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Published on March 29, 2021

Staff at the Greater Lehigh Valley REALTORS® has been receiving reports of agents utilizing social media to advertise listings prior to them being listed in the multiple listing service.

Social media – no matter if a listing is being posted to a personal profile, a business page, etc. – is considered public marketing. Per the National Association of REALTORS® and Section 5.4.5 of the Greater Lehigh Valley Multiple Listing Service Rules and Regulations, “Within one (1) business day of marketing a property to the public, the listing broker must submit the listing to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants.”

Section 5.4.5 reads, in full, “Within one (1) business day of marketing a property to the public, the listing broker must submit the listing to the MLS for cooperation with other 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. Failure to submit a listing to the MLS within one (1) business day of marketing the property to the public shall be considered a Major Violation and subject to the fines as specified in Section 5.9 which is $2500.”

Any Participant found to be in violation of Section 5.4.5, as stated directly above, shall be subject to a $2,500 fine per occurrence.

Additional Resources

Note:These resources can always be found for later review either in the MLS broadcast, on the Member Portal under the MLS menu item, or under the External Links widget on the MLS homepage.