3.1 Permissible MLS Concession Fields & Unconditional Advertising

🎯 Key 2026 Real Estate Exam Takeaways

• MLSs are permitted to maintain a data field indicating that a seller is offering concessions.
• MLS concession fields CANNOT state, imply, or condition that the concession must be used to pay a buyer broker fee.
• Concessions advertised on the MLS must be general buyer credits applicable to allowable buyer closing costs.

While the settlement permanently barred cooperative broker compensation fields from MLS systems, it explicitly authorized MLSs to maintain data fields for general seller concessions. A seller may advertise that they are willing to contribute a specific dollar amount (e.g. $10,000) or percentage (e.g. 3%) toward the buyer's overall closing costs, rate buydowns, or prepaids.

The critical legal boundary is that the MLS concession field must remain general and unconditional. The listing cannot state, mandate, or imply that the concession funds are reserved exclusively for, or conditioned upon, paying a fee to the buyer's broker. Conditioning a concession on a broker fee payment transforms it into an illegal cooperative compensation field.

Practitioners must also understand that an MLS concession entry is an invitation to negotiate, not an irrevocable contract term. To become legally enforceable, the requested seller concession must be formally incorporated into the buyer's written purchase contract or addendum and mutually signed by both principals.

⚠️ Common Licensing Exam Traps

• Do not write 'Seller offering 2.5% concession for buyer broker commission' in the concession field; this violates MLS rules.
• Remember that an MLS concession field is a marketing statement of intent, not a self-executing contract; the concession must still be negotiated in the purchase agreement.