Beginning in 2025, local agents will have the option to join a new Realty One subsidiary and become members of MLS Choice, a new low-cost membership type provided by Phoenix Realtors, without having to be Realtor association members.
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As more agents and brokers increasingly question the merit of the National Association of Realtors’ three-way agreement with state and local Realtor associations, another major real estate brand has announced more flexibility for agents who no longer wish to be NAR members.
Realty One Group International announced on Tuesday a newly established program through which Phoenix, Arizona-based real estate agents at the franchisor can choose to opt out of NAR membership.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, agents affiliated with one of the brand’s eight Phoenix-area locations may disassociate from Realty One Group and join Realty One Group AZ, a new subsidiary that the brand has formed.
Agents who join the new subsidiary will instead have the option to join MLS Choice, a low-cost membership type provided by Phoenix Realtors that gives agents access to the MLS and legal forms without having to join a Realtor group.
Kuba Jewgieniew | Realty One Group
“Choice and opportunity will always be number one for us because the real estate professional is the center of their business, and the center of ours,” Realty One Group International founder and CEO Kuba Jewgieniew said in a statement. “Our mantra, everyone matters and everyone has a voice, is more important today than ever as our pros make critical decisions for their careers.”
Phoenix Realtors announced MLS Choice in November, as more real estate companies reached settlement agreements in class-action antitrust lawsuits against industry players, and as more agents and brokers have pushed back against the status quo of the three-way agreement.
“We want our agents to have a choice and know they always have a home with us whether or not they choose to affiliate with NAR,” Pat Kelly, president of brokerage operations for Realty One Group, said in a statement.
Realty One Group has more than 20,000 agents across 49 states, the District of Columbia and 22 other countries and territories. The brand currently has about 2,700 agents operating out of Phoenix.
NAR has been hit with multiple lawsuits over the three-way agreement now, in Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania and California, with allegations of anticompetitive practices and the monopolization of MLS services.
Alabama Realtors also wrote a letter to NAR earlier this fall imploring the association to decouple association memberships. Thus far, however, NAR appears to be holding a firm line when it comes to the three-way agreement with CEO Nykia Wright expressing support for the agreement during NAR’s annual conference, which took place in early November in Boston.
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