A Phil Hall Op-Ed: A most fascinating spat is taking place in Arizona, where the trade group Phoenix Realtors has found itself in the crosshairs of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) over an innovative program that could represent a positive new chapter in the real estate profession – provided NAR doesn’t screw things up.
Phoenix Realtors is planning to ring in the New Year with MLS Choice, a program that provides real estate professionals with the option to obtain MLS access in a very different way.
“This is the first time brokers will be able to offer their agents the opportunity to access both the MLS and legal forms, along with several existing benefits, outside of the traditional three-tier membership system with local, state and national associations,” said Phoenix Realtors on its website.
Phoenix Realtors stressed this was possible because “NAR changed its mandatory MLS policy at the 1994 NAR Mid Year Meetings to eliminate the requirement that participants in realtor-association MLSs must be realtor association members. As a result each MLS may determine for itself whether non-members will or will not be permitted to participate in the MLS.”
Phoenix Realtors added the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) has allowed for non-member participants since the time of the 1994 policy change. However, the real estate professionals who sign up for MLS Choice cannot call themselves realtors – or to be more precise, REALTORS® – and they are not able to enjoy any of the member benefits provided by the state and national associations. But for those who are only interested in MLS access, Phoenix Realtors is offering MLS Choice at $249 per year plus ARMLS fees per agent.
“We believe that the real estate landscape is evolving, and we want to continue to evolve with it,” Phoenix Realtors added.
Well, it seems that NAR does not want to evolve in the manner that Phoenix Realtors views as change for the better. NAR’s General Counsel Lesley Muchow sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Arizona group while informing the NAR membership via an email that the embattled association would take “necessary action” to remove MLS Choice from Phoenix Realtors’ offerings.
Muchow claimed the three-tier local-state-national membership structure is being violated by this program, although she acknowledged that NAR doesn’t require agents to be members of the association to access an MLS.
“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,” Muchow wrote the email that the folks at Real Estate News obtained. “NAR continues to promote competition and supports pro-consumer local broker marketplaces. This is a matter of maintaining standards for the Realtors brand as we always have and will continue to do.”
Never mind that the “brand” has been battered and bruised throughout 2024 through an astonishing skein of self-inflicted injuries from the poorly advised decision to settle the Sitzer/Burnett case (which plunged the profession into a state of panic) and the too-many poor decisions by NAR’s executive leadership that played out in salacious media reports throughout the year (I am sure the New York Times is pushing Debra Kamin’s series on NAR’s failings for a Pulitzer Prize next spring). And never mind that NAR decided it would rather hire an advertising agency to spin its way out of this mess with gauzy marketing rather than engage in serious self-analysis and self-help.
Real estate professionals should not have to be bullied into taking out association memberships they don’t want. Phoenix Realtors’ MLS Choice represents a bold step forward in reinforcing a sense of camaraderie and pride in a profession that’s been under political and media scrutiny for too long.
My advice, for what it’s worth, is for NAR to stand back and let MLS Choice roll out in January – for all we know, it could be a flop. But if it succeeds, perhaps it offers the best step forward for a profession that needs to evolve and not remain prisoner to a status quo that isn’t working.
Phil Hall is editor of WRE News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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