Homeowners in Washington state are being asked to “take action” and join a potential class-action lawsuit against Northwest MLS on a new website called Washington Homeowner Rights—backed by Compass.
The site sports the tagline “Washington State Homeowners Deserve the Same Freedom as Everyone Else,” and specifically solicits homesellers who experienced a public price drop, stayed on the market longer than expected and were unable to protect their privacy during the sale.
“At the center of the issue is the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS)—a private, broker-owned listing platform that controls 100% of residential listings in Washington State,” the website alleges.
The potential lawsuit boils down to NWMLS’ use of Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP). The website alleges that NWMLS’ ban of pre-marketing and off-MLS marketing leaves sellers “no choice but to fully expose their listing immediately—leading to longer days on market and price reductions that may hurt their bottom line.”
NWMLS President and CEO Justin Haag is an open supporter of CCP, having recently advocated for it surrounding the National Association of REALTORS®’ (NAR) decisions on the policy.
“Recently, some brokerage firms have advocated for MLS rules that facilitate hiding property listings from consumers, and lobbied the real estate industry to accommodate those exclusionary practices,” he said. “Those efforts are not for the benefit of sellers or buyers, but are instead designed to benefit those brokerage firms by entrenching them as the gatekeepers of property listings.”
Haag continued, “Proponents of hiding listings masquerade their self-dealing as offering ‘seller choice.’ They argue that sellers somehow benefit from not making their listing available to all potential buyers. They don’t.”
A spokesperson from Compass confirmed that the company created the site, and shared the following statement:
“We’re proud to support Washington homeowners who are asking the right question: Why are they the only ones in America without a choice in how they sell their homes? The NWMLS system wasn’t built to serve homeowners—it was built to preserve the power of the NWMLS. We’re standing with homeowners who want something simple: the right to decide how their home is sold.”
Compass CEO Robert Reffkin has spoken out multiple times against CCP, commenting on it during several of the company’s recent earnings calls and at RISMedia’s CEO & Leadership Exchange last fall.
Reffkin has said previously that he thinks “it’s not ‘clear cooperation.’ I think it’s forced cooperation,” and questioned if it was really important or needed.
Reffkin has also previously noted that many agents have frustrations with the policy: “Agents are my clients. I work for them, not the other way around. And they are infuriated across the country for being fined $5,000 for doing what their clients say to keep a listing off the MLS for more than one day and still have public marketing.”
NWMLS and Washington Homeowner Rights did not offer comment at press time.
This follows NAR’s recent announcement that it will not be making any changes to CCP but is adding a new listing category that will fall under a policy called “Multiple Listing Options for Sellers.” NAR stated that the new option will allow MLSs to introduce “delayed marketing exempt listings” that are not circulated through IDX for a period of time “most suitable for their local marketplace.”