Fair Housing is one of the best initiatives ever implemented in our country. Every person, regardless of race, religion, sexual preference, marital status, EVERY person, should have the same opportunities as the next to call a place home. On November 11, 2019, NAR recently passed MLS Statement 8.0, also known as Clear Cooperation Policy, that shall restrict real estate brokers from promoting a "pocket listing" outside of its own firm. This includes, but is not limited to, marketing the property on a company website with public access, sending an email blast to other Realtors or that Realtor's friend and family lists, and even placing a sign in the yard and/or window.

While I appreciate NAR's desire to level the playing field, the knee jerk reaction to do so in a hastily fashion, they do not seem to be concerned about the ramifications. I agree that my firm should not be able to promote off-market listings on our website to the public as it could potentially create an "us against them" mentality with different brokers. If one company does it, then every company will do it, and eventually, no one will utilize our amazing portal, HAR.com. This is not what we as Realtors signed up for. We are defined by our Code of Ethics.

In Houston, our board has raised the bar of what an Association should expect from their MLS. HAR.com is one of only a handful, if not the only one, where the MLS has traffic equal to Zillow's. That is to be commended again and again and again. Kudos to everyone at HAR. However, there is one very large portion of the market that is being overlooked which could swing the momentum away from our beloved HAR.com.

Those that know me, know I run analytics...DAILY!!!! Taking a snapshot today, not including rental properties or those properties that are currently under contract, there are currently 34,844 ACTIVE properties listed on HAR.com. What is shocking is 7,389 of those 34,844 active listings are new construction. So many people think that is only for the upper-middle class. While my average transaction is north of $800,000, and a lot of my personal business is associated with new construction, this is not just a "rich man's game". Look at these numbers:

New construction up to $100k = 8 active out of 1,479, equal to only 0.5% of the total number is listings with the other 99.5% being resales.
$100,001 - $150,000 = 67 active out of 2,062, equal to 3.25%
$150,00, - $250,000 = 1,611 active out of 9,943, equal to 16.20%
$250,001 - $500,000 = 4,278 active out of 14,509, equal to 29.49%
$500,001 - $1,000,000 = 940 active out of 5,174, equal to 18.17%
$1,000,001 - $2,000,000 = 326 active out of 1,772, equal to 18.40%
$2,000,001 and up = 159 active out of 905, equal to 17.57%

On HAR.com today, there are 7,389 active listings that are New Construction...out of 34,844. That equates to 21.21% of all active listings for sale are New Construction. Almost a third of the homes in the $250,000 to $500,000 sector are new construction. NOW WHY IS THAT IMPORTANT?

After speaking with dozens of developers, many complain about the "Days On Market" which shows the public how long the home has been made available for sale on HAR.com. Some developers will ask their Realtor to place the property on the market even before the foundation has been poured. The home may not even be completed for a year. By listing the home on HAR.com, in the early stage of development, in order to gain maximum exposure with the hopes of pre-selling the home, the DOM creeps up. However, many developers often fear the property having "a birthday" on HAR.com. If the home shows 365 days on market, often times, the public thinks, "What's wrong with this home?", or "Why hasn't sold?", or "Do you think because it has been on the market so long, the seller will negotiate a lower price?".

In order to defeat this, many Realtors educate their developers about this and suggest to keep the Days on Market at a minimum. Or a Realtor will list one home from the developer's inventory but then keep the other dozen properties off market with only a sign in the yard and attempt to cross sell. If HAR adopts a policy that requires a home to be listed on the MLS within 24 hours if a sign is placed in the yard, or an email is sent, or a phone call is made to other brokerage firms, what do they think the developers are going to do? My guess, THEY WON'T SIGN A LISTING AGREEMENT WITH A REALTOR, until the construction of the home is completed.

And just like that, potentially 4,849 listings will be removed. Today, of the 7,389 new construction homes available for sale, 4,849 are not even completed yet. SIXTY-FIVE PERCENT!

But David, you just proved the point NAR is trying to make. The developers will still list these homes on the MLS to get the exposure. Actually, that is incorrect. In 2019, there was an expected 30,000 new home starts in Houston. That means, only 16% of the builder's inventory is on the MLS. The remaining 84% are being sold off-market with in-house sales teams on the developers payroll. And most of these developers sight the DOM and the perception that if they list all of their inventory on HAR.com, the public will see a ton of homes available, so that must mean there is a supply/demand ratio that will allow them to buy the home less than the developer's asking price. So if a Realtor is no longer allowed to place a sign in the yard while a home is being built, which would result in "starting the clock", the developer will probably not sign a listing agreement with the Realtor. Instead, a developer may just put their own sign in the front yard. Instead, the developer may get a phone call from an interested passer-by. Instead, the developer may sign a sales contract with the passer-by without the use of a Realtor. Instead, the developer may think they can do it by themselves and never hire a Realtor. Or instead, the developer may realize it may be more cost-effective to have an in-house sales team instead of a Realtor.

So what to do? What should we expect from our Board of Directors at HAR? How do we protect the consumer's rights without jeopardizing the role of a Realtor? Maybe Taqi Rizvi , our Chief Technology Officer and his amazing staff who are the architects behind HAR.com, can create a tab for New Construction that does not start the clock on Days on Market until the completion date has arrived? Maybe our President and Vice President, Bob Hale and Rene Galvan respectively, can collaborate with the awesome brains they have at their disposal, to find a solution on how to prevent a tidal wave of new construction listings from walking out the door. Between Matt and Aracely in communciations, Roz in Engagement, Shaun in MLS, Karen with TREPAC and a dozen other geniuses, all with IQ's north of 130, there has to be a solution to protect the members of this amazing Association as well as serving the public in a clear and transparent way. These people are my friends, I love their efforts. I love their dedication. But even though my wife knows I love her, sometimes, I have to express it out loud so she can hear it and remember who's important to her. Bob and company, we love you! I hope you are able to figure this out and do the right thing.

Godspeed my friends, Godspeed!