KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. — Nov. 3, 2026 — Across the country, seller choice is being argued in courtrooms, statehouses and MLS rulebooks. As of October 2026, Connecticut’s SB 340 requires public availability concurrently with or before the first instance of public marketing unless the seller signs the state’s Seller/Landlord Opt-Out form. Seller choice sits at the center of these disputes. Few explain what the transaction record should show once the decision is made. The Listing Strategy Decision Record (LSDR™) is one tool built to answer that question.
The seller decides.
Few dispute it. In many files, though, the record of that decision is a selected option, a signature and a date.
The seller decides.
The listing agreement records authority. The required forms record authorization and consequences. A record of what the seller was shown and chose does a different job.
“Seller choice should mean more than recording which option was selected,” said Vincent Cyr, president of LTC Capital, LLC. “The seller should be able to look at the record and recognize their own decision, not merely their signature.”
A documentation standard we propose
A documented listing decision, wherever the rules land, should show:
- The available approaches and their tradeoffs, as presented to the seller, and the seller’s acknowledgment of them.
- What mattered most to the seller, in the seller’s own ranked priorities.
- The strategy the seller selected and, when marketing is restricted, the seller’s stated reasons.
- When marketing is restricted, the condition on which the listing moves to public MLS marketing if it has not produced an acceptable offer.
- Signatures of the seller or sellers and the listing agent, and the broker of record’s acknowledgment.
The standard describes what a record should show, not which product or process a brokerage uses. Brokerages may already meet it with their own forms and procedures. It complements required forms and does not replace them, and it leaves room for different strategies and different seller decisions.
The seller decides.
A seller may begin with immediate public MLS exposure, with restricted marketing, or with limits on what appears on public websites. Starting in public view is still a decision, and the seller’s priorities belong in the record either way.
One tool built to produce it
The LSDR is a structured process designed to produce a documented listing decision. Sellers rank and reorder their priorities, compare the available approaches and acknowledge the tradeoffs. When marketing is restricted, the record carries the seller’s stated reasons and the condition on which the listing moves to the public MLS, which can be a number of days, a number of qualified showings or a date by which the seller must reaffirm in writing. Where a seller limits what appears on public websites, the record shows what was selected and that the seller was made aware of the choice. The LSDR documents the decision process: what the seller was shown, what mattered, and what was chosen. It does not record how a decision was implemented or what outcome followed; those are documented separately.
“If a homeowner says, ‘This is how I want to begin, and this is when I want us to reconsider it,’ that is part of the seller’s decision too,” Cyr said.
The seller decides.
When someone later asks why a listing was marketed a particular way, the answer should trace back to the homeowner, not to whoever entered the settings.
“A common expectation for the quality of the decision process leaves room for different decisions,” Cyr said. “It also gives consumers the dialogue they deserve and makes the seller’s reasoning easier to examine.”
What the LSDR is not
The LSDR is not required by any law or MLS rule. It is not a safe harbor and does not guarantee any outcome. It is a record of the process used to seek and document the seller’s informed decision; it does not certify that any consent was legally valid. It can help show what was presented, what the seller prioritized, what was selected and what instructions were given, and it can equally show a departure from those instructions. It complements, and does not replace, required forms, E&O coverage, brokerage policy and supervision. It is not legal advice.
Availability
Brokerages, compliance professionals and attorneys can review the five criteria at lsdr.ltccapitalholdings.com/compliance/listing-decision-standard/. Agents can configure an LSDR for their own practice at lsdr.ltccapitalholdings.com/configure. A demonstration and illustrative completed records are at lsdr.ltccapitalholdings.com/demo/. The LSDR is licensed per agent.
About the Listing Strategy Decision Record
The LSDR is published by LTC Capital, LLC, which shares common ownership with The Cyr Team. It is a structured process for documenting the priorities, tradeoffs and reasoning behind a seller’s listing-strategy decision, for public MLS marketing and restricted marketing alike.