Company: HOUS
Filing Date: 2025-08-08
Form Type: 10-Q
Source: 0001398987-25-000108
Chunk: 113

Company: Anywhere Real Estate Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-08-08
Form: 10-Q
Item: Item 2
Chunk 113
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, an industry-wide debate has developed around industry practices related to the use of "exclusive listings" (also referred to as private, pocket or offline listings) as an alternative to the more traditionally favored broad public marketing of a home sale. Exclusive listings refer to real estate properties that are for sale but not listed on the multiple listing services ("MLSs") or are otherwise only accessible to certain real estate agents and brokers.

There is increasing tension between certain brokers that support the extensive use of exclusive listings and other industry players—including certain MLSs and listing aggregators—who want to limit them. This conflict has prompted two listing aggregators to prohibit certain exclusive listings from appearing on their platforms and has resulted in litigation among certain industry participants (excluding the Company). It has also introduced further uncertainty regarding the broad availability of housing data, particularly listing inventory, to industry participants and consumers.

The controversy related to use of exclusive listings is closely tied to ongoing controversy regarding NAR's Clear Cooperation Policy, which generally requires property listings to be posted to the MLS within one business day of public marketing. NAR began a re-examination of that policy last year but ultimately announced earlier this spring that it would retain that policy, along with a new "delayed marketing" option. This new option and a long-standing option that allows for the use of exclusive listings that satisfy certain narrow criteria established by NAR are the primary exceptions to the Clear Cooperation Policy. Legal challenges and investigations regarding the Clear Cooperation Policy have been ongoing for a number of years. In addition, at least one brokerage has announced it will no longer consider itself bound by any mandatory NAR rules, including the Clear Cooperation Policy.

We are closely monitoring these situations as they evolve. There is no recent industry experience with the widespread use of exclusive listings or with bans on certain exclusive listings by aggregator sites. Accordingly, it is difficult to predict how consumers, brokerages, agents, franchisees, MLSs, and listing aggregators/portals will respond to these recent developments or the impact on our business.

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Third Party Data. This Quarterly Report includes data and information obtained from independent sources such as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac"), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, NAR and the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae"). We caution that such information is subject to change and do not endorse or suggest reliance on this data or information alone.

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