Don’t End Clear Cooperation

September 12, 2024 by Glenn Kelman

Today, the National Association of Realtors is considering proposals advanced by traditional brokers to undo the Clear Cooperation policy against pocket listings. This would hurt consumers.

Listing Cooperation Creates an Open, Fair Market

Buyers want to see all the homes for sale. Sellers want their listings to reach the most buyers. Studies show that sellers who withhold their listings from the MLS sell their home for less, sometimes losing more than $50,000.

Pocket Listings Are Part Of Our Exclusionary Past

Studies also show that the buyers most likely to lose access to pocket listings are buyers of color. No one should have to know the secret Facebook group to see a listing.

The MLS Now Fully Supports Private Sales and Direct Sales

Sure, plenty of homeowners would rather not put up pictures of their kitchen on the Internet, or invite the whole block to an open house. Many would prefer to pay one agent rather than two for a sale. The MLS now supports all of that, but most consumers don’t realize it.

Pocket Listings Benefit the Broker, Not the Consumer

And that’s because their brokers would rather promote pocket listings as a way to justify high fees and to build their own businesses. The brokers who oppose Clear Cooperation still want to post pictures of the listing to the Internet, but only on their own site. This puts the broker first and the customer second.

Clear Cooperation With Loopholes Is Better Than No Clear Cooperation At All

The Clear Cooperation policy isn’t perfect. It still lets the agents within one brokerage share listings with one another while withholding those listings from agents at other brokerages. But Clear Cooperation with this loophole is better than no Clear Cooperation at all.

If NAR Encourages Pocket Listings, Redfin At Some Point Will Have to Promote Them

Redfin has said in the past that we won’t pocket listings, even if the rules allow it. But if the NAR encourages brokers to pocket any listing that seems likely to sell quickly, we can’t continue to make that commitment. Setting aside the rules requiring us to share and share alike will be the beginning of the end of cooperation. Stand strong behind Clear Cooperation!

Glenn Kelman

Glenn is the CEO of Redfin. Prior to joining Redfin, he was a co-founder of Plumtree Software, a Sequoia-backed, publicly traded company that created the enterprise portal software market. In his seven years at Plumtree, Glenn at different times led engineering, marketing, product management, and business development; he also was responsible for financing and general operations in Plumtree's early days. Prior to starting Plumtree, Glenn worked as one of the first employees at Stanford Technology Group, a Sequoia-backed start-up acquired by IBM. Glenn was raised in Seattle and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a regular contributor to the Redfin blog and Twitter.

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