As a reminder, the following change to the Code of Ethics took effect on January 1, 2022. This change was recommended by the National Association of REALTORS®’s (NAR) Professional Standards Committee and approved by the NAR Board of Directors. Standard of Practice 12-1 of the Code of Ethics now reads: REALTORS® must not represent that their brokerage services are free or available at no cost to their clients unless the REALTOR® will receive no financial compensation from any source for those services. (Amended 1/22)
This is in line with the changes made to NAR’s MLS Policy Statement 8.4, which prohibits MLS participants and subscribers from representing that their brokerage services are free. These changes seek to provide greater transparency to consumers regarding real estate commissions. Standard of Practice 12-1 does allow for a REALTOR® to use the term free so long as that REALTOR® is not receiving any financial compensation from any source for the service they are providing.
Click here to view the entire REALTOR® Code of Ethics.
For a list of Code of Ethics dos and don’ts, click here.