Clear Cooperation, embraced by agents, divides real estate clients

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Real estate professionals — ever striving to get their clients’ listings in front of more potential buyers — largely continue to support industry rules that require posting most listings on the MLS.

But many clients side instead with providing more options for the seller — particularly in the area of homeseller privacy.

A group of 3,000 working U.S. adults polled last week as part of the Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey revealed that potential clients were both more uncertain and more divided than real estate agents on issues related to the National Association of Realtors’ Clear Cooperation Policy.

These survey results shed new light on some of the thorniest sticking points at the heart of the debate over seller privacy vs. transaction transparency.

And they reveal the uphill battle that many real estate agents would face trying to convince some clients of the benefits of posting their listing on the MLS, if Clear Cooperation were ever rescinded.

Read the full breakdown in the report below.

A distant prospect

A large sample of consumers — intended to be representative of the adult U.S. labor force — appears to not have a strong opinion on Clear Cooperation, and those who do are split on the issue.

• 37 percent of working U.S. adults in Intel’s January consumer survey said they “prefer to have the option to withhold” their listing from the MLS when selling a home.
• Another 33 percent said they believe their agent “should be required” to list their property on the MLS.
• The remaining 30 percent said they were not sure, or needed more information.

Working U.S. adults were also split on two related questions.

• When pushed to pick which statement they agreed with more, 53 percent of consumers sided with the idea that homesellers “don’t have enough options” to protect their privacy from buyers.
• This notion won out by a slim margin over the competing concept that homebuyers “don’t have access to enough information” about for-sale properties, which was chosen by 47 percent of respondents.
• However, when pushed on the specific question of whether a homeseller should have the option to keep their home’s “days on market” private, consumers by a small margin sided with buyers (54 percent) over sellers (46 percent).

Most consumers do not appear to be intimately familiar with the details of Clear Cooperation. And their attitudes appear to depend partly on which specific consequence of the policy is brought to their attention.

A significant share of consumers who believe homeseller privacy should be prioritized more than it currently is are careful to note that this shouldn’t go as far as allowing the seller to withhold certain critical details from the buyer, including how long the property has been sitting on the market unsold.

But the results above reflect a broad pool of consumer sentiment, including people who have never bought a home and are not particularly close to entering the market.

The consumers that real estate agents work with on a day-to-day basis have a distinctly different outlook on these questions.

What today’s clients believe

Among active homebuyers currently on the market in early January — a group that was engaged much more closely with the homebuying process — a far more defined, seller-friendly picture emerged.

• 79 percent of active homebuyers in early January who were listing a home as part of their search said that they preferred to have the option to withhold their property from the MLS, while only 16 percent said they believed their agent should be required to list their property.
• 84 percent of active buyers who were listing a home sided with the broad notion of a seller’s right to privacy over a buyer’s right to information.
• 73 percent of active buyers who were listing a home said that homesellers should have the option to keep private how long their home has been sitting on the market unsold, compared to only 27 percent who said homebuyers should be able to see how long the property has been sitting on the market.

As expected, first-time buyers and renters who were actively shopping for homes in early January were less likely to side with sellers. 

Still, even a significant chunk of this group seemed responsive to the idea that their home, once purchased, should not be required to be posted to the MLS when they turn around to sell it later.

• 46 percent of first-time buyers and renters who were actively shopping for a home said they thought homesellers should have the option to withhold their property from the MLS, outnumbering the 30 percent who said their agent should be required to list the property.
• 57 percent of first-time buyers and renters sided with homeseller privacy over homebuyer information, a far narrower majority than among active shoppers who were listing a home.
• And 58 percent of buyers who were not also listing a home for sale said homesellers should have the option to keep a property’s “days on market” private from buyers, compared to 42 percent who said buyers should have access to that information.

Clear Cooperation remains a complicated issue that many consumers struggle to grasp. Agents, in their dealings with clients, are likely to make the case that MLS is the best place for listings to reach the most potential buyers.

And many clients may buy into these arguments. But broadly speaking, real estate clients were open to alternatives that gave more options to the seller.

About the Inman-Dig Insights Consumer Survey

The Inman-Dig Insights consumer survey was conducted from Jan. 7 through Jan. 8 to gauge the opinions and behaviors of Americans related to homebuying. 

The survey sampled a diverse group of 3,000 American adults, who ranged in age from 24 to 65 and were employed either full-time or part-time. The participants were selected to produce a broadly representative breakdown by age, gender and region.

Statistical rigor was maintained throughout the study, and the results should be largely representative of attitudes held by U.S. adults with full- or part-time jobs. Both Inman and Dig Insights are majority-owned by Toronto-based Beringer Capital.

Email Daniel Houston