The National Association of REALTORS®
Clear Cooperation Policy

An MLS Listing Exclusion Form can be used in one of the two situations:

(1) If the listing is an Exclusive Office Listing, which is a listing that, pursuant to the instructions of the Seller, is not publicly marketed, not submitted to the MLS, and not included in the MLS Compilation.

(2) If a listing is temporarily being withheld from the MLS because the listing is not available for marketing and showings.

In either scenario, a property cannot be publicly marketed while an MLS Listing Exclusion Form is in effect.

No. A broker that markets a property internally within that broker’s office is still permitted to do so with the seller’s consent. An MLS Listing Exclusion Form must still be filed with the MLS. However, please note, the property cannot be publicly advertised, as a listing cannot be both promoted “publicly” and “exclusively.”

You still have 5 business days to input a listing after entering into a listing agreement with your seller. However, if you publicly advertise that listing within those 5 business days, you must input that listing into the MLS.

The MLS does not have a “Coming Soon” status. If the marketing of a property is promoting the property as “Coming Soon” to the public, a listing for that property must be added to the MLS within 1 business day of the public marketing.

In such cases, a listing can be in the “Active” status if being shown within 5 business days of the listing being active on the MLS, otherwise the listing would need to be in “Active-No Show.”

No, this policy does not apply to properties that are “To Be Built” or “Under Construction.” However, this policy would apply to a property in a new construction subdivision that is built and ready to be sold, provided that property is listed with a brokerage that is a member of the MLS.

Here are two examples of options for this type of situation:

Use of Active-No Show Status

• You could enter the listing into the MLS within the 5 business day timeframe, and then change the listing to the Active-No Show status.
• It’s important to remember, when a listing is in the Active-No Show status, photos are not required, Days on Market do not calculate, the listing is not displayed on the UtahRealEstate.com consumer website or any other portal or brokerage websites
• A listing can be in the “Active” status if it’s being shown within a reasonable period of time, which generally means 5 business days. In the scenario described above you could change the listing from “Active-No Show” to “Active” a week before the date you start showing the property, giving you enough time to have your listing appear in Listing Alerts, on UtahRealEstate.com, on broker and agent websites, and on portal websites (if your brokerages syndicates to portals).

Use of MLS Listing Exclusion Form

• You could file an MLS Listing Exclusion Form and certify that, at least for the time being, the listing is an Exclusive Office Listing.
• However, please keep in mind that Exclusive Office Listings cannot be publicly marketed in any way, which would mean you would not be able to post a sign on the property while the MLS Listing Exclusion Form was in effect.
• You could later enter the listing into the MLS, pursuant to your seller’s instructions on the MLS Listing Exclusion Form, when the property is ready to be shown and publicly marketed.

The Clear Cooperation Policy was presented to and passed by the National Association of REALTORS® Board of Directors in November of 2019. All MLSs must adopt the policy by May 2020.

UtahRealEstate.com will be adopting the Clear Cooperation Policy on February 1, 2020.

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No. If you receive a violation for the Clear Cooperation policy, removing the advertising does not resolve the violation or fine. In such cases, in order to correct the violation, you would need to add a listing for the property to the MLS.

A listing in the “Active” status must be available for showings within a reasonable period of time, which is generally within 5 business days after the listing has been placed in the Active status. “Active” status listings are actively marketed using both the MLS and other marketing methods.

A listing in the “Active-No Show” status means the property is temporarily not available for showings, per the seller’s request, for a period of time that generally exceeds 5 business days. “Active-No Show” status listings are not actively marketed while in this status because the listing is “Active-No Show” (i.e. Days on Market are not accumulating in the MLS).

Yes. Yard signs are permitted when a listing is in the “Active-No Show” status. The “Active-No Show” status can be used at the beginning or at any time during the listing agreement.

However, when a listing is in the “Active-No Show” status, no additional marketing can be done as the listing is “Active-No Show” (i.e. Days on Market are not accumulating) and the listing is temporarily not available for showings per the seller’s request.

No. When you place a listing in the “Active-No Show” status on the MLS, you are representing to other agents that the property is not currently available for showings and the property is not actively being marketed outside of the MLS (i.e. the listing is “Active-No Show,” which is why Days on Market do not accumulate in this status).

However, while you cannot actively market a listing in the “Active-No Show” status, yard signs are permitted when a listing is in the “Active-No Show” status. The “Active-No Show” status can be used at the beginning or at any time during the listing agreement.

Yes. Advertising your listing on “private listing networks,” which may include but are not limited to email groups, social media groups, and other networks that include real estate professionals from different brokerages, is considered a form of public marketing. If a listing is advertised through one of these networks, the listing must also be added to the MLS, so that all cooperating agents are aware of the listing.

No. This policy applies to all residential listings. The following are exceptions to this Policy:

• Exclusive Office Listings (i.e. Listings that are not marketed to the public)
• Commercial, industrial, and business properties
• Residential properties with 5 or more units
• Land and lots, new construction properties which are under construction or which are to be built

If a property is not yet available for a showing, but is being marketed to the public (which would include having a sign in the yard), the listing would need to be submitted to the MLS within the 1 business day timeframe. Upon submission, the listing could be kept in the “Active” status if the listing is available for showings within the next 5 business days, or could be placed in the “Active-No Show” status if the property is not available for showings within the next 5 business days. DOM would not calculate if the listing were in the “Active-No Show” status.

If you have a valid listing agreement and you place a sign on a property, the sign is considered public marketing, and a listing must be added to the MLS within 1 business day of any type of public marketing of the property.

“Public Marketing” includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Yard signs
• Flyers displayed in windows
• Social media networks
• Digital marketing on public facing websites
• Brokerage website displays which include IDX and VOW displays
• Digital communications marketing which includes emails, multi-brokerage listing sharing networks, etc.
• Any other applications available to the general public.

Even if you belong to multiple MLSs, as a member of the UtahRealEstate.com MLS, brokers are required to add all listings that meet the criteria for mandatory submission to UtahRealEstate.com, which is all listings except the following:

• Exclusive Office Listings (i.e. Listings that are not marketed to the public)
• Commercial, industrial, and business properties
• Residential properties with 5 or more units
• Land and lots, new construction properties which are under construction or which are to be built

An “office” means a real estate company per the Utah Division of Real Estate, as well as all branch offices associated with that real estate company that share a common principal broker. For example, if “ABC Realty” has three branch offices and all three of those branch offices are part of the same real estate company per the Utah Division of Real Estate (i.e. all three offices have the same principal broker), then an Exclusive Office Listing could be shared internally within those three branch offices.

On the other hand, if ABC Realty is a franchised brand and there are other “ABC Realty” real estate companies (including branch offices associated with those companies) with different principal brokers that also participate in the UtahRealEstate.com MLS, then the Exclusive Office Listing in question would not be permitted to be shared with those other real estate companies.

In general, the MLS Rules, which includes the Clear Cooperation policy, only apply to listings that are listed with (i.e. a valid listing agreement is in effect) brokerages that belong to the MLS.

With that being said, marketing a property without a valid listing agreement in effect may violate other rules that govern real estate professionals such as the REALTOR® Code of Ethics and/or the Utah Division of Real Estate, so this type of practice is not recommended.