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Bright MLS was created from a desire to be the change that real estate professionals demand. Now serving an area that stretches from central Pennsylvania through Maryland to Northern Virginia back up through Delaware and the Philadelphia metropolitan area, Bright is the largest MLS in the United States, It provides subscribers with access to listing information for a larger geographic area, modern, easy-to-use systems and apps to serve your clients and run your business, and a comprehensive ecosystem of robust property information and analytics.

Latest Updates

**NEW** Clarification of Off-MLS Policy Announced on April 22nd

Since October, the Bright Off-MLS policy has helped provide sellers with access to the largest possible group of buyers, and buyers with the widest possible selection of listings. It encourages competition and cooperation among brokerages big and small within Bright’s footprint. It also strongly supports the ideals of fair housing. These same values were reinforced with the passage of NAR’s Clear Cooperation 8.0 policy in November 2019.

As an ongoing effort, we are clarifying our Off-MLS guidelines, specifically for Office Exclusive listings.

Office Exclusive listings may not be publicly marketed. This includes all communication beyond your brokerage firm, including one-to-one communication via email, web, social media, or text.

What does this mean for you?

As an MLS subscriber, you have two options when you take a listing:

  1. Enter the listing into the MLS within one business day of public marketing
  2. Make the listing an Office Exclusive and have your seller sign the form to confirm they desire an Office Exclusive, without public marketing -which includes communication to any real estate professionals outside your firm

If you plan to publicly market the property, including emails and online posts outside your brokerage firm, then you need to enter the listing into the MLS within one business day.

If your seller requests a listing not be entered into the MLS, the listing would be an Office Exclusive. An Office Exclusive cannot be marketed to anyone outside of your brokerage firm, including through one-to-one communications with other real estate professionals.

Additional Resources

Bright Off-MLS Policy requires submitting listing within 1 business day of marketing

To provide transparency and access to information in the real estate marketplace, a listing must be submitted to Bright within 1 business day of marketing, according to a new policy created by the Bright Board of Directors.

The Bright Off-MLS policy encourages participation and helps ensure an open marketplace.

The MLS system encourages competition in the marketplace while also ensuring cooperation and compensation among real estate professionals. Full participation in the MLS ensures the seller has the largest possible marketplace, and the buyer has the widest possible selection. This policy will help provide transparency and access to information in the real estate marketplace.

Here is the new policy:

Within one business day of marketing a property to the public, the Participant must submit the listing to Bright MLS for cooperation with other Bright MLS Participants. Public marketing includes, but is not limited to, flyers displayed in windows, yard signs, digital marketing on public facing websites, brokerage website displays (including IDX and VOW), digital communications marketing (email blasts), multi-brokerage listing sharing networks, and applications available to the general public.

The policy has been added to the Bright Rules and Regulations. The policy is active as of October 16; however, fines will not be levied for non-compliance until February 1, 2020.

The new policy does not change Bright’s Coming Soon Status.

The Coming Soon status will continue to be available within the Bright system for listings that are not being shown, and actively marketed.

The policy also allows for Office Exclusives, or private listings, on the condition that they are not marketed to the public.  This would be used, for example, for private sales and other situations where the seller has requested that their property not be listed in the MLS for privacy reasons.

Please note: If your seller requests that you not list their property in the MLS, you can submit a waiver. Any listing where the seller has decided to not market their property through the MLS are subject to the new Office Exclusive policy.  Section 1.3 of the Bright Rules and Regulations discusses Waivers and Office Exclusives.

Additional Resources:

Bright’s Accuracy and Policy team is available to help answer questions about this new policy. You can reach them Monday through Friday at (301) 838-7140 or OFFMLSLISTINGS@BrightMLS.com.

New Infographic! Days on Market – The Lifecycle of a Listing

Previous Updates

April 16th; Release Notes

March 31st; Release Notes

March 17th; Release Notes

January 28th; Release Notes

January 22nd: Release Notes

January 14th: Release Notes

January 7th: Release Notes

December 12th: Release Notes

December 10th: Release Notes

For older release notes, please click here.

Training

Bright MLS provides ongoing training, both in-person and through online resources.

Even if you are fairly comfortable with the new system, changes will be ongoing, and even the smallest change can be uncomfortable or difficult to navigate. Your active participation and feedback will help ensure you can use Bright MLS to your best advantage. We ask that you please:

* Read your Bright emails.
* Attend training classes either in person or online.
* Take the actions requested in a timely manner.
* Look carefully at your listing data in Bright and share any discrepancies you find.
* Search the Online Help topics, watch videos, and take advantage of available resources.

Support

Bright’s Support Center works with members to address problems that you may encounter within the system. Members can contact Bright Support 7 days a week via:

Go to brightmls.com for more information.

Related Links
Bright MLS Bright MLS Training Videos