The National Association of Realtors has all but put a stop to one controversial practice some agents use to hide their listings from other agents. But some crafty realty pros are already finding their way around the new rules.

The questionable practice is known as a “pocket listing.” It happens when agents resist entering their listings into the multiple listing service until they can shop them to their preferred list of buyers, other agents in their offices or agents in affiliated offices.

If they are lucky enough to nail a buyer from their own sources, they get to keep the entire commission. They have to share the fee if an agent within their companies finds the buyer, but at least the entire charge is kept in-house.

If they are unsuccessful, they then turn to the MLS, which serves as the database of almost all homes for sale in a particular market. There are some 800 listing services nationwide; they are where all agents go to search for houses that meet their clients’ parameters.

It can be days, or sometimes weeks, before pocket listings see the light of day -- and there are circumstances in which some sellers wouldn’t mind their listings being held back for a while. Perhaps someone doesn’t want their neighbors, say, or their boss, to know they are planning to move. Maybe they aren’t ready for potential buyers to be traipsing in and out of their house at all hours. Or possibly they have no desire to keep their place squeaky-clean and ready for showings.

At the same time, though, sellers -- especially unsuspecting sellers who haven’t a clue their houses are being held off the market -- are not getting the full exposure to the market they bargained for when they signed their listing agreements. And pocket listings run against the cooperative nature of how houses are bought and sold. Agents of competing companies work together -- one representing the seller, and another, the buyer -- to sell millions of houses every year. But when an agent effectively keeps a listing in his or her pocket, the system breaks down.

Buyers’ agents have howled for years that they and their clients are not getting a fair shot at such listings, at least not right away. And the million-plus-member National Association of Realtors has finally agreed, concluding that off-MLS listings not only skew market data and reduce buyer and seller choice, but also undermine the commitment to provide equal opportunity to all agents.

So, under NAR’s new “Clear Cooperation” policy, starting May 1, listing brokers and agents are required to submit listings within one business day of marketing the property to the public -- in other words, within 24 hours of offering listings to a select audience. (The rule was originally set to take effect Jan. 1, but was delayed to give local services time to make technology changes and educate users.)

“We made sure that cooperation remains at the heart of organized real estate,” said Denee Evans of the Council of Multiple Listing Services, which represents MLSs, to NAR’s trade journal, Realtor Magazine.

But that isn’t likely to put a stop to the practice, because agents can use another classification -- “coming soon” -- to hold properties out of the MLS and off the market.

Underhanded agents have always tried to game the system in one way or another. Some cancel listings that have languished on the market for months, and then resubmit them to make them appear fresh. Sometimes they change the wording of the address -- say, changing “Drive” to “Dr.” -- to reset the number of days the place has been on the market. Or they drop the price a small amount to boost its standing on the service.

Some agents try these and other tricks at their own volition; others, at the behest of their clients. Either way, it is a violation of NAR’s Code of Ethics. But saying a listing is “coming soon” is not prohibited under the new rules. Office exclusives and marketing to private networks aren’t verboten, either.

Remember, once a listing contract is signed, agents have 24 business hours to enter it into the MLS. So, an agent who wants to keep a property as close to the vest as possible can ask a client to sign the agreement late on a Friday night. That way, it won’t have to be entered until Tuesday morning, leaving 72 hours to peddle the house on their own.

As with pocket listings, there can be good reasons for a “coming soon” listing. Some people need time to prepare their places for sale; others are waiting for their new homes to be completed. Others have to wait for a tenant to move out.

A “coming soon” listing tells the widest possible audience the house isn’t ready to be seen just yet, but it is for sale and will be ready to be viewed on a “go-live” date. But as long as the seller doesn’t sign a listing contract, the house need not -- actually, cannot -- be entered into the MLS.

Thus, an agent who wants to skirt the rules can shop the house to their own list of would-be buyers or those of agents in affiliated offices without consequences. Yes, without a singed agreement, there’s a chance that another agent might swoop in and take the listing out from under them. But it’s a chance some are willing to take.

According to a recent survey by the WAV Group, a research and advisory firm, “coming soon” listings are becoming more prevalent. “A ‘coming soon’ status is not only in high demand today,” its recent white paper said, “but brokers believe that it will become increasingly important in the future.”

Unfortunately, as the report points out, while many listing services have policies regarding such listings, the survey found they are “locally contrived” and far from uniform. Others, meanwhile, are still in the process of crafting their own policies to give sellers time to manicure their properties for optimal results.

You’ve heard of the G-7 -- a group of powerful industrialized nations. And you know about G-force, the gravitational pull people feel from sudden acceleration. But do you know anything about G-fees?

You should, because if the White House has its way, homebuyers could soon be paying a few thousand more G’s for financing.

Short for guarantee fees, G-fees are what companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge lenders to create, service and report on the securities they sell to investors worldwide.

Mortgage borrowers will never come in contact with these two government-sponsored enterprises. But they are critical to the financing supply line because they buy loans from your lender and hundreds of others, thereby keeping funds flowing for the next round of homebuyers coming behind you.

Fannie and Freddie, or the GSEs, turn some of those home loans into mortgage-backed securities. And they guarantee that investors who buy those securities will be paid their promised principal and interest, even if borrowers whose loans are in the package default. Hence, the G-fee.

Lenders pay the fee. But guess what? They pass it on to borrowers as part of what you pay for financing. And now the Trump administration, like others before it, has its eyes on the fee.

As it has every time it has needed to pay for the White House’s largesse, Trump’s budget for fiscal 2021 calls for raising the fee. In other words, the administration is looking to place the cost of at least some of those massive tax cuts -- the ones many people say largely benefited the rich -- on the backs of homebuyers.

According to the latest figures from the GSEs’ federal regulator, the average fee on single-family mortgages increased by 2 basis points -- to 55 basis points -- in 2018. A basis point is 1/100th of a percentage point. And that includes an extra 10-basis-point charge put into place in 2011 to fund a “temporary” payroll tax cut.

Now, a tad over one-half a percentage point doesn’t sound like a whole lot. But that’s part of the interest rate you are paying on your loan -- over the entire life of the loan. Roughly calculated, that’s an extra $14 a month on a 30-year, $255,000 mortgage at today’s rates. And that comes out to a bit over $5,000 over 30 years.

The basic fee isn’t going away anytime soon, if ever. But if the administration has its way, the charge will go up 10 basis points when the new fiscal year kicks in, in September. It’s not clear yet whether the new fee would be on top of the temporary fee, which expires in 2021, or in its place.

Over a 30-year term, 10 basis points on the $255,000 mortgage mentioned above amounts to an additional $5,100 in interest, for a total of $10,100 and change. If it clears Congress, everyone who takes out financing touched by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next 10 years will pay the price -- to the total tune of $34 billion, according to White House estimates.

“G-fees have become a bit of a go-to for congressional ‘pay fors,’” says Jann Swanson of the Mortgage News Daily newsletter. In 2015 and 2017, for example, the Senate tried to add 10 basis points to the G-fee to partially fund a highway construction act.

The proposed increases failed, and the White House is likely to fail this time around, too. But it is something worth keeping an eye on. Thirty-two housing-related trade groups certainly are. In a letter of support for bipartisan legislation that would prohibit using G-fees as a budgetary offset, the groups said the fees should be used only as originally intended: as a risk-management tool to protect against potential credit losses.

The trades, including such political powerhouses as the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Realtors, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association, don’t want the G-fee removed entirely, or even reduced -- though they secretly wish it could be.

But they do object to using the fee as “the nation’s piggybank,” they wrote in their letter to Congress. The group supports bipartisan legislation -- sponsored by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and David Perdue, R-N.Y., and Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. -- that would forever prevent using the fee for any other purpose other than to cover the GSEs’ costs and losses.

Using the charge as a funding mechanism is “wholly inappropriate and shifts the burden of paying for non-housing-related initiatives to the country’s current and future homeowners,” the trades wrote.

In the past, legislators have attempted to cover the cost of such non-housing-related programs as immigration, infrastructure and the environment, all to no avail, largely because they were beaten back by the aforementioned industry organizations. The fee was last increased, temporarily, in 2011.

“That increase harmed homebuyers by raising the cost of homeownership in all parts of the country, and continues to do so,” the trade groups wrote.

Now, they are fighting the good fight again. “As representatives of institutions that span the entire housing finance ecosystem,” they wrote, “we firmly believe that G-fees should only be used as originally intended.”

The trades also cautioned that any increase in the fee would exacerbate the already difficult affordability challenges faced by first-time buyers. “The unintended effects of any proposed G-fee increase or extension -- no matter how well-intended -- will be to raise the cost of homeownership for middle-class Americans,” they said.

When it comes to homeowners and tenants impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, the response by Congress, federal and state regulators -- and even individual lenders and landlords -- has been swift. Certainly much faster than the 2008 housing recession, when too many families lost their homes to foreclosure.

But there is no free lunch, no matter how badly you’ve been hurt. If you opt to take advantage of the benefits being dangled, you eventually will have to pay the piper.

For now, though, there are no fees, penalties or additional interest. You might not even be called upon to document a COVID-19 financial hardship, thereby removing an obstacle that stymied some borrowers the last time around.

“These are challenging times,” says Michael Jensen of FREEandCLEAR, a mortgage search engine. “It is important to know that if you are struggling financially due to COVID-19, there are multiple assistance options to help you stay in your home.”

Here’s a summary of what government and private enterprise are doing at this writing to help keep people in their homes.

-- If your mortgage was sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, all foreclosure proceedings, no matter the reason, have been halted as of March 13. But owners of vacant or abandoned properties need not apply.

To find out if your loan is owned by either of these two companies, which buy loans from local lenders and package them into securities for sale to investors worldwide, check your loan documents or call the company that collects your monthly payments. You can also check fanniemae.com and freddiemac.com, or call 877-542-9723 (Fannie) or 800-373-3343 (Freddie).

-- Foreclosures on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration have been stopped for 60 days, as of March 18. Ditto for USDA loans, as of March 19. Again, check their websites, or call the FHA at 800-225-5342 or the USDA’s Rural Development office at 800-414-1226.

“The last thing any of us wants is for Americans to lose their homes,” said Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson. “If you’re struggling, immediate help is now available.”

Forbearance is available for up to a year on these loans, meaning you may not have to pay your mortgage for as long as 12 months. The rules differ -- with government loans, borrowers facing financial difficulty because of the pathogen are eligible for forbearance for up to six months, and lenders must provide an additional six months of forbearance if you ask -- so check with your loan servicer. But no matter what, missed payments won’t be reported to credit bureaus, so you credit score should not suffer.

As many as 300,000 borrowers have already inquired with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about forbearance, according to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria. And he expects they will field upwards of 2 million more inquiries by May 31.

One source thinks there could be as many as 15 million borrowers who default on their loans. Another suggests servicers may have to absorb anywhere from $3 billion to $13 billion in loan payments to the investors who own our mortgages.

Most people are not in trouble, at least not yet, Calabria said. For the most part, they just want to know what their options are. So be patient; phone lines and websites are likely to be jammed.

But don’t hesitate, either. Don’t be ashamed, and don’t hide out, hoping you will be overlooked or forgotten. Take the first step as soon as there are signs of trouble. And be honest. If you haven’t lost your job or can still afford to make your payments, keep on trucking.

“We’re operating on the honor system,” Calabria said in a television interview. “This is supposed to be limited to if you’ve lost your job, you’ve lost income ... If you can pay your mortgage, please do so, because we really need to focus on the people who can’t.”

If you ask to skip payments, several options are available to make up what you missed. Your loan term can be extended, the amount owed can be added to you balance, or you can make up the difference by increasing your loan payments by a certain amount until you’re even.

If you still can’t afford your mortgage at the end of the forbearance period, the four federal agencies will try to recast your balance to make the payments more affordable. But you need to have been current on your loan on the dates mentioned above, or no more than 30 days delinquent at those times.

Loan modification guidelines take in to account not just the interest and principal still owed on your original loan, but also your property taxes, homeowner’s insurance, association fees and other recurring housing-related costs.

If you can’t make the grade under the rules, you will have to sell and move on. And if you can’t or won’t do that, foreclosure is the next step.

-- If your loan is with a private lender and Uncle Sam is not involved, call that lender or your loan servicer right away if you experience any financial setback because of the pandemic. Most offer some sort of relief. They don’t want to own your place any more than you want them to.

Private lenders are not legally obligated to offer any kind of forbearance. At this writing, though, Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and a couple of hundred other banks and credit unions have announced penalty-free forbearance plans, without interest, for up to 90 days. Bank of America has already processed payment deferral requests for some 50,000 customers.

Again, call your servicer -- or go online, which a Bank of America spokesman says is a “great alternative during these times of high call volume.”

-- If you are a tenant, know that many jurisdictions have halted evictions: New York (among others) for 90 days, for example, and Florida for 45. Alabama stopped evictions and foreclosures for 30 days, but rent and mortgage payments are still due.

The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act also blocks evictions. In FHA-insured single-family rental houses, the grace period is 60 days; in apartment projects backed by Fannie and Freddie loans, it’s 90 days. About 1 in 4 of all single-family and multi-family rental properties are financed by government loans.

Many individual landlords are bending over backward, so check with your property manager to see if he or she can do anything to help.

Among other things, advisory firm RCLCO found that big-time multifamily outfits are offering flexible payment plans for those unable to make their rent, waiving late fees and offering flexible renewals with no rent hikes for 90 days. Landlord Mario Salerno, who owns 18 buildings in Brooklyn, New York, has canceled rents for all of his tenants, saying he is more concerned about their health than the money.

Rentec, a property management software company, has compiled a state-by-state guide to the various resources available to tenants: see rentecdirect.com/blog/ultimate-state-guide-coronavirus. And the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has resources on its site (cfpb.gov) that will help owners in their talks with their lenders.