers to submit listings to Realtor-affiliated multiple listing services within one business day of publicly marketing them.
“They think we make too much money,” Sears said, prompting murmuring among attendees.
“We make too much money. That’s it. I said I represent 1.5 million entrepreneurs who choose to wake up unemployed every day. But it’s through their hard work, by representing their clients and consumers, that they can earn a living.”
But, Sears said, “that was last year. I’m cautiously optimistic this year. So if anybody is reporting on this-” He paused, prompting laughter from the audience.
Sears said NAR has reached out and had conversations with some of the staff attorneys at the DOJ and hoped to set up a meeting with Gail Slater, Kanter’s successor.
“Ultimately, what I’m looking for is world peace: Is there something we can do where we can be on the same page? Where we can go to our members and go to our brokers and say, ‘Okay, follow these rules and we should be good’?”
A council member suggested that “the biggest problem in our industry” is how Realtors behave on social media, saying “whatever comes to mind, and it makes our industry look really, really poor.” She said she believed that was why the DOJ was keeping its eyes on real estate.
“That’s a very astute statement,” Sears agreed. “We are our worst enemies.”
He noted that not only is the DOJ paying attention to social media, but also to the podcasts and videos coming from the industry.
“They watch them,” Sears said. “They do. They want to see what we’re saying.”
Sears ended by encouraging brokers to embrace the settlement’s practice changes and take advantage of opportunities to explain to consumers the value, expertise and knowledge that Realtors bring to real estate transactions.
“A year from now, I want to make sure that our Realtor members are still smack dab in the middle of the transaction,” Sears said.
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by Andrea V. Brambila | Jun 1, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Bigger. Better. Bolder. Inman Connect is heading to San Diego. Join thousands of real estate pros, connect with the Inman Community, and gain insights from hundreds of leading minds shaping the industry. If you’re ready to grow your business and invest in yourself, this is where you need to be. Go BIG in San Diego!
The National Association of Realtors is not considering changes to its hate speech policy due to President Donald Trump’s stance against diversity, equity and inclusion, but rather to mitigate its own legal risk, NAR President Kevin Sears told attendees at NAR’s midyear conference Sunday morning.
Sears and NAR CEO Nykia Wright kicked off a session called “The Leadership Scoop” at the Realtors Legislative Meetings in Washington D.C. Thousands of NAR’s most involved members drop in on the nation’s capital once a year to lobby lawmakers on homeownership issues.
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But in their leadership update, Sears and Wright focused on internal NAR happenings, including the latest on potential changes to the Realtor Code of Ethics and a $32 million drop in revenue expected from a membership drop to 1.2 million in 2026.
“I want you to know that the [ethics] recommendation has nothing to do with who is sitting in the White House,” Sears told the ballroom of attendees Sunday.
NAR is considering changing its hate speech policy, called Standard of Practice 10-5, which prohibits Realtors from using “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The policy, which was approved in 2020, applies to all of a Realtor’s activities, not just those related to real estate. A Realtor that violates the policy is charged under Article 10 of the Code of Ethics, which prohibits denying equal professional services to anyone in those protected classes.
One proposed change would include creating a more specific definition for what counts as “harassment” that aligns with the NAR Member Code of Conduct, which contains extensive examples of prohibited behavior.
Another would be to change the policy’s applicability so that Realtors would be encouraged, but not required, to follow the policy “in all of their activities.” Disciplinary action would be reserved for violations that took place while Realtors were acting in a business capacity.
NAR’s Professional Standards Committee will consider the proposed changes at its next meeting on Tues. June 3 and, if approved, the proposals will be considered by NAR’s board of directors at their meeting on Thurs. June 5.
According to Sears, the proposed changes aren’t a reaction to Trump but rather are years in the making. NAR began hearing from some local Realtor associations in 2023 complaining about the ambiguity in some of the wording in the policy, he said.
“We’ve got 1,100 local associations, which means we could have 1,100 different interpretations of the rule,” Sears said.
Sears joked that NAR had “some other stuff going on” in 2023 — likely a reference to the Sitzer | Burnett trial that NAR lost and led to a $418 million antitrust settlement in March 2023. Later that year, Wright hired outside counsel to conduct a legal risk assessment of NAR’s current rules and policies, including its ethics code.
“We were already aware of some issues that were percolating because of Standard of Practice 10-5 and because of that, last summer, we began the conversation about ‘Okay, well, what do we need to do in order to help solve the problem [and] remove some liability, not only for our local associations, but for our volunteer leaders?’” Sears said.
Wright chimed in with a note on DEI.
“For some reason, around the country, there’s a rumor that I have single-handedly dismantled DEI,” Wright said, prompting some chuckles in the audience.
“I don’t know if people see my complexion and recognize me as a woman,” she added, prompting more laughter.
“But that could not be further from the truth. What we are continuing to do internally is make sure that we have the best-in-class staff to get us through today’s transactions and tomorrow’s transactions.” The crowd applauded.
According to Wright, NAR’s advocacy team “over the past several years has really ramped up a significant part of fair housing,” a law that she stressed predates 2020 and the death of George Floyd, which prompted many companies to commit to boosting their DEI efforts.
“[Fair housing] is what all of the alliance groups are coming to us and saying that they want more of, just in a different sort of nomenclature,” Wright said.
She said she wanted to be “very clear about that,” especially in light of NAR’s diminished financial circumstances.
“Yesterday, when NAR had a lot of money, we were a lot of things to a lot of people,” Wright said.
“What we have to do right now is pick our bets. When you look at the fact that we balanced the budget for the first time in the last 10 to 15 years last year, and when you look at what we are trying to do next year, there is a possibility that we have to pull another $32 million out of the budget.
“Kevin has always said that everything has to be affected in terms of an equitable fashion, but we’re not going to cripple anything,” Wright continued.
“Fair housing, DEI, has not been crippled. We are just trying to be more strategic and talk to stakeholders and understanding how we are placing our bets.”
“I feel bad about how people think that we have dismantled DEI,” she added.
She also emphasized that people are asking NAR for more transparency in how the association spends its money.
“So all of our transactions, all of our sponsorships, all of our ability to hand out member money, must have a better form of accountability and transparency in how we are spending those dollars,” Wright said.
Wright pointed out that NAR had hired a consulting firm, Slalom, to survey more than 75,000 members about what they wanted post-settlement and also to help NAR’s Strategic Planning Committee.
“People have been doing strategic planning work over the last few years, and at the committee, they’ve been doing great work, but it has not been tethered to the organization,” Wright said.
“It’s been disjointed. You would see a strategic plan online, but no one internally was marching towards those efforts.
“So right now, we are bringing those together, and they were actually on site yesterday, doing really incredible work, and will be here throughout the rest of the week to help us better understand our purpose.”
She also highlighted the addition of Jarrod Grasso as NAR’s first-ever senior vice president of industry relations as “so significant that it cannot be overstated” and that he and his team are in charge of breaking down “silos” internally at the trade group.
“Yes, you can say that we are strong in advocacy,” Wright said.
“Yes, you can say that we are strong in research. Yes, you can say that we are getting stronger in education and training. But you should also be able to not just cherry-pick specific aspects of the business, but understand how NAR brings the entire house to the transaction to help people go forward.”
Some in the crowd yelled “Yeah! Yeah!” in agreement.
Wright continued. “We are and should be the base camp of the industry. Regardless of what company you work for, at the end of the day, you should always be able to come back to NAR and understand how you can move to your next company, how you can move to the next tier in terms of profitability, how you can start your own brokerage… That is the true North.”
Wright noted that NAR has a new general counsel, Jon Waclawski, who is leading NAR’s effort towards “de-risking the portfolio” and said she wanted NAR to be “the first voice” to talk about what NAR is doing.
“You should be able to come to NAR to understand what the de-risking of the portfolio is, not listening to chatter out there, swapping ignorance on social media, but understanding exactly what we are doing,” Wright said.
Her comments spurred applause and laughter. One woman in the crowd declared, “She’s a badass.”
Regarding 2026’s expected revenue shortfall, Sears noted that for 2025, NAR had budgeted for fewer members — 1.4 million — and had cut nearly $20 million in expenses this year to account for that. For 2026, NAR expects “continued contraction on membership” and is therefore budgeting for 1.2 million members, according to Sears.
Since that means trimming an additional $32 million from the budget, Sears said the leadership team asked NAR’s staff to conduct a similar process to last year where cuts would “hurt us all equally.”
“We need to be able to maintain the products and tools and services and especially the advocacy that we’ve all come to expect, and I believe that in the budget that we’re presenting to the board on Thursday, you will see that,” Sears said.
Sears emphasized that NAR will not be raising dues after hearing from large brokerages who were left out of the antitrust settlement.
“Unfortunately, as part of the settlement, there was a carve-out of approximately 92 or 96 brokerages, and so they’ve had to negotiate their own settlement, and rightfully so, they’re upset now,” Sears said.
“We broke their trust overnight, and now we have slowly trying to rebuild it. One thing we heard loud and clear is: ‘Don’t increase dues. We can’t do it on our end. You shouldn’t do it on your end.’”
Consequently, NAR will instead take about $10 per member from its $45 per member special assessment for its consumer ad campaign to fund its budget and make sure that NAR can make its next, $72 million settlement payment by February 24, 2026, Sears and Wright said.
NAR can do this because at NAR’s annual conference last November, the NAR Executive Committee approved a motion that advocacy and consumer advertising campaign reserves “be used to fund NAR’s settlement obligations … and that the board designation for these funds be suspended for the duration of the settlement period.”
Wright also noted that at least 22 state Realtor associations around the country have their own consumer ad campaign budgets.
“So what we should be doing is leveraging the three-way agreement and working together to make sure … we are managing that at the local level, and that we are able to provide resources where we need them to be,” Wright said.
Inman has asked NAR for its current membership count and will update this story if and when a response is received.
The session ended with a brief presentation from Grasso on rebuilding relationships with local and state associations, the value of the three-way agreement, and the value of the Realtor brand. He displayed graphics NAR had created in the past week to illustrate that value.
Jarrod Grasso at “The Leadership Scoop” session at the Realtors Legislative Meetings in Washington D.C. on June 1, 2025
“Local associations: They are the boots on the ground. They’re the main point of contact. They are the foundation of our organization, and I wanted to make sure that I emphasize key components of what they do to bring value to the membership,” Grasso said.
“State associations back up those local associations, provide enhanced value, but also have strategic partnerships when it comes to our lobbying efforts on specific state issues.”
“The National Association of Realtors: We bring more value and connect all three levels,” he continued.
“We’ve got [NAR Chief Advocacy Officer] Shannon McGahn and her amazing team and the work that you’re going to do today and this week up on the Hill, making sure that we emphasize the issues that are impacting us.”
Graphic presented by Jarrod Grasso at “The Leadership Scoop” session at the Realtors Legislative Meetings in Washington D.C. on June 1, 2025
“The three way agreement is a true value,” he added.
“It’s part of the ecosystem. It’s what we bring to the members, and it’s a unique value that no other industry truly has.”
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