Unlike in virtually all other areas of the country, private listings are barred by the NWMLS.
New York-based Compass has taken aim at the local prohibition, sparking a federal lawsuit and plenty of industry controversy. This spring, Seattle-area Compass agents listed a handful of private exclusive properties before the NWMLS cut off the company’s access to its data feed in April, essentially forcing Compass to relent.
Even as Compass has halted private exclusive listings here because of local rules, a small share of Seattle-area properties are already sold without full transparency. Some homeowners want to sell to a neighbor or family member without broad advertising. Wealthy people, celebrities and homeowners with security concerns sometimes sell their properties off-market. Agents working with privacy-conscious sellers may skirt the NWMLS rules or submit listings and get permission to not have the property displayed broadly.
OP Note: I don’t think this is just about listing days on the market. This is probably more about racism, since you have to sign in to see anything and I’m sure they pay for data brokers.
A truly private transaction is different from what is being discussed here because it doesn’t involve an MLS listing at all. The issue is agents trying to play both sides by keeping ostensibly “public” listings inside the brokerage so they get both commissions, which is a practice explicitly banned by every real estate ethics body. Simply put, if you use MLS then you need to show the property to anyone who asks to see it. You can’t just say “we are only going to show this to a preferred client list” or instruct the sellers to disregard offers from other agencies.
Right. The sentence I quoted was kind of wedged in with the reporting on what you’re stating. So it seemed like associating the two, and I didnt really see the direct private sale as something to have lumped in (to report on as something nefarious).