As you have hopefully heard by now from all of our communications about it (and outside communications), the National Association of REALTORS® entered into a settlement regarding the various class actions lawsuits that had been filed across the country. As a result of the terms of that settlement, we are now required to make some MLS rule changes and process changes.
The primary rule changes are:
- A written agreement, such as a Residential Buyer’s Representation Agreement, must be signed before you conduct a showing, in person or virtually, of a property that is for sale. (There are specific items that must be included in the agreement, which is why we are recommending you use an updated Buyer’s Rep Agreement.)
- Any offer of compensation to the Buyer’s Agent must be communicated outside the MLS. (We will be required to remove all Compensation fields in the MLS and cannot allow any offers to be made in any other way using the MLS or any platform we operate.)
- We will be adding a new field to the MLS to communicate the possibility of the seller making a contribution or concession toward buyer expenses, but the contribution may not be conditioned on paying broker fees. It is up to the buyer to determine how the contribution is applied.
These specific changes for our MLS were just approved recently, so we wanted to make sure you have all of the latest information.
The best place to always have access to the latest information is www.har.com/settlement. This is updated regularly with FAQs and other materials.
IMPORTANT DATES:
JUNE 24 – Texas REALTORS® officially released updated forms as well as new forms to comply with the terms of the settlement.
JULY 9 – A new MLS field “Seller May Contribute to Buyer Expenses Up To: $________” will be added
AUGUST 16 – All compensation fields will be removed from the MLS
We have scheduled webinars that will cover an overview of the changes to the MLS, process, and the contracts/forms. Should we determine that there is a need for more webinars, we will add as needed. These will also be recorded for later viewing.
Webinar: Ready or Not, Change is Coming … What You Need to Know
Tuesday, July 9 • 11 a.m.- 12 p.m.
REGISTER HERE – Advanced registration is required.
For a more in-depth review of the contracts/forms changes—and new forms—you may take the below course. We are waiving any fee for this course to ensure our subscribers are able to continue to do business without any hiccups. Additionally, you will receive three hours of CE for taking this course.
Course: The Forms You Need to Know
You may click HERE to see next steps and what changes you will need to make as a listing or buyer broker/agent.
If you have a minimum of 25 attendees, a broker/manager may also request to have one of HAR’s member outreach specialists come present the changes at your office by going to https://cms.har.com/remote-learning/ or by emailing remotetraining@har.com.
We will continue to monitor the impact of these changes and are prepared to modify the rules down the road if we see they are not working as intended. If you have feedback about how it is working (not about the settlement since we have no control over that), you may email memberfeedback@har.com.
Change is not always easy, and HAR is here to do the best we can to make sure all of our subscribers are fully informed and able to continue to do business helping consumers buy and sell real estate.
