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Stay informed with the latest updates and essential details regarding the recent NAR settlement. As a valued member of the South Central Wisconsin MLS, we want to provide you easy access to necessary information and resources.
Important Dates
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The following changes will be made within the SCWMLS late in the day on Friday, August 16, 2024:
The NAR settlement is very clear that MLSs can no longer be a vehicle to communicate offers of compensation. For the protection of all, do not seek alternate ways (i.e. within photos, associated docs, showing instructions, hyperlinks within remarks, etc.) to include compensation offers within the MLS. If your seller is offering to pay the buyer’s agent fee, you can market this outside of the MLS. For example, you can include compensation for your listings on your agent or firm website, on the for-sale sign, within social media posts, etc.
Communicating Seller Concessions:
The NAR settlement allows seller offered concessions to continue being communicated via the MLS. However, per the settlement, a concession offered via the MLS cannot be conditioned on the payment to a buyer’s firm.
As has always been the case, concessions offered by the seller are allowed in the public and private MLS remarks fields. As transparency has been in the forefront of the NAR settlement, we recommend including any concession your seller is making to a buyer within the public MLS remarks. Concessions in the MLS remarks should be specific as to what the concession is for (i.e. roof repair, carpet allowance, buyer closing costs). Do not include concessions in the MLS that are conditioned on the payment to a buyer’s agent/firm. Concessions communicated via the MLS are not a replacement for communicating offers of compensation or commission.
Q: Would it be okay to add a comment in remarks that the seller is offering a 3% concession to buyer for buyer fees at closing while not specifying it as commission?
A: If any of the 3% is intended to go to the buyer’s firm/agent, then putting this in the MLS would be a violation of the NAR settlement terms.
Q: I will be including commission offerings on my website. Can I include a link to my website within the MLS public remarks and/or the broker to broker remarks?
A: No. The NAR settlement prohibits any links from MLS to an offer of compensation to the buyer’s firm/agent.
Q: Is it still okay to indicate within the MLS remarks that there are fees a buyer or buyer’s representative would need to pay at closing, such as a management fee?
A: Yes, as long as the fees referenced are not conditioned on the payment TO a buyer’s firm/agent, they can continue to be included.
Q: Since commission/compensation offerings can no longer be included in the broker remarks, how should offices handle offering one commission amount to SCWMLS & Rock-Green members and a different commission amount to members of other MLSs?
A: Until the subagent & buyer agent commission fields are removed on 8/16, the lesser amount can be entered in the commission fields, and the listing agent can contact any SCW or Rock-Green members who show the property to notify them of the higher commission offering. Another option would be to leave the commission fields blank to prompt calls. Once the commission fields are removed on 8/16, any offers of compensation will need to be communicated outside of the MLS (ex: via agent/firm website, for sale sign, social media, etc.).
Q: ShowingTime currently allows agents to load Listing Attachments that are automatically sent to showing agents once a showing appointment is requested. Can these extra documents be used to communicate commission offers? What about using email or text messages from within the ShowingTime platform to communicate commission offers?
A: No to both. Just as associated documents, text messaging, and emails in Paragon cannot be used for this purpose, Listing Attachments, text messaging, and emails in ShowingTime cannot be used for this purpose either. The language via the NAR Settlement is as follows: The MLS cannot create, facilitate, or support any non-MLS mechanism (including by providing listing information to an internet aggregator’s website for such purpose) for Participants, Subscribers, or sellers to make offers of compensation to buyer brokers or other buyer representatives. As we support ShowingTime as an integrated MLS product, ShowingTime cannot be utilized to communicate offers of compensation.
Written Agreement Required Before Showing: Beginning August 17, agents working with a buyer will be required to enter into a written agreement with the buyer prior to touring a listed property (including virtually) with that buyer. This requirement can be satisfied with a Buyer Agency Agreement, but can also be satisfied with a written buyer agreement if working as a subagent or during pre-agency. The WRA has created a new Pre-Agency Showing Agreement to address the requirements of the settlement.
Existing Policy Letters: As stipulated in the settlement, a listing firm must conspicuously disclose to sellers, and obtain seller approval, for any payment or offer of payment that the listing firm or seller will make to another firm acting for buyers. Therefore, as of August 17, any existing blanket compensation agreement, such as a typical policy letter, will be in violation of the terms of the settlement, as it would have been entered into before the required disclosure and approval per transaction. More information can be found here.
The new WRA forms and WB forms (optional use date 7/1; mandatory use date 8/15) are not yet available on zipForms. When the forms become available, you will be notified upon log in to zipForms and through WRA’s hot tips/weekly emails. The WRA is currently anticipating that all the new forms will be posted to zipForms during the week of 7/15. For now, please access forms via the WRA Forms Library.
The WB forms are also available through the DSPS Real Estate Contractual Forms Library.
List of Updated Forms:
For more information on the forms revision process and content changes within the forms, please read the July 2024 WRA Legal Update, “The WB Forms They Are A-Changin”.
In addition, the WRA legal team is currently filming educational videos for each of the updated and new forms. Watch the WRA Antitrust Resource Page for the Legal Update Live and additional education posts.
Landlord Tenant Forms: Given recent litigation in the landlord tenant realm, the WRA has updated the WRA Residential Lease, WRA Rental Contract, and the WRA Rental Notice. For more information, see Debbi Conrad’s summary regarding changes at https://email.wra.org/legal-news-7.1.24.
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Thank you for being a part of the SCWMLS community. We’re committed to keeping you informed and supported through this transition.