Compass Defends Private Listings Strategy as Key Deadline in Congressional Probe Expires

Compass CEO Robert Reffkin has vigorously defended the brokerage giant's private listings strategy, even as Congress is preparing to probe aspects of the practice.

Reffkin spoke at length about private listings on the company's earnings call Tuesday night, days after a congressional subcommittee launched a probe into Compass' relationship with a Chicago-based multiple listings service to create a national private listings network.

“How many tens of millions of people do you need to see your property? That’s why we’re getting so much traction, and we’re seeing a lot of demand for the Private Exclusives as well,” said Reffkin.

Compass, the world's largest residential real estate broker, has focused its business strategy heavily on private listings, which it calls Private Exclusives. These are homes for sale that are primarily marketed to the company's own network of agents and clients, before they are easily visible to the wider public online.

Last month, congressional leaders sent a letter to Reffkin and the CEO of multiple listings service Midwest Real Estate Data, Rebecca Jensen, requesting a briefing on their business practices.

The inquiry comes after Compass and MRED, the MLS for the Chicago area, in April announced a deal to distribute Compass Private Exclusives listings nationwide through the MRED database, which has historically operated only as a regional service.

Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, gave both companies until 10 a.m. Aug. 5 to respond.

MRED previously said in a statement that it planned to respond to the inquiry, but didn't respond to requests for comment from Realtor.com® after the deadline passed Wednesday.

"MRED has received the House Judiciary Committee's request for a briefing," MRED said in a statement to Realtor.com late last month. "We look forward to responding and helping the committee understand our business practices. Whether it’s our customers or this committee, we’re always happy to help."

Fitzgerald's letters from July 22, which were obtained by Realtor.com, say the committee also wants to determine if the Compass-MRED relationship may “incentivize brokers to push sellers into private listings.”

Fitzgerald expressed concerns that private listings networks may encourage “dual-agency” property transactions, in which the same agent represents both the buyer and the seller.

“Dual-agency creates potential conflicts of interest and restricts a buyer’s access to independent representation,” he wrote.

Reffkin speaks out on earnings call

Compass declined to comment on the Congressional inquiry, when reached by Realtor.com. But in the company's second-quarter earnings call Reffkin defended the company's Private Exclusives and Coming Soon listings. These allow agents within a network to market to one another first, before the listing is posted more broadly.

Reffkin said sessions on the company's website were up 111% year over year from Chicago, where Compass has the most Coming Soon listings.

Reffkin also spoke critically of the MLS system, a collection of regional real estate data providers that provide information about homes for sale to real estate agents and the homebuying public. He claimed many MLSs "abuse their power" and are anticompetitive.

"The untold secret in real estate is that the MLS is controlled by a collection of our competitors that tell us how we can and cannot compete," Reffkin said. "The MLS is controlled by a collection of our competitors who are running the board. And they are telling us how we can and cannot compete. What other private business is told how to compete by a collection of their competitors?"

Reffkin went on to claim he would "bring competition" to the MLS system. He called the current system a "monopoly" because typically there is only one MLS serving a specific area.

"Multiple listing services should have to compete for our business, just as brokerages have to compete for agents and agents have to compete for their clients," he said.

Reffkin's comments offer a glimpse of how he might defend his company in a potential congressional hearing, after Fitzgerald in his letter indicated that his subcommittee wanted to determine if Compass' own practices are anticompetitive.

Scrutiny on private listings

Fitzgerald didn't comment after the Aug. 5 deadline, nor did the committee's ranking member, Rep. Jarrold Nadler (D-NY). Fitzgerald's letter indicates broader concerns about private listings.

"This partnership, and the expansion of PLNs more generally, has raised concerns about the information that will be available to consumers and the effect that it could have on housing affordability," Fitzgerald said in the letter.

In 2025, Bright MLS, a multiple listing service covering the mid-Atlantic region, found that private listings take longer to sell and offer no price benefits to the seller. Zillow found something similar in its own research. (Realtor.com recently struck an agreement with Zillow to show preview listings from brokers who participate in Zillow’s preview program, in an effort to boost market transparency.)

The congressional inquiry brings fresh attention to the practice of private or "pocket" listings, where a property is marketed to an exclusive set of people, such as the clients of a specific brokerage, before it is advertised to the broader public. (Realtor.com)

There has been broader scrutiny of private listings, and several states moved to restrict them. Washington state and Connecticut both tightened laws around them this year. The New York General Assembly has also passed a similar bill.

The Consumer Federation of America and the Urban League in April published a report critical of pocket listings. Then, CFA requested the Department of Justice investigate the deal.

"It's not good for sellers and it's not good for buyers either, because as a seller I want my house seen by as many potential buyers as possible so I get the best possible deal," Sharon Cornelissen, director of housing for CFA, told Realtor.com. "As a buyer, I might not even find out about houses for sale, and that affects my opportunities."

Shortly after Compass and MRED launched their private listings network, real estate portal Zillow Inc. informed MRED it would exclude some listings. In response, MRED cut Zillow off, saying the company's actions violated its license agreements.

This temporarily took a large number of Chicago-area listings off the Zillow website. Zillow then sued the two companies alleging antitrust violations, a suit which is still ongoing.

Zillow’s complaint alleges the two companies "are colluding to hide home listings from buyers—and conspired to punish Zillow for not going along with it." Compass and MRED deny those claims and are fighting the lawsuit in court.

For homebuyers and sellers, the dispute over access to listings data has caused frustrations.

"Caught in the middle," one Reddit poster bemoaned, after their home listing was removed from Zillow amid the dispute, along with thousands of others. "I can't win this battle."