LEGAL?
Absolutely! Offers of compensation to buyers' agents from another agent or home seller are prohibited on MLSs. However, buyers and sellers can still explore compensation options outside of the MLS through discussions and negotiations with real estate professionals. Members of Compensation Quest (CQ) can share their listing addresses along with any commissions or bonuses they might have—just as long as they don't post this information on their MLS. CQ has no affiliation with NAR or any MLS, our members are not mandated to post their listings or commission details on our site. For all the brokers and agents who have concerns, we've broken down the details in simple to understand language of the settlement below. Super-Simple? Agents noir Sellers can post compensations to buyer's agents on any MLS!
THE NEW RULES BELOW APPLY TO NAR AND MLS’s TO IMPLIMENT. AS A REALTOR YOU MUST OBEY THESE RULES REGARDING COMPENSATION ON MLS’s. AS A REALTOR ACTING AS A LISTING AGENT YOU HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO YOUR SELLERS, IT IS WISE TO ADVISE YOUR SELLERS TO LIST THEIR PROPERTY ON YOUR MLS BUT IT IS NOT MANDATORY. IT IS WISE TO MARKET YOUR SELLER’S PROPERTY TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY FOR THE PURPOSE TO BRING YOUR SELLER THE BEST OFFER POSSIBLE AND IF YOU CHOOSE TO BE A MEMBER OF CQ TO LIST YOUR SELLER’S PROPERTY ADDRESS AND OFFER COMPENSATION TO ANOTHER REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONAL TO ACHIEVE THE BEST OFFER POSSIBLE IT IS LEGAL AS LONG AS IT IS CLEARLY WRITTEN ON AN AMANDMENT OR A SEPARATE ADDENDUM OR IN YOUR LISTING CONTRACT WHERE IT SAYS “ADDITIONAL TERMS” AND SIGNED BY YOUR SELLER OR SELLERS.
The Agreement Explained in Simpler Terms
Item H, Practice: Paragraph 58: of the settlement agreement stated in simple language.
Language Simplified Key Words & Phrases.
As soon as practicable, and in no event later than the date of Class notice (as provided in paragraph 30 of this settlement agreement will implement the following practice changes.)
NAR and MLSs Agree to
- Eliminate and prohibit NAR , REALTOR, MLSs or Member Boards that Listing Brokers or Sellers must make offers of compensation to Buyer’s Brokers or Buyer’s Representatives. IN SHORT, THE AUTHORITY CAN NO LONGER MANDATE LISTING AGENTS OFFERS OF COMPENSATION TO BUYER’S AGENTS ON MLS’s. PRIOR TO THIS LAWSUIT, LISTING AGENTS WERE MANDATED TO LIST COMPENSATIONS TO BUYER’S AGENTS ON MLSs.
- Prohibit REALTOR, MLS participants, subscribers, other Real Estate Brokers, other real estate agents, and their sellers (a) making an offer of compensation on the MLS to buyer’s brokers or buyer’s representatives. (b) or disclosing any broker compensation on MLSs.
- Require all MLSs to eliminate all compensation fields on MLS and MLS listing entry forms.
- Eliminate and prohibit the requirement to list compensations on MLSs.
- NAR and MLSs agree not to create, facilitate, or support any non-MLS mechanism (including by providing listing information to an internet aggregators’ website for such purpose (definition: An internet aggregator is a person or organization that collects information from other websites (Compensation Quest (CQ) members post their listing addresses and compensation directly to the CQ website with their seller’s signed consent.) and puts it in one place. This information can be in the form of news stories, website updates, or other data. Aggregators can be websites or software applications). ) for listing brokers or sellers to make offers of compensation to buyer brokers or other buyer representatives (either directly or through buyers), however, this provision is not violated by (a) a REALTOR® MLS providing data or data feeds (The information CQ members provide to the CQ website is not data from MLSs or an MLS data feed. The data is provided directly by a licensed real estate listing agent who is also a CQ member who has the home sellers signed consent to do so before, on the Day of or after the property details get posted on an MLS) to a REALTOR®, REALTOR® MLS Participant, or third party unless the REALTOR® MLS knows those data or data feeds are being used directly or indirectly to establish or maintain a platform for offers of compensation from multiple brokers (i.e., the REALTOR® MLS cannot intentionally circumvent this requirement); or (b) a REALTOR® or REALTOR® MLS Participant displaying both (1) data or data feeds from a REALTOR® MLS and (2) (note a continued sentence) offers of compensation to buyer brokers or other buyer representatives but only on listings from their own brokerage;
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