On Saturday August 15, 2024, the New MLS Rules resulting from the settlement in the Sitzer Burnett Commission lawsuit by NAR went into effect. Here is a summary of what those rules are based upon what NAR and Inman News is reporting:

• Eliminate any requirement of offers of compensation in the MLS between listing brokers or sellers to buyer brokers. Previously, NAR’s Participation Rule, also known as the cooperative compensation rule, required listing brokers to offer buyer brokers compensation to submit a listing to the MLS.
• Forbid agents, brokers, and sellers from making any offers of compensation in the MLS to buyer brokers and from disclosing listing broker compensation or total broker compensation in the MLS. This requires the MLS to eliminate all broker compensation data fields in the MLS.
• MLSs must not help agents, brokers, or sellers make offers of compensation to buyer brokers through any non-MLS mechanism, such as by providing MLS data to websites that function as a platform for offers of compensation from multiple brokers.
• Require brokers working with a buyer to enter into a written agreement before the buyer tours any home. If an agent or broker will receive compensation from any source, the written agreement with the buyer has to specify the amount or rate of compensation to be received or how that amount will be determined. The amount has to be “objectively ascertainable” and can’t be “open-ended.” The deal also specifies that the compensation an agent or broker receives for brokerage services can’t exceed the amount or rate agreed to in the buyer’s agreement.
• Require agents and brokers acting for sellers to, in writing, “conspicuously disclose” to sellers and get their approval for any payment or offer of payment that the listing broker or seller will make to a buyer representative. They also have to specify the amount or rate of the payment.
• Require agents and brokers to conspicuously disclose to prospective sellers and buyers “that broker commissions are not set by law and are fully negotiable.”
• MLSs must not provide the ability to filter out or limit MLS listings that are communicated to consumers based on the compensation offered to the buyer broker or the name of a brokerage or agent.

In order to comply with these settlement terms, some MLSs are instituting hefty fines. In fact, in one MLS alone that implemented these changes early, 39 agents reportedly received non-compliance notices. Whether or not they received a fine is unknown. Reports from other sources indicate fines as high as $2,500 have been issued in a number of other areas.

The bottom line is look to your broker, your MLS, your state association of realtors, and/or your company’s attorneys for guidance on how to move forward as all of this shakes out over the next few months.