61% of those with a real estate sales license in FLORIDA work with independent brokers. They may not be confined to the 'sandbox' rules many must endure.
KW has preconditioned consumers to have no concern for the brokerage as their practice of obfuscating the brokerage identity increased.
A real estate agents picture in the front yard means very little regarding what to expect.
What I have not noticed is any creativity at the street level. However, on the digital frontier. the 'middleware' vendors are sucking the dollars out of the market place.

61%. That is sufficient critical mass to make change happen. Now, if only they had away to connect.  I think the folks at DGroove are working on it.

Not really.

How do we know that the for sale sign isn't with an agent who isn't an mls member? They can still sell homes and post signs... they just can't list in mls.

On the whole, I can't say I'm seeing questionable activities in my market... then again, maybe I'm not looking for it.

Since the " Coming Soon" rules became stricter due to Clear Cooperation, seems like many agents aren't using Coming Soon riders any longer. But sometimes, signs go up before listings are Active in MLS. Many signs don't mention that the property is for sale, but once it goes Active, they will add a FOR SALE rider to their sign. The signs do generate calls before listing is Active, so you don't know what conversations take place between agent and sign calls. Also, if someone happens to make an offer before listing goes active, we're suppose present that offer to sellers.

Not really

Not at all. So the pandemic might be pushing brokers to push the line on ethics?

Not an increase - some agents continue their shenanigans - they know the chances of anything happening to them are slim to none.

Not at all, Peter - thankfully!

Peter, I haven't seen yet. But, I will pay more attention to it.

I am so busy doing my thing that I seldom take time to notice if others are doing things they possibly shouldnt be doing.

No, we have not. 

No, but I wouldn't know if it was listed or not unless the home was in an area that I frequent or a clients asks me about it.  There are big fines now in So. California for this unscrupulous practice.

No, not really. Must say businesss as usual.

Here it is supposed to be in the MLS before any type of marketing, but just like the laws of the land, it becomes "it's not for ME!

We have it happening here, it's against the rules. Seems signs are going up and listings aren't hitting the MLS for about a week later. 

     Our MLS has tightened up the rules, but we still see a lot of Friday afternoon Pocket Listings that don't hit MLS until Monday. 

     Is that fair to a Seller?   If it goes under contract on the weekend (listing office brings the Buyer), that property never got exposed to the entire Buyer pool; the Seller might have received a higher price.

I have not.  I have had a couple of agents point out that they believe some agents are holding on to listings prior to putting them in the MLS... but frankly I've had some sellers who were thrilled that I had a buyer for their home and it sold the day after it was listed because with Covid the less people coming into their home the better.