NAREB President Ashley Thomas Speaks Out on Private Listing Networks and Housing Equality
In a candid and wide-ranging conversation, National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) President Ashley Thomas sat down for his first Inman Interview to discuss one of the most pressing issues facing Black homebuyers and sellers today: the growing threat of private listing networks. Drawing on deep historical context and a clear-eyed look at modern real estate technology, Thomas made a compelling case for why the real estate industry must remain vigilant against practices that echo the exclusionary policies of the past.
Understanding the National Association of Real Estate Brokers
Founded in 1947, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers has long served as the voice of Black real estate professionals in the United States. NAREB was established precisely because Black agents and brokers were systematically excluded from joining the National Association of Realtors and, by extension, locked out of the Multiple Listing Service. For decades, NAREB has championed the cause of democracy in housing — the belief that every American, regardless of race, deserves equal access to homeownership and the wealth-building opportunities that come with it.
Ashley Thomas, as the organization's current president, carries that legacy forward. His willingness to speak publicly about private listing networks reflects NAREB's ongoing commitment to transparency, equity, and access in the real estate market.
The History of MLS Exclusion and Its Legacy
To understand why Thomas is so concerned about private listing networks, it helps to revisit the history of MLS exclusion. For much of the twentieth century, the Multiple Listing Service operated as a gatekeeping mechanism. Black buyers were routinely steered away from certain neighborhoods, and Black real estate professionals were denied membership in local realtor associations — the prerequisite for MLS access. This exclusion was not incidental; it was structural and deliberate.
The consequences were profound. Black families were funneled into specific neighborhoods, denied the ability to build equity through homeownership in appreciating markets, and cut off from the kind of generational wealth that the postwar housing boom delivered to millions of white Americans. Today, the racial homeownership gap — which stands at roughly 30 percentage points — is in large part a direct inheritance of those discriminatory practices.
Thomas is careful to connect these historical dots when discussing modern listing practices. The past is not simply prologue; it is an active framework through which new policies and technologies must be evaluated.
Private Listing Networks: A New Form of Exclusion?
Private listing networks — sometimes called pocket listings or off-MLS listings — allow sellers and brokers to market properties within a closed network before, or instead of, listing them publicly on the MLS. Proponents argue that these arrangements offer privacy, flexibility, and a more curated selling experience. But critics like Ashley Thomas see a much darker potential.
When properties are not listed on the open MLS, access to those listings becomes dependent on who you know, which brokerage you work with, and which networks you belong to. Historically, Black buyers and sellers have been underrepresented in elite, well-connected brokerage networks. If a significant share of desirable inventory flows through private channels, those buyers risk being systematically disadvantaged — not through any explicitly discriminatory policy, but through the quiet mechanics of network exclusion.
Thomas argues that this is precisely how discrimination has always worked in real estate: not always through overt prejudice, but through structural arrangements that produce racially disparate outcomes. When the rules of access are opaque and informal, the groups with the least institutional power are the ones who lose.
How Private Listings Harm Black Buyers and Sellers Specifically
- Reduced competition and price discovery: When a property is sold off-market, Black sellers may receive lower offers because they lack access to the same pool of competing buyers that the open MLS generates. Transparency drives up prices; opacity tends to suppress them.
- Limited inventory access for buyers: Black homebuyers who are not connected to high-end private networks may never even see certain listings, effectively narrowing their choices in already competitive markets.
- Erosion of fair housing protections: Fair housing laws were built around the principle of open, public marketing. The more transactions migrate to private networks, the harder it becomes to monitor and enforce those protections.
- Wealth gap amplification: Every transaction that disadvantages a Black buyer or seller — even marginally — compounds over time and across communities, widening the racial wealth gap that NAREB has spent decades working to close.
Technology, Transparency, and the Future of Fair Housing
Thomas also addressed the role of technology in this conversation. On one hand, digital platforms and data tools have the potential to democratize real estate by making information more accessible to more people. On the other hand, technology can just as easily be used to create more sophisticated and harder-to-detect forms of exclusion. Algorithmic sorting, data-driven network segmentation, and AI-powered marketing tools could all be deployed in ways that reinforce existing inequities if the industry does not actively choose equity-focused design.
NAREB's position is that technology should serve the goal of broader access, not narrower gatekeeping. Thomas called on real estate industry leaders, policymakers, and technology companies to design systems that expand the MLS's open, transparent function rather than eroding it.
What Needs to Change
Thomas stopped short of calling for an outright ban on private listings, but he was unambiguous about the direction the industry needs to move. Greater transparency, stronger MLS participation requirements, and robust fair housing enforcement are all tools he identified as essential. He also emphasized the importance of Black homebuyers and sellers being represented by knowledgeable professionals — including NAREB members — who understand both the history of housing discrimination and the current landscape well enough to protect their clients' interests.
The conversation Thomas is starting is not simply about listing policy. It is about who gets to build wealth in America, and whether the real estate industry will allow structural inequity to persist under a new name. As private listing networks grow in popularity among luxury brokerages, NAREB's voice — rooted in more than seven decades of advocacy — is more important than ever.