California Regional MLS (CRMLS) has decided to remove fields listing seller concessions from its platform.
In late May, CRMLS added a seller concessions-in-price data field to its platform, allowing listing agents and brokers to list how much a seller was willing to contributes toward the buyer’s transaction costs, which could include their buyer representation fee.
The nation’s largest MLS also added a field to indicate whether the amount being offered was a dollar amount of a percentage of the sales price of the home. Initially, CRMLS said it added these fields in preparation to deal with the business practice changes outlined in the National Association of Realtors’ nationwide commission lawsuit settlement agreement.
One such change outlined in the settlement is the banning of offers of buyer broker compensation from the MLS.
CRMLS said that it is keeping the “Yes” or “No” field, which allows for listing agents to indicate if their seller will consider concessions, but it is removing the field indicating the dollar amount or percentage the seller is willing to consider.
Art Carter, the CEO of CRMLS, said these changes were brought about by the modified forms released by California Association of Realtors. The modified forms, including the Residential Listing Agreement (RLA) and the Multiple Listing Service Addendum (MLSA), do not include offers of broker-to-broker compensation. This change came after the Department of Justice launched an inquiry into CAR’s forms.
Additionally, CAR’s updated RLA form does not include any references to seller concessions. Discussions of seller concessions have instead been moved to the MLSA, which has been modified to allow sellers to indicate if they do or do not authorize their listing broker to advertise in the MLS that they are willing to consider offers asking for concessions. The updated MLSA also notes that even if the MLS used by the agent allows for it, “no amount of the possible concession will be stated in MLS, either as a percent of the purchase price or a flat fee, unless Seller notifies Broker in writing of the amount.”
CAR released its updated forms last week.