The National Association of Realtors® (NAR), in a long-running lawsuit filed by a private listing startup, is now seeking to scrutinize the communications of the American Real Estate Association (ARA, a competing association that made headlines and grew rapidly in the wake of the Burnett verdict and scandals at NAR).
In a court filing last month, NAR subpoenaed communications and documents involving thePLS.com (a now-defunct listing platform that sued NAR over the Clear Cooperation policy back in 2020) and ARA, along with documents and communications related to the (also defunct) “NAR Accountability Project.”
Celebrity real estate agent Mauricio Umansky led or was involved in all of these entities, while Compass agent Jason Haber—who the subpoena is directed at—co-founded ARA.
NAR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit has a long and tortured history. Umansky founded thePLS.com with other celebrity agents back in 2017 for the purpose of sharing pocket listings across the country. When NAR passed Clear Cooperation in 2020, thePLS.com sued NAR and a handful of big MLSs, arguing the new rule was explicitly designed to undercut its business.
ThePLS.com eventually settled with the MLSs after winning initial procedural victories in the case, and dropped the lawsuit as it pertained to NAR—though both parties quietly agreed to extend the statute of limitations so thePLS.com could re-file its allegations later.
The company did so just under a year ago, and the litigation has continued moving forward since then, as the larger debate over private listings has evolved significantly in the wake of the commission lawsuits and industry-wide consolidation.
ARA has also been relatively quiet this year, after launching with big aspirations back in February of 2024. Challenging NAR on (among other things) the Clear Cooperation policy, ARA also said it could co-exist with the Realtor® association, and late last year claimed over 25,000 members after Douglas Elliman came onboard.
Haber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
