[Music]

Hello everyone and Welcome to another

episode of Selling Greenville your

favorite real estate podcast here in

Greenville, South Carolina, I'm your host

as always Stan McCune realtor right here

in Greenville, South Carolina, you can

find all of my contact information in

the show notes if you need to reach out

to me for any of your Greenville or even

outside of Greenville real estate needs

I can't help you outside of the

Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Greater

Greenville area, except that I've got a

relocations department with my company

so I can help you there also if you're a

realtor, you need some help you're not

really sure where your career is going

I'm your guy I have a team I can bring

you onto my team and one of my passions

right now is mentorship; that's something

I would really, really like to get more

into and so I would love to have a few

people under my wing that I could mentor

that I could help ultimately become a

better realtor than me that would be the

goal, so just let me know i know there

are some realtors that watch and or

listen to this show, so just keep that in

mind, maybe not you, but maybe someone

that you know would be a good fit for

that it's late at night, I'm going to do

my best here i'm I'm recording this at

10 p.m I'm tired it's this is Monday

the the final Monday of March the

final day of the first quarter of

2025, and needless to say this is

frequently the busy time of year, and it

is a very very busy time of year there's

just a whole lot going on right now

I'm having you know my phone is

constantly blowing up this is the time

of year, where I work through meals where

when I go to the gym to work out, I'm

negotiating with realtors while I'm

you know, in between sets at the gym like

that's just the way things are

pretty much every year this time of year

if they're not that way then that's a

really really big problem I've had a few

few springs early in my career that

weren't that way, and it was like oh boy

what's going to happen but

here we go I should start calling this

show Selling Greenville After Dark

because I keep having to record

nighttime episodes which I really don't

like to do because there's a certain

level of energy right that I that you

have to bring when you're just talking

solo to a camera and that messes up my

sleep schedule I've learned so I am

messing up my sleep schedule to get you

guys content and I hope you guys

appreciate that hopefully this will

be the last nighttime episode because

part of the reason why I'm having to do

this is because we've been having

construction various construction

projects done on our house that's done

during the day during the normal times

I'd be recording so it's been pushing a

lot of these episodes at night but

I'm still going to keep bringing you

guys content no matter what even when

I'm traveling I bring you guys content

hopefully you enjoy it now I try to keep

this podcast really focused on

Greenville but sometimes especially last

year there are things that happen in

the broader real estate industry that I

feel like are worth discussing on this

show and as I already said the past year

there's been a lot of big changes in the

real estate industry we figured there

would be some more coming up this year

and one a new one did in fact get

announced last week by the National

Association of Realtors and I want to

talk about that but we need to back up

for one second and provide some context

for what's actually happening okay there

is a policy with the National

Association of Realtors that every

realtor has to follow that's called the

clear cooperation policy okay we'll just

call it clear cooperation it's also

called CCP sometimes or abbreviated

as that i don't like that because for

some people that means the Chinese

Communist Party and so I I prefer not

to not to use that abbreviation but

clear cooperation what does it mean and

it's really not not clear based on

the name but in short it means that once

a realtor gets a new listing okay a a

client that is selling a house and

they've signed a listing agreement

within one day of getting that listing

that listing agreement must be entered

into the multiple listing service aka

the MLS which then pushes out or the

proper terminology is it syndicates that

listing out to all the websites that

have what's called an IDX feed however

there is one exception one exception to

this rule that every listing needs to be

entered into the MLS within one business

day of a signed listing agreement that

exception traditionally has been that

there are is brokerage exclusive or

office exclusive listings meaning that

you can have someone you can have a

realtor list a home only within their

office they can only market it within

their office within their brokerage

and and they can't do any other public

marketing no websites no multiple

listing service no yard signs no social

media posts nothing okay only within

their office that's the only way that

they can market it if it's a brokerage

or an office exclusive listing so we got

two options right you either have to

list and pretty much immediately put it

in the MLS or you can list it off MLS

and now it can only be marketed

pretty much via email maybe some

brokerages have some other ways of doing

it but it can only be market marketed to

other agents within the company that

that brokerage exclusive listing is

listed by okay hopefully that makes

sense now the question might be asked

why would anyone accept a brokerage

exclusive listing okay what why would

any seller want to limit their marketing

right instead of sending it out to

literally everyone in the world to be

able to see it why would they

restrict it to you know my office has

several hundred realtor some offices

only have a couple of realtors just a

handful of them so regardless of

whether you know the brokerage

has five realtors or 500 realtors the

question must be asked why would a

seller want to not get full public

exposure well there's a few reasons

that we typically see one is if a house

is a really really high-end you know

luxury listing where the seller just

doesn't want people to see what it looks

like on the inside what it has on the

inside they like privacy this is

especially true of celebrities when

celebrities sell homes they want to

be private often times they don't want

people to see all of their stuff and

so this is a good example of a of of of

where we can have brokerage exclusive

listings that are beneficial to the

seller particularly within companies

that tend to focus on luxury listings

right which is my company there's a

handful of companies in in the

upstate of South Carolina that luxury

listings are are one of the core things

that we do and that could be a

good example of where a brokerage

exclusive listing could make sense right

because you're you're keeping it off of

of the public out of the public

sphere and you are marketing it only to

a handful of agents that focus on luxury

listings okay makes sense right another

one fixeruppers okay and there's a I

have done many of these over the

years fixer uppers can be great

options for doing brokerage exclusive

because if you have an office that has

competent capable realtors in it that's

helpful when you've got a challenging

listing like one that needs work to

be done on it one that has termite

damage or has all sorts of deferred

maintenance we see a lot of these

these homes that that have been

inherited that were lived in

basically not touched by by the a

person who passed away an elderly person

who passed away untouched for for

decades once they passed away children

come in they clean it out and they

realize "Wow we might need to put $80 to

$100,000 into this house no thank you

we're just going to list it as is."

that can be a great option for going

brokerage exclusive if the brokerage has

agents in their office that are

experienced with fixer uppers because a

lot of agents will not be experienced in

it right and I've run into this many

many times where you get these agents

that that are are trying to help

out a client that wants to buy a fixer

upper and the agent is just overwhelmed

they think every single thing is a

problem they're trying to renegotiate

every single thing because they don't

understand that this little structural

issue really isn't that big of a deal

that this termite damage isn't that big

of a deal they don't pay attention

during you know they don't have a

detailed eye while they're showing the

house so they miss things that they

should have seen there's just all sorts

of of things there so that could be a

great option as well and then another

option and there's probably more but I'm

just going to focus on these three the

other one that makes sense for brokerage

exclusive is listings that are still

getting ready for public marketing maybe

they're decluttering maybe they're

cleaning maybe they're doing some

repairs but they're okay with people

walking through the house before they're

ready for public marketing so it's

almost like a coming soon option but a

coming soon option that is actually

legal because the National

Association of Realtors doesn't allow

true coming soons and if you ever see

those it is illegal

that's the for sale by owner

situation but this is a way to kind

of do it you can list a home brokerage

exclusive so nobody on the MLS sees it

and the sellers are are getting the

house ready for public marketing if
it doesn't sell during the brokerage
exclusive listing period then during
that time period they will have gotten
the house ready for marketing now the
listing agent can come in take
professional photography or if they're
not a good agent take pictures with
their phone or with their own camera
instead of hiring a professional
photographer like a good agent should
and then they will then list on the
MLS as a finished completed pretty
listing okay okay so I just wanted to
make sure that we had all of that in the
background and of course sellers can
always sell for sale by owner right but
if they want to list and and if you sell
for sale by owner there's no rules about
any of this stuff but if you want to
list with a realtor there are rules
there are only traditionally two options
that are legal for a realtor and those
are the brokerage exclusive or on MLS
which means online and on all of the
other websites that's what clear
cooperation is okay but clear
cooperation has been heavily criticized
by some in recent months right we we had
this whole National Association of
Realtors lawsuit that was lost last year
and there there's a whole bunch of
repercussions that came out of that
and as a result a a lot of people
have been questioning a lot of different
things with with regard to what the
National Association of Realtors is
doing or should doing or what exactly
the the the future of of the multiple
listing service even is and the main
critics of clear cooperation are those
who don't want to pay their dues to the
realtor association and the multiple
listing service and feel like the MLS
system is just too closed of a system
and prevents realtors from just
marketing a property how they want but
the counterargument is that without
clear cooperation a lot of the realtor
code of ethics goes away the code of
ethics that prevents realtors from being
shy and guess what realtors already are
shy even with the code of e ethics so
imagine if we didn't have a code of
ethics and and and there were
basically no rules a lot of shy behavior
would happen so with regard to clear
cooperation policy specifically if I
can just pick and choose who I market a
property to right let's say that I don't
have to market it to my office i don't
have to put it on the multiple listing
service i can just do whatever I want
with it i can just call my friends i can
just call a handful of other agents i
can do this or that that actually
presents that might sound on surface
level like okay well what's the problem
with that the the problem is that why
wouldn't I choose the people that I
identify with to be the people that I
market the property to or let's say this
is a I have a listing near my house this
is a common thing for realtors right a
lot of realtors will list homes that are
near their own home because they get to
know their neighbors and neighbors like
them and and and you know there's
like there's an agent in my office
that's like the Orchard Farms agent like
that's where she lives and she she
has had an incredible run of listing
homes in the Orchard Farms neighborhood
and good for her right but what if I had
a listing in my
neighborhood and I really wanted a
certain person to be living there i'm a
Christian what if I only wanted another
Christian to be near me or what if I
were Muslim i only wanted to market the
property to a fellow Muslim or I'm
heterosexual what if I want to
specifically have that or what if I were
homosexual and I only wanted to market
to people that were also homosexual
right if those sound like fair
housing violations it's because they are
all all of those scenarios are fair
housing violations and so this is one
of the major problems with taking away
clear operation is that it opens the
door to abuses of fair housing
specifically steering certain people
groups to to or from certain
properties right and that is illegal for
good reason right it's it's great you
know people love the idea of of being in
a community surrounded by a bunch of
people that are just like them but they
don't like it when that means that
they're excluded from a community that
they want to join right and so that's
why fair housing exists it it it
might seem restrictive to some people
in in some situations and I understand
you know I've I've had a lot of
Christians clients over the years that
their home is like a sacred kind of to
them a sacred space and they really want
a certain type of person to move in
there and unfortunately
there there's not just laws for
realtors there also laws for home
sellers that you you can't discriminate
in that way but if clear cooperation
went away if you could just market a
home however you wanted the the
potential for abuse would be tremendous
now the N has been looking into this
clear cooperation policy to try to
appease these members that are not happy
and as a result they came up with a
third option right we've talked about
the two options brokerage exclusive or
on MLS and syndicated out to all the
websites like Zillow like Realtor.com
like Redf Fin they've come up with a
third option now that is still compliant
with the with Clear
Cooperation unfortunately they are
confusingly calling it a delayed
marketing exempt listing okay I hate
that but it's a really simple concept
okay so I'm going to explain it to you
guys and we'll talk about it for a sec
the policy allows for listings to be
marketed on MLS but not syndicated out
to other websites until a set period of
time passes so only members of the
multiple listing service specifically
realtors there can be other other
members of the MLS like appraisers and
whatnot but mainly realtors make up the
large the largest portion of membership
of the MLS realtors and their clients
who are set up for MLS searches would be
the only ones able to see these listings
so you would not find these listings
until that set period of time is over
for the for the listing to be exempt
from syndication you would not find
these listings on Zillow Redfin
Realtor.com etc etc they would not show
up until again until the period has
passed by which then it has to go in to
the multiple listing service okay now
here's the interesting part of it if
that sounds kind of similar to the
brokerage exclusive option it's
actually a lot more similar to the to
the traditional way of listing a home
because an agent can still market the
property in any way that they want they
can still market the property on their
own website on their company's website
they can use yard signs they can do
social media blasts they can do
everything it's just not going to go
it's just not going to be syndicated out
to Zillow i guess in theory you could go
on Zillow and create a listing on there
if you really wanted to but that would
defeat the whole purpose right the the
whole idea here is to keep it off of
those websites so it's kind of a middle
ground between the brokerage exclusive
listing which only allows internal
marketing of a listing within a
brokerage or an office and absolutely
no other form of marketing and you kind
of morph that with a standard listing
that's in the MLS but then gets
syndicated out to all the other websites
this third option is kind of in between
the two of those right now who will
benefit from this well when I first
heard it I really didn't think anyone
would use it but then I started thinking
through it and I and I really I thought
through some cases where I think it
actually could be useful and some of
these we've already discussed for
instance the luxury listings and fixer
uppers are good examples for for
properties that could benefit and
sellers that could benefit from from
this third option right luxury listings
in particular for that privacy aspect
of not just putting it out there for
everyone to see right you still get full
MLS explo exposure exposure but
you're not getting exposure to all these
other websites that literally anyone in
the world can can access okay so if
you're a celebrity or if you're a
multi-millionaire you want to keep that
mansion away from certain eyes hey
you now have an option that you can list
it completely on the MLS and have every
single realtor in your area have access
to it and their clients that are set up
with MLS searches also have access to it
without the nosy neighbor who is not
looking at homes and does not need to
know what your home looks like being
able to just pull it up on Zillow right
fixer uppers as well as I've already
mentioned might be an option i still
like the broker's exclusive option for a
lot of fixer uppers but I could see
this also being an interesting option
for fixer uppers too because a lot of
people I you know again because one of
my specialties is is investing real
estate
investments that's basically how I got
into this business
I've listed a lot of fixer uppers
over the years like that's just been
something that has been a core part of
my business over the years and
long story short when you list a fixer
upper you get every possible call from
every possible type of person interested
in the home and the vast majority of
these people they don't have an agent
they don't know how to buy a fixer upper
they don't have the money for it they
want to know if you're renting it out
it's very very frustrating and so
this could be a a good option for for
some of those as well right if if a
seller doesn't want to go brokerage
exclusive but it it also doesn't make
sense to just blast it out everywhere on
the web and and have a bunch of people
that aren't going to take it seriously
right aren't going to actually purchase
the home that that's an option that I
could see like really working well
i've also had clients that didn't fall
into either of those categories the
luxury listing and the fixer upper
listings but they just wanted privacy
with regard to their listing right for
whatever reason scared of the neighbors
seeing it whatever could be a great
option for them as
well also maybe down the road it becomes
standard to list your home exempt from
syndication to start that way it's
marketed only to real estate
professionals and their clients to begin
with as opposed to again all these
potential bad prospects just scouring
the internet without an agent and then
if it doesn't sell that way within a
week or a few weeks or whatever then it
goes out to Zillow Redfin Realtor.com
etc and gets syndicated out what I like
about this possibility is that once it
goes online it will look like a fresh
listing even though it's already had
multiple weeks of activity and
potentially even feedback from having
been on the multiple listing service so
a savvy listing agent could potentially
take advantage of that feedback that
period of time where it wasn't
syndicated out to the websites in order
to make some subtle changes to the
listing or to encourage of course with
the seller's permission or to
encourage the seller to make changes
based on the feedback that they received
before then syndicating it out to the
big websites and maybe not even just
subtle changes maybe big changes right
like maybe one of the core feedbacks you
get is that everyone thinks the home is
overpriced and so so before it
syndicates out you reduce the price and
again anyone looking on these websites
once it go finally goes out to Zillow
etc they're not going to see that there
was a price change because it's going
out onto those websites after it's
already been on the multiple listing
service for a few weeks you're not going
to see the history unless you look at it
in the multiple listing service okay
again all of this I'm just speculating
on what I think could be useful
practices of this new option but at
the end of the day one very very core
thing that we don't know at the moment
is how long the exempt period will even
be allowed for in Greenville the
National Association Realtors the N
they made it clear that the delayed
marketing exempt period needs to have a
set amount of time before the listing
automatically gets syndicated and they
are telling local associations to make
the call on how long that will be
whether it's a few days a few weeks a
few months etc now some of you may know
I am on the board of directors with the
Greater Greenville Association of
Realtors but no we have not discussed
this and I have no idea where the board
is going to fall on it and even if I did
I wouldn't be able to tell you because
of confidentiality purposes so no I
don't know but I imagine that when we
had that discussion it'll be a pretty
opinionated and perhaps even heated
discussion okay we've got some pretty
opinionated people on the board i love
all of them and there's going to be a
lot of opinions talking about this
and it might go to MLS committee
first maybe they will make a
recommendation i don't know i'm not
exactly sure how all of that is going to
work we'll just wait and see but if
you have a specific opinion on how long
you think the time period should be let
me know right because I'm a voice on
that board i'm one of the votes I'm
one of the opinions and and if I get
feedback from you guys whether you're
realtors whether you're potential
buyers or potential sellers that I
would like to hear from you guys so let
me know again my contact info is in the
show notes but and I'm not going to wrap
up the show just yet in case you thought
that that was the cue that I'm ending
the show i'm not because I had this
entitled with perhaps a little bit of a
clickbaitish title but it's not
I'm talking about or or I presume
that I'm going to entitle this something
about the death of Zillow right and one
of the things that stands out to me the
most when I think about this is that if
delayed marketing exempt listings ever
gain
traction websites like Zillow
Realtor.com Redfin etc
homes.com they're going to be hurt very
very badly if this ever gains traction
in the business their entire business
model depends on the MLS sending them
listings via syndication for them to
advertise and if even 10% of listings
aren't showing up on their sites that
would be a huge loss to them how many
buyers do you know or if you if you
don't know of any buyers think about in
your head how many buyers would be okay
with just not having access to 10% of
listings and knowing that some of those
might be some of the best listings that
are out there buyers don't want to miss
any listings particularly in this market
where you know I'm not going to say it's
slim pickings but it's just a
challenging market for buyers to find
what they're looking for they don't want
to miss out on something i mean I have
buyers that send me for sale by owner
properties that that they find on
Zillow or some of these other websites
and and I'll show it to them if the
seller will let us look at it and and
so I know that buyers are wanting to see
every single potential home that is out
there and if they realize they're
missing out on some of these homes
they're not going to be happy they will
be forced to contact an agent to set
them up with an MLS search now Zillow
and the other companies I've mentioned
are resilient okay i'm not sure even if
this scenario happened that it would
be the death nail to them probably they
would find a way to survive they've got
deep pockets they've got a lot of
resources they've got a lot of attorneys
on
retainer and they might even sue the
National Association of Realtors for
this i don't know all I know is it would
be a big blow to them and it could
certainly be the death now of that
entire industry right I can tell you
this much when syndication from the
multiple listing service to all these
other websites became a thing nobody was
thinking what if Zillow becomes bigger
than the entire industry right and now
we got you know Rocket Companies which
owns Rocket Mortgage they've recently
just bought out they bought out Red
Fin and they bought out Mr cooper which
is a massive it's a silly name but a
massive loan service
serer so Rocket Companies now is making
this this big splash in the industry
this just happened the past few weeks
and and so there's a lot of big players
right right now in the in the industry
and I feel like if nothing else this new
thing that the National Association of
Realtors is allowing was a shot across
the bow at these companies by the
National Association of Realtors okay
now some will say this new delayed
marketing period isn't beneficial for
sellers but I hear a lot of sellers
complain about unserious buyers going
through their homes and trashing
their homes and and not giving
feedback all sorts of things you know
who the most unserious buyers are
they're the ones who saw a home online
and just in that moment called a realtor
you know who's a family friend or
whatever to show it to them with no
intention of really buying it right the
real serious buyers are the ones who
have been working with a realtor and are
actively searching and already have a
multiple listing search set up so those
are the ones that we want to see anyway
that is the market that we want to
capture when we are listing a home and
this
option is is the best option for just
capturing specifically that demographic
and if you want traffic from people
without realtors well you can still do
open houses right so you could still
have a home listed during this delayed
marketing period and still allow open
houses where people who don't have an
agent can come in and take a look at it
if you want right and maybe this means
open houses will make a comeback i mean
they haven't gone away and they're still
very popular but we don't sell a
whole lot of houses at open houses right
me personally I my entire career I've
probably sold two homes at open houses
i've gotten a lot of clients at open
houses but it's not most people
aren't going to an open house to to
make a serious play on that house all
right and so so perhaps this is
the way for open houses to become a
major part of the marketing process
again who knows all that we know right
now is that more changes are coming
but they are these are good changes
they're not being forced on anyone we
don't like it when the N forces changes
on us this is just more options for
sellers and that's how the N is
marketing it and I think that's fine you
know if you don't like it don't use it
sellers can still list their homes the
way they always have but soon they'll
have another option at their disposal
strictly MLS only with syndication to
happen at a later time to be determined
by their local association what does it
mean for Realtor.com Zillow Redfin
Homes.com etc it's hard to say but I can
tell you they can't be happy with this
and they might need to start coming up
with contingency plans to their business
model to ensure that they weather the
storm in the upcoming years so I hope
that that was helpful for you guys let
me know your thoughts I don't know
when this is going to be implemented it
has to be fully implemented I believe by
September okay so it it might be done
before then but for sure by the fall
this will be fully implemented into the
Greater Greenville Association of
Realtors Multiple Listing Service in
addition to the Spartanburg
association addition to Western Upstate
Association Greenwood etc We've got
a few MLSs around here they're all
going to have to implement this
within the next few months be very
interesting to see how that all plays
out which associations do it
differently and and if there's
anything worth talking about on here you
guys will find out before anyone else so
thank you for listening my contact
information in the show notes please if
you enjoyed this content smash that like
button favorite the show subscribe to
the show download it all those good
things we will talk again next time
[Music]