It has come to LSTAR’s attention that some Brokerages are submitting a clause in the Agreement of Purchase and Sale that circumvents LSTAR’s MLS® Rules related to reporting a conditional status. As a reminder, submitting such a clause does not override the MLS® Rules and Policies. Such action will be sent to the Professional Standards Committee and followed up with Discipline. If a member chooses not to follow the MLS® Rules and policies, the listing needs to be exclusive.
This is one example of a clause that is NOT permissible:
“The Buyer agrees to allow the Seller to list and market the property with the status of a standard active listing instead of a conditionally sold listing due to the limited exposure created by the ITSO system requirement.”
“The 24-hour waiver remains in place and the Buyer will still have a first right of refusal.”
Reporting requirements in the MLS® Rules read as follows:
ARTICLE 6 - Reporting of Trades
6.01 It is the responsibility of the Listing Brokerage to ensure that notice of conditional or unconditional Trades of MLS® Listings shall be reported to the Association and in the manner required by the Association, no later than 11:59 p.m. on the Business Day following receipt of the deposit or the first installment of the deposit if the deposit is going to be paid in stages. Members shall not be permitted to avoid these notice obligations to the Association by, for example, cancelling an MLS® Listing between receipt (or anticipated receipt) and acceptance of an Offer, or encouraging a Seller to do so.
As a reminder, MLS® Policy, Section 7.06 – FINES states, “Non-compliance with MLS® Rules may result in a matter being referred to the Professional Standards Committee of a Member Association or ITSO, regardless of payment of any administrative penalties. A breach of a Basic MLS® Rule or multiple Basic MLS® Rules, which could be subject to an administrative penalty should be referred to the professional standards committee of the Member Association or ITSO as applicable if the conduct that resulted in a breach was more than simple error.”
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