The news was first reported by Inman News and confirmed to HousingWire by sources who wished to remain anonymous.
The NWMLS IDX feed to Compass.com was shut off at 8:30 in the morning on Tuesday, meaning that any non-Compass property listed after that time cannot be found on Compass.com.
NWMLS declined to comment on the situation.
“Despite following NWMLS’s published rules, Compass’ IDX feed was suspended without warning — impacting our clients and agents alike,” Cris Nelson, a regional vice president for Compass, told Inman. “NWMLS is a broker-owned MLS and is the only MLS in the country that prohibits agents from marketing a property on the internet — privately or publicly — unless it’s listed in the MLS.”
This move by NWMLS is just the latest battle in the ongoing war between the MLS and Compass. The tiff began in late March when Compass CEO Robert Reffkin called out NWMLS and its CEO Justin Haag for the firm’s Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) in a social media post. NWMLS is privately owned and therefore not subject to the MLS rules promulgated by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Unlike NAR’s CCP, NWMLS does not allow agents to withhold listings from the MLS as privately marketed office exclusives. NAR’s policy allows listing agents to privately market an office exclusive listing to other agents within its firm or to agents and brokers at other firms provided that the listing is shared one-to-one.
Compass has also backed a website, called Washington Homeowner Rights, which is soliciting NWMLS home sellers for a potential class action lawsuit. The site is looking for homesellers who have been “harmed” by NWMLS’ policies and who have experienced a price drop or significant days on market.
Last Wednesday, Reffkin shared a quote from law firm Crowell & Moring LLP, which lists antitrust law as one of its specialties, on his social media accounts.
“Washington State Law requires a seller’s agent ‘to be loyal to the seller by taking no action that is adverse or detrimental to the seller’s interest in a transaction.’ By not allowing agents to market off the MLS when their client wants them to, Northwest MLS is in effect asking agents to break the law. State law supersedes MLS rules. NWMLS is forcing agents to choose between NWMLS’s rules and their clients’ wishes,” the statement, which is attributed to Crowell & Moring, reads.
