Compass Inc. (NYSE: COMP) has filed a lawsuit against Seattle-based Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS), accusing it of “monopolistic” and “anticompetitive” behavior.
Earlier this month, NWMLS suspended Compass’ IDX feed, citing the brokerage’s private exclusive listings in the Seattle market. The New York Times reports that NWMLS reversed the suspension one day later but still maintains its rule that brokerages either enter home listings on the MLS immediately or not enter them at all.
“With NWMLS’s anticompetitive and tortious conduct, the only way a home seller in the Seattle area can effectively have the choice on how to market their home is to forgo using a professional real estate broker at all, because NWMLS has 100% of the real estate brokers in the Seattle area,” said Compass lawyers in their complaint, alleging that NWMLS policy against pre-marketing and private exclusives “prevented meaningful competition from gaining traction.”
NWMLS did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.
Since last November, Compass has promoted its Private Exclusives marketing channel of roughly 7,000 home listings that are available only for Compass agents and their buyers. Compass CEO Robert Reffkin posted on Instagram, “Fair housing isn’t optional. At Compass, we believe inclusion and innovation must go hand in hand. That’s why we have taken concrete, proactive steps to ensure Compass Private Exclusives fully align with Fair Housing principles.”
Private Listings are not advantegeous to sellers, but to the Listing Co.
Exactly, but that’s where we are in today’s real estate market. Nothing but Greed!
And Elena I concur!
100%! I agree. Brokerages benefit, not Sellers. Justin Hagg, counsel for the NWMLS, wrote a great piece on this topic just a couple weeks ago. Compass will lose this argument in court.
I am fed up with both NAR and MLS (aka NAR) dictating how both the agent and seller must act to market a home. The seller is not part of either and should not be restricted from using an agent because of NAR policy. It is time to do away with both. Here is how you resolve this. Seller advertises the property in any matter he chooses as a for sale by owner. Upon receipt of any interested parties, seller refers them to his agent who is acting in an agency compacity only. Since agent is not listing the property NAR and MLS cannot dictate where or how the property is marketed. Also if any other brokers are interested in joining me in developing an non agency MLS please let me know.
I’m with it! 100%
So you want the seller to market the property on their own and hire an agent to do the paperwork? Where would you suggest the seller do this marketing? Perhaps upload it to 50 different websites? Tape signs to stop signs around the neighborhood? Your plan will only cause sellers and buyers to miss out on opportunities. In the old days we had a system similar to what Compass wants. Each real estate company had a book of their listings. Not every property was available to every buyer. The MLS provided equal access and requires rules of conduct and ethics that will soon disappear if every brokerage hoards their own listings. What exactly is a “non-agency” MLS? That sounds much like a “FSBO website” and I don’t have any clients who are interested in a mess like that.
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This sounds illegal. We are supposed to write contracts that are Subsequent to our actions in bringing the principles together. This sounds like a deception and the practice of law , not real estate
The non agency MLS all ready exists. Its called Zillow.
I agree with Elena, the seller loses out of potential offers with buyers unaware of the listing.
Well stated Aunt Patty…
Since I launched my real estate sales career in 1979, I haven’t experienced any circumstances where restricting full market exposure benefited sellers OR honored the fiduciary relationship ~~~
If the public would just read information available online They could self market and sell their properties themselves. NAR thinks they are a regulatory branch. but they are no more than an overpowered trade group set up to train and standardize the real estate brokers who “Volunteered” to work with them.
Good for them! Sue them good!
Compass is doing what they accuse the NWMLS of doing. They are attempting to create a private marketplace of pocket listings. There is no universe in which the consumer benefits from having to use a specific brokerage that has a monopoly on their inventory. Compass argues that the NWMLS is a monopoly–Rather the MLS a source for ALL listings, not just SOME listings, which is what Compass is attempting to become. Much like the NAR lawsuits, this lawsuit isn’t for the good of the consumer, it’s for the selfish good of the plaintiff.
That’s not hwat this law suit is about & no one is forced to use a specific brokerage, they are on every corner. The MLS has gotten in over its head by allowing Zillow and Redfin etc etc to steal the listing data, publish their own version of the MLS and fail to prominently acknowledge who the actual agent and brokerage is of a specific listing. A listing that the agent and brokerage have expended thousands typically to secure and market the listing, only to see bottom feeders like redfin and zillow coopt the information and sell it to highest bidder. That’s what this lawsuit is about and Compass is correct and I hope they win
From one Patrick to another Patrick, at least in my markets, non-NAR real estate agents do NOT have access to the MLS. And in my market I have to maintain 3 different MLSs because of the haphazard framework of MLS that NAR created. If NAR and the MLS were “all that”, they wouldn’t need to force brokers to force their agents to join. If the MLS was the public service that NAR would have you believe, they wouldn’t have to force membership. Go to Google and type in “NAR scandal” you will find more articles about the waste aka fraud, sexual deviancy and much, much more. NAR and the MLS are a relic of the past and have not kept up with the market, despite the millions and millions worth of member and advertiser dollars they rake in every year. NAR has been gaslighting the public, the government and its own members for years. They couldn’t even get 12 jurors to agree with their argument. So far in my area, nothing has changed, other than you waste a lot of time inquiring about about compensation from the listing agents, some who are hard to get a hold of to even submit an offer, let alone ask something as crucial as compensation.
Talk about gaslighting, Compass. I agree with Aunt Patty, maybe they want to revert back to the 1970s when there were 8 signs in a yard??? You know “the good old days”. The MLS levels the playing field, protects buyers & sellers and again if you don’t like the rules don’t join the MLS and utilize (steal) all the information contained on it. Don’t join NAR, because you certainly are not abiding by the Preamble or the Golden Rule. Compass, go ahead do your own thing and see how that works. Compass is manipulating, taking unfair advantage and certainly not looking out for what is in the best interest of their seller or buyers. There are many others playing the same game and it is exhausting.
I disagree with comments stating exclusive listings do not benefit the seller. To a lot of people, privacy is far more important than getting a few extra or even thousands of dollars less for their home. My clients that have gone the exclusive listing route didn’t want pictures plastered all over the Internet and didn’t want every Tom, Dick,and Harry parading through their home. They preferred no advertising and only well qualified BUYERS (not lookers) coming through their home! Often times it is the first Buyer through their home that buys it. Too many agents think it’s always about the Almighty dollar and it isn’t. It’s about meeting the Sellers’ needs and the MLS isn’t for everybody!