Coldwell Banker Danforth, a Seattle-based Coldwell Banker franchise, won’t renew its National Association of Realtors (NAR) affiliation at the beginning of 2024, the company announced on Friday.
The announcement comes amid major turmoil at the trade organization. In recent months, NAR has been embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal as well as a series of ongoing commission lawsuits.
The franchise, which has more than 300 agents spread across five offices in the Puget Sound region in Washington State, is the first privately-owned Coldwell Banker franchise to separate from NAR.
“This decision underscores our brokerage’s unwavering commitment to agent autonomy and our belief in allowing agents to make choices that best suit their needs and principles,” Dave Danforth, designated broker/owner of the firm, said in a statement.
This latest development comes on the heels of several other high-profile departures from NAR. Earlier in October, national real estate brokerages Redfin, Anywhere and RE/MAX took a step back from NAR. While Redfin required its brokers and agents to leave NAR “everywhere they could,” Anywhere and RE/MAX simply allowed their company-owned brokerages to cut ties with the NAR if they wanted to.
In the Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit, NAR was found guilty of colluding with defendant brokerages to inflate or maintain high commission rates through its Clear Cooperation policy.
Coldwell Banker Danforth’s agents will be able to access their local MLS as they normally do because the NorthWest MLS is not a Realtor-owned entity.
