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Dear MLS PIN Subscriber,

 

As you are probably aware, MLS PIN and the plaintiffs in the Nosalek class-action lawsuit have reached a proposed settlement. If approved by the court, the proposed settlement will result in several changes to MLS PIN's Rules and Regulations regarding compensation offers to cooperating brokers. As you are also probably aware, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) has reached its own proposed settlement with private-party plaintiffs in two separate lawsuits. Like our settlement, the proposed NAR settlement has not yet received final court approval.

 

After careful review, MLS PIN has chosen not to join the proposed NAR settlement. Instead, MLS PIN has decided to move forward with its own proposed settlement with the Nosalek plaintiffs. Even though MLS PIN's rules changes presented as part of the settlement in Boston are still awaiting final court approval, MLS PIN has decided to start implementing those rules changes now.

Effective immediately, we can accept listings of property for sale without offers of cooperating compensation. If your seller instructs you not to offer compensation, enter a value of 0 into the compensation fields in Pinergy. We would also remind all subscribers that MLS PIN's Rules and Regulations have never prohibited the seller, the buyer, the listing broker, and the cooperating broker from negotiating and mutually agreeing upon any compensation that differs from the value in MLS PIN.

 

Soon, we will roll out additional changes set forth in the proposed settlement. First and most importantly, offers of compensation, if any, will be made by the seller. Listing brokers and cooperating brokers will no longer split commissions. Second, listing agreements must disclose that the seller is neither required to offer compensation nor required to accede to any cooperating broker's request for compensation. The listing broker must disclose this to the seller before the seller signs the listing agreement. Third, if a seller elects to offer compensation, the listing agreement must also say that the cooperating broker will be an intended third-party beneficiary of the agreement with the right to enforce the same. Finally, before posting a listing, the listing broker must certify, in a checkbox designated for this purpose in Pinergy, that it has notified the seller of the seller's rights not to offer compensation and not to accede to a cooperating broker's request for compensation. 


Click here for a flyer summarizing the above changes.

MLS PIN will implement the proposed changes to our MLS system, Pinergy, that differ from NAR's settlement as soon as possible, and we will keep you apprised of this timeline. In the meantime, the update that MLS PIN can accept property listings for sale without offers of cooperating compensation is now in effect.

 

Please remember that the Court has yet to officially approve these changes. If the Court in Boston does not approve our settlement, we may need to further modify our rules and Pinergy or revert to our previous rules. 

 

We recognize that education and training will be necessary to incorporate the abovementioned changes when updates are officially made to Pinergy. We will provide further communication, video, timelines, and details in the following weeks. Please watch for more information directly from MLS PIN, as we remain the most reliable news source regarding MLS PIN updates.

 

We thank you for your patience and look forward to assisting you in any way we can now and in the future. 



Your MLS PIN Team
 
 

MLS Property Information Network, Inc. | 904 Hartford Turnpike | Shrewsbury, MA 01545 US

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