Real estate giant Realogy® has publicly called for an end to the National Association of REALTORS®’s (NAR) requirement that listing brokers offer commissions to buyer brokers to submit listings to REALTOR® affiliated multiple listing services.  Realogy® is a defendant in the Moehrl and Sitzer home seller antitrust lawsuit along with. NAR, RE/Max, Keller Williams and HomeServices of America. 

Realogy®’s position became clearer in a recently unsealed court filing, filed on January 6, 2022. Michael Ryan Gorman, President and CEO of Realogy Brokerage Group, LLC and CEO of Coldwell Banker, LLC stated “As I testified during my deposition. It is the position of Realogy® that the mandatory nature of the NAR Cooperative Compensation Rule should be rescinded. It is also the position of Realogy®. That offers of compensation that are made to buyer brokers should be transparently available to consumers, not just brokers.”  

NAR Policy Statement 7.23 (from Handbook on Multiple Listing Policy says, “In filing property with the multiple listing service, participants make blanket unilateral offers of compensation to the other MLS participants and shall therefore specify on each listing led with the service the compensation being offered by the listing broker to the other MLS participants. This is necessary because cooperating participants have the right to know what their compensation will be prior to commencing their efforts to sell.” 

The vast majority of the 650 or so MLSs in the US are owned by or affiliated with REALTOR associations and are required to follow NAR policies or risk losing their charter. Many in the real estate industry contend that rescinding the rule would upend the industry forever changing the method of selling real estate in the United States.