The nation’s largest organization of real estate agents and brokers has backed away from imposing a rule governing online property listings that has caught the attention of federal antitrust regulators, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The National Assn. of Realtors agreed to consider crafting a new online listings policy that would pass regulatory muster. The decision came after talks in Washington with lawyers for the Justice Department.
Regulators have been pressing the Realtors group to amend a rule set to take effect in July that would allow brokers to withhold their listings from online broker sites. These listings are part of a multiple listing service, a compilation of homes for sale by brokers who are members of local Boards of Realtors, and for decades were available only to licensed real estate agents.
The Internet has changed that and the question of who controls the data has taken on more currency as Web-based brokerages are testing novel ways of selling real estate services, often at discounted rates.
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