NAR Issued New Guidance on Listing Filters as the Clear Cooperation Debate Reopened

The documents

The National Association of Realtors posted three guidance resources on May 21, 2026, reported later that month. Two address the use of listing filters in IDX and virtual office website displays under MLS Policy 8.5, which prohibits filtering listings by the existence or level of cooperative compensation, or by brokerage or agent name. The third addresses when one-to-one broker-to-broker communications do and do not trigger the Clear Cooperation Policy.

Rodney Gansho, NAR's senior director of engagement, said the guidance was intended to support consistent policy implementation across the industry.

What Clear Cooperation requires

The Clear Cooperation Policy, approved in 2020, requires a listing broker to submit a listing to the MLS within one business day of marketing the property to the public. The purpose is to prevent inventory from circulating privately within a single brokerage while remaining invisible to buyers working with other agents.

Policy Statement 8.5, the filtering ban, is a separate, older policy: NAR adopted it in November 2021 following discussions with the Department of Justice about MLS rules governing offers of compensation to cooperating brokers [3](https://www.nar.realtor/policy-statement-8-5-and-objective-criteria). A non-filtering requirement was also written into NAR's nationwide settlement of the Sitzer/Burnett commission-antitrust litigation, which prohibits MLS participants and subscribers from filtering out listings based on the level of buyer-broker compensation offered.

NAR revisited the Clear Cooperation Policy in 2024 and 2025 and decided to retain it while adding seller flexibility through the Multiple Listing Options for Sellers policy adopted in March 2025. That policy created two categories of exempt listings: an “office exclusive,” which a seller directs be withheld from MLS dissemination entirely, and a “delayed marketing exempt listing,” which a seller can keep off IDX and syndication for a period the local MLS sets in its own discretion; both must still be filed with the MLS and require a signed seller certification acknowledging the exposure being waived [4](https://www.nar.realtor/about-nar/policies/multiple-listing-options-for-sellers). MLSs had until September 30, 2025 to implement the change [5](https://www.nar.realtor/news/real-estate-news/nar-introduces-new-flexibility-for-sellers-while-retaining-clear-cooperation-policy).

The third guidance document goes to the policy's hardest edge. If a broker telephones another broker about an unlisted property, is that public marketing? The answer determines whether an entire category of pre-market activity sits inside or outside the rule, and the ambiguity is why guidance was needed.

Why filters and cooperation are the same argument

Policy 8.5's filtering ban and the Clear Cooperation Policy address the same underlying concern from opposite ends. One says a listing must reach the shared database; the other says that once there, it must be displayed to consumers without being screened by compensation or brokerage identity.

Together they define what an MLS is: a compulsory pool of inventory with non-discriminatory display. Weaken either and the pool becomes optional, which is the direction the private-listing debate has been pulling.

The contested context

An Inman column published May 15, 2026 argued that the Clear Cooperation Policy is effectively finished, citing announced plans by Zillow and Realtor.com to advertise coming-soon listings alongside private listings.

Caveat: that characterisation is an opinion column, not an NAR position or a factual finding, and this article does not adopt it. The portal announcements it describes were not verified against a primary Zillow or Realtor.com release, so their exact dates and terms are not established here. NAR is a private trade association; its policies are contractual conditions of MLS participation, not law.