Bright MLS display controls let a listing broker, on the seller's instruction, tell consumer websites not to show selected information about a listing while the listing stays in the MLS. Bright's materials name price, price history, days on site, and individual photos as new controls, alongside address, automated valuation, and consumer comments, which already exist. Bright's coaches said in an October 15, 2026 session that the new controls launch October 20, 2026, "unless something changes." Bright's October 9 policy webinar had marked them "Available Soon" without a date.
This page covers what Bright has shown, what it has not yet documented, and one question the new controls raise: when a field is shown or hidden, where is the seller's instruction recorded? It is a companion to the Bright MLS July 2026 rulebook reference. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.
This page is the reference. Two companion pieces on The Cyr Team's site make the argument: what each control does to a buyer, and what a brokerage process has to capture.
| What | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Bright's data feed can flag information and photos that must not be displayed, on the instruction of the listing broker and the seller. Displaying sites must comply. | Bright MLS Rules, Appendix G (effective July 22, 2026) | In the rulebook |
| Price and address remain required fields in the MLS record. | Bright MLS Rules, 1.8 and 1.8.1 | In the rulebook |
| A site that withholds a field may show nothing about it, or a statement directing the reader to the listing agent. | Bright MLS Rules, Appendix G | In the rulebook |
| Bright's seller form shows Yes/No choices for Listing Price, Price History, Days on Site, Address on the Internet, AVM, and Consumer Comments. | Bright policy webinar, October 9, 2026 (slides) | Shown as "Available Soon." Screens may change before release. |
| Individual photos can be excluded from online distribution. An excluded photo is described as still appearing in MLS searches. | Bright policy webinar, October 9, 2026 (slides) | Shown as "Available Soon." |
| Brokers will be able to instruct sites to withhold price, address, select photos, days on market, and price history. | Real Estate News, July 9, 2026 | Trade-press report of Bright's announcement. The report says "days on market"; Bright's form says "Days on Site." |
| The Registered status becomes available October 20, 2026. | Bright policy webinar, October 9, 2026; Bright coaching session, October 15, 2026 | The coaches added "unless something changes." Bright's rulebook says only that Registered is available later in 2026. |
| The price, price history, and days on site controls and individual photo exclusion launch October 20. They affect internet sites and apps only, days on market still exists in Bright, and all photos remain in the MLS. | Bright coaching session, October 15, 2026 (recording and transcript) | A Bright coach's statement, not a published rule. |
| The settings can be turned back on at any time during the life of a listing, including on current active listings. | Bright coaching session, October 15, 2026 | A Bright coach's statement, not a published rule. |
| There is no Bright form to note the seller's decision on these controls. The Office Exclusive form is the only form Bright requires, and the decision is a conversation between agent and seller. | Bright coaching session, October 15, 2026 | A Bright coach's answer to a question from the audience, not a published rule. |
| In a test environment, the three new fields show No when the listing's distribution is set to No, and come up blank, for the agent to choose, when it is set to Yes. | Bright coaching session, October 15, 2026 | A coach describing a test environment. The released screen may differ. |
| How a hidden field looks to a buyer on each portal, what a buyer sees after a field is restored, whether restoring triggers alerts, and how a portal calculates the days it shows. | None found | Not yet documented |
| Label on the form | New or already available | Default on the form |
|---|---|---|
| Listing Price | New | No when distribution is No; blank when it is Yes (a coach, in a test environment) |
| Price History | New | Same |
| Days on Site | New | Same |
| Address on the Internet | Already available | Yes (webinar screen) |
| AVM | Already available | Yes (webinar screen) |
| Consumer Comments | Already available | Yes (webinar screen) |
| Hide Media Off Market | Already available, according to a Bright coach | None shown |
| Exclude from Online Distribution (set photo by photo) | New, launching October 20 | A toggle on each photo, not a Yes/No field |
The defaults for the three new fields come from a coach describing a test environment, and the Yes defaults for the older fields from a webinar screenshot. Both may change at release. If they hold, any listing distributed to the internet will carry an answer for each new field that someone chose, because a blank has to be filled in.
Bright's materials indicate that these controls govern what Bright distributes to consumer sites, not what exists in the MLS. Price and address stay required in the record, and an excluded photo is described as still appearing in MLS searches. Bright's own listing-entry flowchart also notes that a broker may always send a listing anywhere, so a Bright-side control does not by itself govern every place a listing appears.
A Bright coach said the same on October 15: the new settings affect internet sites and apps only, days on market still exists in Bright, and all photos remain in the MLS.
Appendix G requires displaying sites to refresh Bright data at least every 12 hours and to stop using data that is no longer in the feed. That bounds how quickly a change should reach a Bright-licensed display. It does not say what a buyer sees afterward.
These field controls sit between full exposure and the existing Internet: No setting, which withholds the whole listing from Bright's consumer distribution. Coming Soon status already produces two of the same effects on its own: according to Bright's webinar, days on market do not accumulate and price changes are not tracked in history while a listing is in Coming Soon.
Each control has a plausible reason behind it and a market effect that may follow. None of the rows below is a recommendation.
| Field | Why a seller may choose to hide it | What a buyer may infer or lose | Question to settle first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listing Price | Keep the asking price from broad public display. | Buyers may be unable to test affordability or filter by price, and may assume the least favorable explanation. | Will the listing appear in price-filtered searches on the sites that matter, and what do saved-search users see? |
| Price History | Avoid emphasizing earlier reductions. | Reductions can renew attention. A blank can be read as a reason to worry. | When the field is shown again, do earlier changes appear? |
| Days on Site | Avoid a stale-listing impression. | Time on market is a reference point for how to write an offer. Without it, buyers have less context. | What does Days on Site display, and does it match the MLS count? |
| Photos, one at a time | Protect privacy, valuables, or a sensitive area of the home. | Fewer images can reduce the click from search to showing, and can change who pictures themselves in the home. | Who chose which photos, and does the set represent the home accurately? |
| Address on the Internet (already available) | Protect privacy or security at an occupied home. | Buyers cannot assess setting, schools, commute, or nearby sales. | Which location filters stop working, and who can still obtain the address? |
A "Yes" is as much an instruction as a "No." Either way, someone selected it for this listing.
The choices also interact. Hiding days on site and price history together removes two signals buyers use to frame an offer. Hiding address and photos together removes both the location context and the visual. Whether any combination affects who can find or evaluate a listing is a question for the broker's own review, alongside Bright's Fair Housing Policy (Appendix H). This page draws no legal conclusion.
Bright's Rules say two things about records. Rule 1.8.5 requires the client's advance written authorization for changes to a listing, such as status or price; whether it reaches display settings is not stated. Rule 2.6 requires brokers to retain documents Bright's rules require, including seller instructions on marketing and showings, and to provide a copy within one business day of Bright's request. The Rules do not say what an instruction must contain, or how it maps to the new controls.
Asked on October 15 whether there is a form to track the seller's decision on price and the other controls, a Bright coach said there is none: the Office Exclusive form is the only form Bright requires, and the decision is a conversation between the agent and the seller. That is an informal answer, not a published rule.
Association listing forms are the usual place a seller's marketing elections are written down. In the versions reviewed:
| Control | PA: PAR XLS (rev. 7/25) | DE: DAR Exclusive Right to Sell (7/2024) | NJ: NJ REALTORS Form 150 (07/2025) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internet display | Section 25(C)(3) | Section 18(D)(a) | Section 4(c), internet marketing if listed on an MLS |
| Address on the internet | Section 25(C)(3) | Section 18(D)(b) | No line |
| AVM | Section 25(B)(2) | Section 18(D)(c) | No line |
| Consumer comments | Section 25(B)(2) | Section 18(D)(d), worded "blogging features" | No line |
| Price, price history, days on site | No line | No line | No line |
| Per-photo exclusion | No line | No line | No line |
These versions predate Bright's July 2026 announcement, and associations may update them. Forms for Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, and West Virginia were not reviewed. Nothing here suggests the forms are inadequate for what they were written to do.
Whatever form carries the election, a record shows the answer. It does not show what the seller was shown, what the seller wanted, or who decided. If a selection is questioned later, an agent or broker may be asked to explain the choice and what the seller understood.
A documented listing decision is the term used here for a contemporaneous account of the options discussed, the tradeoffs explained, and the seller's instructions, whichever way the choice goes. The Listing Strategy Decision Record (LSDR), published by LTC Capital, LLC, is one tool built to produce one. It complements required forms rather than replacing them. A form records that the seller authorized a selection; a documented listing decision records what the seller was shown and chose. It records the decision only; execution and outcomes are documented separately. LTC Capital, LLC shares common ownership with The Cyr Team. The Bright MLS rulebook reference sets out how the two layers differ.
Registered status, available October 20 according to Bright's webinar, is for a listing that is not yet marketed or made known to any prospective buyer or buyer's agent. Bright does not distribute a Registered listing, so display controls appear to have nothing to act on until the listing moves to Coming Soon or Active. The two-day entry deadline still applies once the listing agreement is signed. A Bright coach added that a Registered listing does not accumulate days on market and counts as submitted, not as a draft.
Bright's materials name price, price history, days on site, and individual photo exclusion as new seller display controls. Address on the internet, automated valuation, and consumer comments already exist. Bright's coaches said in an October 15, 2026 session that the price, price history, days on site, and individual photo controls launch October 20, 2026, unless something changes. Bright's October 9 policy webinar had marked them Available Soon without a date.
Bright's materials indicate it does not. The controls govern what Bright distributes to consumer sites. Price and address remain required fields in the MLS record, and a photo excluded from online distribution is described as still appearing in MLS searches. Bright's flowchart also notes that a broker may always send a listing anywhere, so a Bright-side control may not govern every place a listing appears. A Bright coach said days on market still exists in Bright and all photos remain in the MLS.
In the versions reviewed (PAR XLS rev. 7/25, DAR 7/2024, NJ REALTORS Form 150 07/2025), none has a line for price, price history, days on site, or per-photo exclusion. Pennsylvania and Delaware have lines for internet display, address, AVM, and comments (Delaware words the last as "blogging features"). New Jersey has an internet marketing authorization tied to MLS listing and no address, AVM, or comments line. These versions predate Bright's July 2026 announcement.
Bright Rule 2.6 requires brokers to retain documents required by Bright's rules and policies, including seller instructions on marketing and showings, and to provide a copy within one business day of Bright's request. The Rules do not specify what an instruction must contain for the new controls. Asked on October 15, a Bright coach said there is no form to note the seller's decision on these controls and that the Office Exclusive form is the only form Bright requires.
Bright's coaches said on October 15 that the settings can be turned back on at any time during the life of a listing, including on current active listings. Bright has not published what a buyer sees afterward. Appendix G requires displaying sites to refresh Bright data at least every 12 hours and stop using data that is no longer in the feed, but whether restored price history shows earlier changes or triggers alerts is not documented. Treat what a buyer sees as unconfirmed until Bright or the portal documents it.
Reviewed October 15, 2026. At this date the new display controls had not been released. Bright's coaches gave October 20 as the launch date, unless something changes.