NAR repeals rule requiring membership for MLS access, leaves decision to locals

From INMAN News by Taylor Anderson

In an ongoing effort to decrease the risk of future antitrust complaints, the National Association of Realtors voted at its ongoing NXT conference this weekend to update a slate of rules related to access to multiple listing services.

The organization specifically voted to repeal a rule — Policy Statement 7.7 from the MLS Handbook — stating NAR was “firmly and unequivocally committed” to the principle of requiring membership for access to Realtor-affiliated MLSs. The vote took place Sunday in a closed meeting.

Access to the MLS, the group said in a statement, instead “is a matter of local discretion” — and it moved to approve various changes aimed at reinforcing that principle.

The update followed a series of meetings at NAR’s annual conference in Houston, which began last week and ran through the weekend.

“These updates to the MLS Handbook strengthen and modernize NAR’s policies and reflect our efforts to align MLS policies with how real estate professionals do business today,” NAR past-President Kevin Sears said in a statement.

NAR is still leaning into its support of the three-way agreement that requires members to join the state, local and national associations.

The committee that recommended repealing the requirement encouraged education around the deletion of the policy and a local MLS’s decision on whether or not to allow non-Realtors to have access.

“MLSs will seek assurance that they can still require association membership locally and deem it a reasonable requirement,” the updated policy statement says.

Among 17 other changes made, NAR will also no longer require local Realtor associations to alert the state and national associations if someone requests access to the MLS but isn’t a Realtor member.

The policy was rarely enforced, NAR said, and the local associations should control who gets access to the MLS.

NAR additionally repealed a 1990s-era requirement that MLSs must be named in a way that “rationally” relates to the area being served. The policy wasn’t enforced and there was no apparent way to approve names.