Why Clear Cooperation is (Ultimately) Doomed

My friend James Dwiggins inadvertently lays out why

Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash

As most of you probably know, I consider James Dwiggins, CEO of NextHome, to be one of the smartest and most thoughtful guys in the industry. He’s a good friend, to whom I owe at least one if not more steak dinners for losing bets. He’s also a podcaster with his partner Keith Robinson over at Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered. Worth a subscription, for sure.

So when he publishes something for the industry, I read it. In this case, it’s a two-part defense of Clear Cooperation Policy at Real Estate News. You can find those here and here.

I think his post is the perfect example of “idealism and nobility confront shareholder value, dominance, and compounding growth” that I wrote about in my previous post on brokerage self-interest vs. MLS value. And while I am certain that James did not mean to make the case for why — in the absence of major changes — large brokerages should be exiting the MLS completely, he did just that.

I wish the world were as James wishes it to be. It is not. Which means the responsible thing to do is to plan for the world as it is, rather than as we want it to be.

Brief Overview of His Arguments

I urge you to go read his two-part series. It’s fairly short and he makes very good points.

Briefly, they are what we have kind of heard before, except he articulates them clearly and well:

• CCP is imperfect, but it has a beneficial outcome.

• 99% of sellers want to maximize dollars.

• Systematic attempts by brokerages to get sellers to agree to exclusives are driven by greed, not consumer service.

• CCP should be reformed — by removing the Office Exclusive loophole — but retained.

• Eliminating CCP means massive future legal liability by sellers who were bamboozled.

• Consumers, small brokerages and franchises will be harmed if CCP is repealed.

I don’t know that I’ve done his arguments justice, so please go read the whole thing.

Again, let me reiterate that I agree with his goals. I do want real estate to be far more consumer-friendly. I do want buyers and sellers to come first, and for greed not to be the driving force in real estate.

However…