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4 days after the Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors issued a cease-and-desist letter over its MLS Selection membership, Phoenix Realtors has responded.
Andy Fegley | Credit score: LinkedIn
“We cannot be clearer with our intent behind MLS Choice: This is one more option that is both legally sound and a responsible offering to a changing industry,” PAR CEO Andy Fegley stated in an emailed assertion to Inman late Monday. “MLS Choice is not and never will be a Realtor membership. It is a fee-based subscription. There is a difference between increasing choice and replacing it, and we will always proudly support and champion Realtors.”
“We are surprised to learn that NAR would view increased options as a threat, and we’ve engaged in meaningful discussion with them to help alleviate their confusion,” he added. “Our primary goal is to engage in an amicable path forward with NAR so that we can best serve our industry’s real estate professionals.”
Fegley additionally shared PAR’s counsel’s letter to NAR, which reiterated the variations between NAR and MLS Selection memberships and outlined the rules that help the creation of MLS-only merchandise for non-Realtors.
“NAR asserts that MLS Choice is a PAR ‘membership option’ and that ‘PAR is allowing real estate licensees to become a member [sic] of PAR through ‘MLS Choice’ without joining the state or national association,” the letter learn. “As PAR has explained repeatedly, MLS Choice does no such thing … Like other associations across the country, PAR has offered an MLS-only product for years — for example, MLS access to non-Realtor builders. MLS Choice is not a departure from that.”
MLS Selection — previously often known as MLS Solely — has lengthy been utilized by Arizona brokers in instances the place brokers aren’t required to keep up three-way memberships to entry the Arizona Regional A number of Itemizing Service. That choice was made potential by a 1994 NAR rule that eradicated the requirement that members in Realtor-association MLSs should be Realtor affiliation members. That left MLSs to resolve whether or not subscribers wanted to be Realtor members, which has remained a standard requirement right now.
Non-Realtors can subscribe to MLS Selection for $249 to realize entry to state-compliant kinds, authorized assist and persevering with training with out becoming a member of NAR, the Arizona Affiliation of Realtors or PAR. Brokers becoming a member of MLS Selection can’t name themselves Realtors and received’t have entry to NAR advocacy, enterprise instruments, training alternatives and certifications — variations which are specified by a color-coded chart on PAR’s web site.
“As the chart makes clear, using easy-to-understand colors and graphical depictions, MLS Choice does not include membership in PAR,” the letter learn. “Nor does it include benefits of any level of association membership. Instead, MLS Choice is an option for brokers to subscribe to MLS and other educational and business services that NAR does not dispute may be offered by PAR to non-Realtors.”
PAR’s counsel stated the cease-and-desist letter is in the end a manufactured alternative to defend its three-way settlement coverage, which is at the middle of a number of antitrust lawsuits in California, Texas and Michigan. PAR claimed NAR turned conscious of MLS Selection on Oct. 15, when NAR First Vice President-Elect Christine Hansen allegedly realized about MLS Selection from a neighboring affiliation and instructed fellow NAR leaders. Nonetheless, PAR stated NAR waited till Dec. 18 to ship its demand.
“NAR left PAR a mere three business days to obtain counsel, discern NAR’s poorly articulated concerns, which NAR could have raised any time in the preceding eight weeks, and attempt to address them,” the letter learn. “PAR questions NAR’s motivation in waiting until the eve of two major winter holidays to raise its concerns, but nonetheless PAR immediately retained counsel … PAR recognizes that NAR wants an occasion to defend its ‘three-way agreement’ requiring licensees to belong to local, state, and national associations to receive Realtor benefits, but this is not that occasion.”
PAR’s counsel stated they spoke with NAR on methods to make MLS Selection promotional materials “even more clear” in regards to the variations between the memberships, however NAR and its counsel have been allegedly “expressly uninterested” in any choices outdoors of PAR canceling the membership.
Nonetheless, PAR stated it’s unwilling to withdraw the MLS Selection choice and can cost ahead with its rollout, regardless of NAR’s authorized menace.
“PAR respectfully asks that NAR reconsider its position and engage in meaningful conversation about solutions rather than using NAR’s substantial financial superiority to quash PAR’s effort to innovate and serve the demands of the real estate market,” the letter ended. “There is no doubt that NAR’s now nationally publicized threats against PAR will, as NAR seems to have intended, chill the innovation of other associations and MLSs.”
“Nevertheless, if NAR is willing to talk, PAR would like to hear, listen, and engage in discussion,” it added. “But PAR will not categorically withdraw MLS Choice which you told me is the only response to the Demand that NAR will accept.”
Inman reached out to NAR about PAR’s letter, and an affiliation spokesperson stated NAR is resolute in its stance about MLS Selection. The subsequent step, they stated, shall be revoking Phoenix Realtors constitution.
“Under their charters from NAR, state and local associations are prohibited from adopting any practice inconsistent with NAR’s bylaws and Constitution,” the spokesperson instructed Inman in an emailed assertion. “Phoenix REALTORS is violating NAR’s bylaws and Constitution by offering a non-REALTOR membership option. NAR has no choice but to take action to defend the REALTOR trademark, our integrated model, and the members and consumers they serve.”
“Without action, we put the benefits NAR members rely on—such as market research, business resources, a unified advocacy platform, and a single Code of Ethics—and the organization itself at risk,” they added. “NAR has begun the process—as outlined in our bylaws—to revoke Phoenix REALTORS’ charter. As a next step, Phoenix REALTORS will have an opportunity to meet and discuss with a panel of NAR’s Executive Committee. Should the local association continue to violate NAR policy, a hearing before a larger panel of our Executive Committee will be scheduled.”
Lesley Muchow
In a earlier Inman article, NAR Basic Counsel Lesley Muchow stated PAR’s protection of MLS Selection falls flat, as NAR already doesn’t require brokers to be Affiliation members to entry an MLS.
“[Realtor associations] are chartered to strengthen the Realtor organization to benefit its members and the consumers they serve and set and enforce standards for ethical real estate practices,” Muchow stated within the electronic mail to NAR’s board of administrators and affiliation leaders. “To be clear, NAR does not require that real estate professionals be members of a Realtor association to access an MLS. MLS participation is determined at the local level.”
“NAR continues to promote competition and supports pro-consumer local broker marketplaces,” she added. “This is a matter of maintaining standards for the Realtor brand as we always have and will continue to do.”
