A well capitalized brokerage underwriting a single MLS’s national footprint challenges the geographic MLS model that has organized this industry for a century. Every regional MLS should be discussing what that means for its market, its Participants and Subscribers, and its future.
The decree’s core principle fits in one sentence: a broker may not decide what a rival broker’s customers are allowed to see. Display decisions belong to the seller. Data flows to every cooperating broker on cost based, equal terms.
This requires a fundamental shift in how we think about professional value. It’s no longer about what you know that others don’t—it’s about how effectively you can apply that knowledge to serve others.
Real estate isn’t a game, but it is a profession grounded in credibility and a belief in fairness. And right now, the Department of Justice is making one thing clear—competition in the industry isn’t just a value; it’s a legal imperative. Whether through antitrust litigation, scrutiny of cooperative compensation, or the push for open access to listing data, the message is the same: if consumers don’t have real choices, the system isn’t working.
Roger P. Alford will serve as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Mr. Alford previously served in the first Trump Administration as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division, including as an expert witness in the landmark 2023 real estate $1.8 billion litigation against the National Association of Realtors
The most difficult questions focused on why the DOJ took the position that the written buyer agreements required to show a property were possibly an antitrust violation.
This practice does not benefit buyers, who must foot the bill through higher home purchase prices, regardless of the extent or quality of their brokers’ services or whether they would have otherwise been willing to pay for those services at all.
The competition has always been fierce among seller agents to create listing presentations in order to secure the sacred listing. However, there was little competition among those wanting to represent buyers, other than the inevitable procuring cause disputes between brokers who provided specific services to the unrepresented buyer.
We agree with the attorney’s expectation of a DOJ intervention. And I’ll add our prediction that we will hear from the DOJ by the end of October. Webase that prediction on signals from the DOJ in a series of pleadings and actions over the past 4 years and before,
The antitrust laws protect competition in both upstream and downstream product markets. The Sherman Act “does not confine its protection to consumers, or to purchasers, or to competitors, or to sellers.”
MLS Listing Data… I was actively involved in the national real estate data conversations when IDX and VOW entered our real estate lexicon. IDX and
“Zillow, Windermere stick with scandal-rocked national Realtor group” I thought this might be the case when I heard Redfin pulled out. An opportunity for other
In light of the proposed NAR Settlement’s requirement of a written Buyer Agreement prior to touring a listed property, Zillow announced the release of a
