Jason Oppenheim takes another crack at Clear Cooperation

Jason Oppenheim wants to clear the air on the Clear Cooperation Policy.

When the president of West Hollywood-based The Oppenheim Group offered a sharp rebuke to a social media post earlier this month by Compass CEO Robert Reffkin on his well-publicized position that CCP should be abolished, it set off a wave of reactions for and against the National Association of Realtors’ 2020 rule.

CCP requires agents put properties on the Multiple Listing Service within one business day of being publicly marketed. Sellers have the option of bypassing the requirement by signing an exemption.

Oppenheim’s point, he said, was ultimately lost in the din of debate.  

“I’m not making an argument on whether Clear Cooperation needs to stay, be revised or be removed,” he said. “My argument is the public deserves an honest conversation about this very important conversation without corporate self-interest.”

The Real Deal spoke with Oppenheim once again to drill further into his take on CCP. What follows has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Can you talk about what business looked like for you before Clear Cooperation?

I remember those days vividly. Those days involved an untold number of unrealistic sellers working with inexperienced agents, where nine out of every 10 pocket listings were no more than an overpriced property being pitched by an inexperienced agent who just wanted to have any type of listing he or she could.

That doesn’t do the industry any good and it certainly doesn’t do buyers and sellers any good.

I think the only people that benefit from that type of industry are large brokerages who convince sellers that they have better access than smaller brokerages, which is arguably true under that scenario, but that doesn’t mean that it’s to the benefit of buyers and sellers.

How would the removal of CCP impact the brokerage business landscape?

Removing CCP would create a significant disadvantage for new agents and newer, smaller brokerages. And that is exactly what we don’t need.

We want new blood. We want new businesses, and we don’t want them to be smothered out by larger brokerages using pocket listings as a sword to crush new entrants to the market.

What can residential agents learn from looking at how the commercial marketplace operates?

If you juxtapose the residential real estate market under CCP to commercial real estate, trying to get information on a commercial property or trying to identify the supply of commercial listings or the sale prices of commercial properties is almost impossible because it’s hoarded and protected by groups of agents in the industry who use it as capital.

What do you say to those who argue you should stick to discussing your own business in the context of CCP?

I’m not sure what’s better for my business. I really don’t know. I have enjoyed not having to deal with all of the bullshit pocket listings out there that are 90 percent unrealistic sellers with ridiculously overpriced properties.  

I also have a uniquely broad audience in terms of our database, our social media following and our website traffic. So I could easily make the argument that we would benefit from the removal of CCP.

That’s a selfish endeavor and I’m readily admitting that, which is why I have no problem with other CEOs making cogent arguments against CCP. I just ask that they acknowledge their own interests and make that clear to the public.

What’s the upshot?

I like fair competition and I like the idea of a seller meeting with different listing agents from different brokerages and those agents having to explain their value and what it is they’re able to do better than their competition. That’s the type of competition that I think sellers deserve.

Brokerages should be competing for agents, not by offering lower splits or shining bonuses but by showing the agents that they provide better value, better services and tech and better branding than their competition. I like fair play.

Some might say this is a free market and whoever has the best tools should win. So do you consider yourself an idealist?

I think it should be whoever has the best tools — let them win, but they should compete on a level playing field.

Let’s just get it all out there. I don’t call that idealism. 

Idealism is to expect that everyone listens and admits to their own honest self-interest. But if we can move the needle a little bit in that direction, then we’ve done a good thing.

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