April 2, 2020
Dear Member:
We hope this message finds you safe and healthy. We are in a challenging and uncertain time at this moment but we have always, as professionals, worked through things together as a community. Everyone at the Association, the SFARMLS, and on our leadership team sends our sincerest wishes to you for your well-being.
In November of 2019 at the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) Conference & EXPO in San Francisco, the voices of the MLS community along with industry leaders across the entire range of brokerage models collectively embraced MLS Policy Statement 8.0 "Clear Cooperation."
The MLS and Technology Committee for SFARMLS, with the guidance of SFAR's Board of Directors, implemented the rule and further expanded on it in order to fulfill its intent: to ensure that all agents in a market have access to the same, complete pool of listings being publicly marketed to consumers. It really is that simple. Does our implementation force you to immediately put any listings you have "On The Market", as has been claimed? No. SFARMLS has a “Coming Soon” feature that meets the needs for mandatory submission.
Our new rules are dated March 25, 2020, which means that they are now implemented. We will not begin ENFORCING the rules regarding Clear Cooperation until the NAR mandated milestone of May 1, 2020, but we encourage you to get familiar (and start complying) ahead of time.
To make it easy to see exactly which rules are part of the Clear Cooperation initiative, we have created a Critical Changes Log. Please review it here:
SFARMLS Rules/Clear Cooperation Critical Changes Log
Also, please read our Clear Cooperation FAQs:
And read the Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) resources:
Contact me with any questions at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Thank you,
Jay Pepper-Martens, SFARMLS and IT Director
