The drive to hinder transparency in our industry reached a new level with the announcement of a strategic alliance among Rocket, Redfin and Compass.
According to the announcement, Compass will begin syndicating its “Coming Soon” listings to the Redfin portal — with seller permission and limited information. Notably, Compass does not want listings to display days on market or price reductions.
There are serious issues with restricting information in this way. For one, the concept runs counter to the Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) adopted by many MLSs. Compass’s stated position suggests that the sheer volume of listings will make enforcement of the CCP difficult.
While this announcement may be a win for the corporations involved, it is a loss for consumers — no matter how it is framed.
Beginning last summer, Zillow banned private listings from its portal entirely. Any property marketed publicly, but not entered into the MLS within 24 hours, is excluded. This matters. While Redfin reports approximately 50 million average monthly users, Zillow’s audience is closer to 230 million. That represents a substantial pool of buyers who may never see a listing restricted in this way.
At the same time, there is growing legislative momentum in several states to curtail or even prohibit private listings. In Washington State, SB 6091 just passed the House floor, and other states are exploring similar measures. The intent is clear: to preserve transparency and protect consumers.
The Rocket-Redfin-Compass press release positions this alliance as consumer-friendly, suggesting sellers can “test” the market without price history or valuation estimates. The implication is that withholding information creates an advantage, when in reality, limiting information at scale does not serve buyers or sellers.
For decades, our industry carried a reputation — at times deserved — for being opaque. We have since learned that full transparency is the strongest mechanism for serving both buyers and sellers. Is it perfect? No. Are there occasional circumstances where private listings are appropriate? Certainly. But broadly speaking, transparent access to data is unequivocally in the best interest of the consumer and the market.
As a corporation, Windermere’s commitment is clear. We provide our clients with professional, data-driven guidance at every stage of the transaction. That means robust marketing grounded in concrete metrics and ensuring the broadest possible visibility to the largest pool of prospective buyers.
Consumers are best served by openness — not by being made guinea pigs for strategies that may or may not benefit them. If the priority is truly the homebuyer and seller, the path forward is transparency, not the segregation of data.
OB Jacobi is the co-president of Windermere Real Estate.
[Editor’s note: Windermere and Compass are not directly engaged in litigation, but Windermere is mentioned in Compass’ complaint against the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.]
