- ⚠️ The Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) restricts how real estate agents can market homes, limiting seller flexibility.
- 🧠 Legal experts argue that CCP may violate NAR antitrust rules by enforcing monopolistic practices.
- 🏘️ Real estate markets like Las Vegas need local flexibility, which CCP ignores through nationalized enforcement.
- 💼 Private trade groups like the National Association of REALTORS® are acting with regulatory power despite lacking official oversight.
- 🚫 Fines, penalties, and lost MLS access are real threats for agents resisting CCP, reducing healthy competition.
Clear Cooperation Policy: Is It Killing Competition?
You’ve probably heard agents talk about the MLS rule that “everything has to go in within one business day.” That rule? It comes from the National Association of REALTORS®’ Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP), introduced in 2019. The group said it would make real estate more open. But the truth is, it's more about control than openness.
I’m Steve Hawks, a Las Vegas real estate agent with over 4,000 homes sold. I've sold homes for many different kinds of clients, including luxury buyers, investors, and people moving to town. I’ve seen how this policy affects what you can do when you buy, sell, and invest. The CCP sounds good, but for many clients and agents, it causes more problems than it solves. And it might even break antitrust laws.
Let’s look at why the CCP might be stopping competition without many people knowing—and what that means for you in Southern Nevada.
Why Antitrust Laws Matter in Real Estate
Antitrust laws have a main job: they make sure the market stays open and fair. These laws stop monopolies, price-fixing, and any business practices that unfairly stop other businesses from competing. These laws are key in real estate. They make sure buyers and sellers can choose how, when, and with whom they do business.
The real estate business is complex. It has many rules, like those for brokers, how to use online tools, commission deals, and local ways of doing things. So when a single organization like NAR puts in a big rule like the Clear Cooperation Policy—which local Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) must make sure everyone follows—we should all stop and then ask: Is this really about openness, or is it about control?
When agents can't market homes in different ways anymore—like private sales not on the market, pocket listings, or showing homes before they go on the MLS—then buyers and sellers have fewer choices. This isn't just bad for your money. It might also go against federal antitrust laws, even if it doesn't break them directly.
What Exactly is the Clear Cooperation Policy?
The Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) was introduced by the National Association of REALTORS® in November 2019 and took effect in May 2020. It requires that any property marketed publicly must also be placed in the MLS within one business day.
"Public marketing" can include:
- Yard signs
- Social media promotion
- Email blasts to agents or customers
- Brokerage websites
- Flyers distributed to the public
Essentially, this rule stops private marketing or marketing to only a few people once the public sees the home in any way. So, if you're an agent with a well-known luxury home, or if your client wants things kept private, you lose your options.
If you don’t follow the rule? Expect fines, other punishments, or even get cut off from listing platforms. And these tools are vital for doing business.
The group said the policy would make things more open and help agents work together. But many people say that in truth, the CCP just gives more power to a few. And it punishes those who don't follow along, stopping good marketing ideas that could help a seller more.
A One-Size-Fits-All Rule in a Diverse Industry
Here’s the problem: real estate isn't all the same. What works in Las Vegas doesn’t necessarily make sense in Boise, Boston, or Baton Rouge. Every market has its own way of doing things, what buyers expect, different price ranges, and local customs.
Southern Nevada, for example, includes:
- Luxury properties in The Ridges and MacDonald Highlands
- Investment buys near UNLV or downtown
- Retiree purchases in 55+ communities
- Vacation homes near Lake Las Vegas
- Out-of-state relocations for remote workers and executives
In markets like ours, making a special plan—maybe showing a home to a select group of investors, offering an off-market deal, or building interest through social media over time—can often get better results than just putting the home on the MLS right away. People use these plans to create excitement, see what buyers think, or keep things private for sellers with a lot of money.
But the Clear Cooperation Policy limits these different plans. Agents only have two choices: put the home on the MLS within one business day of any marketing, or do not advertise the property at all.
That’s not giving clients options. That’s limiting them.
Violating NAR Antitrust Guidelines?
Here’s something most people don’t realize: the National Association of REALTORS® has already had big legal problems about how it controls rules for the industry. In 2023, a Missouri jury found NAR and two large brokerages had to pay $1.8 billion because they had worked together to make commissions too high. And this has changed how agents do business everywhere.
The Clear Cooperation Policy is part of the same worry. NAR is a private trade group. But its rules are forced on people as if they were actual laws. And if you break them, there are big money and business problems.
This makes people worried under the Sherman Antitrust Act and other laws that fight monopolies. When one group controls who can use important online tools and punishes those who don't follow its rules, then it might be acting like an illegal monopoly, even if it's not called that.
And let’s be clear: the MLS is very important. It's how homes get seen online, how listings appear on sites like Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com, and how agents talk to each other. You really can't sell homes well today without it.
So when NAR—which no one outside the group checks—threatens to stop agents and brokers from using the MLS if they don't follow the CCP, that's a huge amount of power, and no one is watching it.
Private Group or National Regulator?
Imagine if a car dealership regulator told every lot owner, “You must list every vehicle on our national system within 24 hours of putting a ‘For Sale’ sign in the window—or you lose your right to sell.” You’d rightly call that an abuse of power.
But that’s what’s happening in real estate.
NAR, as a private group, now controls a rule that says how homes must be marketed in all 50 states. Local MLSs make agents follow this. So agents are stuck—even if they think their seller would do better with a different marketing plan. Suddenly how your home gets seen is no longer up to you or your agent. It’s up to a trade group that acts more and more like a national rule maker.
This central system takes away local choices. And even though the policy is meant to be fair, it mostly helps big real estate companies. These companies can quickly list many homes at once. But it makes things harder for smaller agencies and independent agents who do well by offering special service.
Local agents are held back. And then buyers and sellers can't pick the marketing plan that works best for what they want.
Who Benefits from the Clear Cooperation Policy?
Follow the money, and you'll see who gains the most from CCP enforcement:
- Large Brokerages: They benefit from having all listings follow the same system for all agents, stopping different kinds of marketing from competing.
- National Platforms: Faster, uniform MLS entry helps companies that gather many listings make money from that data.
- NAR Membership: Agents essentially have no choice but to follow NAR's rules to stay in business.
On the flip side, the ones who lose?
- Sellers who want special or off-market plans
- Buyers looking for private or early chances to buy
- Small real estate companies that struggle because the rules favor big chains with many offices
- Home investors who need privacy or marketing done fast
A policy that gives a lot more help to one part of the business than another—and without asking everyone involved—is naturally against competition.
The Real Impact on Buyers and Sellers
Let’s get personal. Here are some ways the Clear Cooperation Policy may have already affected real buyers and sellers:
- 🏡 A well-known client wanted to sell their Summerlin estate privately—but had to put it on the MLS too soon after someone saw just one flyer.
- 📉 An investor with a fix-and-flip wanted to tell a few loyal buyers about it first—but couldn’t without breaking the rules.
- ⌛ A couple moving to a smaller home for retirement wanted to get interest before listing—but the 24-hour rule limited how much time they had.
In each case, agents lost their options because they feared punishment.
Buyers feel it too. They lose out on homes that might have been private. Before, agents had “whisper listings” and showings set up for specific people. Now, buyers just look at homes listed by a deadline. They get less talk, fewer choices, and more stress.
This policy does not make things more open. It just stops different kinds of sales.
What Needs to Change?
If NAR truly wants things to be open and fair, it’s time to think about how real estate rules should fit today's market. That means:
- 💬 Listening to Local Markets – Real estate is local by nature. One rule for the whole country should not tell agents how to market every home in every state.
- 👥 Making Ways to Opt Out – Sellers should be able to ask for different marketing plans without their agents facing punishment.
- ⚖️ Making Sure There's Real Competition – Antitrust groups must check the CCP and what it means. This needs to happen before it lets one group control the whole market.
- 🔄 Reviewing Rules Often – We live in a world changed by COVID and new tech. So, general rules from 2019 might not work for today's market anymore.
Trust in REALTORS® begins with giving clients power. It does not mean forcing them—and their agents—into strict boxes.
It’s time to challenge the way real estate policy is created—and who it really serves.
Final Thoughts: Who Should Take Back Control?
Real estate should get better for the people who actually use it: buyers, sellers, and agents. Rules should give options, not be based on computer programs. People should have a choice, not be forced.
The Clear Cooperation Policy does the exact opposite. If anything, it might be a perfect example of going too far—a private group trying to put in rules without anyone agreeing, checking them, or caring about what the public needs.
It’s not just about the Las Vegas market. It’s about bringing back fairness, choices, and competition across the entire country.
It's time to challenge the way real estate policy is created—and who it really serves.