Question: What could be some results in the battle between Zillow and compass over pocket listings?
Compass is the #1 Brokerage in the US (and in the Bay Area).Compass CEO Robert Reffkin was tired of Zillow, MLS and other portals who make money off our listings and wanted to bring back control to both the agents and the consumer (the property owner).Once Compass agents started showing their power by putting properties on the Compass.com platform as Compass Private Exclusives Zillow took notice. Zillow just announced in May 2025 that any listing that is NOT listed in the MLS within 24 hours of being posted anywhere will not be allowed to be on Zillow at all.This seemingly will do the opposite of what Zillow wants, as now more home buyers will go to the Compass platform, which has all Compass listings as well as other brokerage listings being fed from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) instead of Zillow in addition to Compass Private Exclusives.
I find it ironic that Zillow, MLS (with its Clear Cooperation policies) and even the DOJ state that it’s not fair to not publicly list a home everywhere as it could be in violation of Fair Housing Rules. Americans value their Real Property Rights and don’t like to be told what they can or cannot do to sell their own home however they want to.
There are so many reasons why a home seller might want to sell off-market:
Some examples: 1. Maybe they are going through a divorce or 2. have lost a job and don’t want the public/friends to know about their personal situation. 3. Maybe they are of notoriety and want to remain private 4. Maybe they need to do work on the house first and want to see if a buyer out there might be willing to purchase as-is, 5. Maybe their house is so one-of-a-kind special, and they have buyer demand for it. There are countless reasons WHY a seller may not want to publicly list their house, and it should be the SELLER’S choice! Not companies who make money from listings!!
The majority of the companies that are FORCING home sellers to Sell publicly are the same companies that make money off selling our own listings back to us agents as advertisers. I believe the public doesn’t understand the way listing aggregators (like Zillow) make money. When a user clicks on a listing on a portal and it says “contact agent for more info or for an appointment” the agent you are contacting is NOT the listing agent. The agent there PAID Zillow to be there and is looking for buyer leads. That agent is even being told by Zillow by their agent training videos to mislead the caller saying that they “have direct contact with the seller” which is not true! Buyers are not getting the ‘best” agent, the highest producing agent or even the listing agent, they are getting the agent that paid the most to be on the portal.
I find it Ironic that Zillow just a few years ago told sellers in their advertising that Zillow would purchase sellers home privately via their iBuyer program allowing the seller to quietly sell their home but NOW require that ALL homes must be on MLS publicly. Zillow is trying to have it both ways, stating that sellers make more money when selling it on MLS but at the same time are advertising that sellers can sell off MLS with them! Even in recent mailed advertising, Zillow gives sellers 4 options of selling homes and 2 of those options are off market (with Zillow of course), but if an agent lists off MLS where Zillow can’t make money from the listing, then Zillow bans it from their platform.
It’s about time someone stood up to these portals who make money off our listings! We as agents PAY for the photos out of our own pocket and then those photos and listing details are SOLD to paying agents who pay to get buyer leads from the portals. Buyer leads for listings should go to the listing agent not the highest paying agent.
If home sellers were allowed to sell their home they want to these portal listing aggregators like Zillow, redfin and more wouldn’t make money. That’s what this argument is all about, it’s not about home sellers’ choice!
Compass Private Exclusives are a way to give control back to the seller and the listing agent. It is not Compass trying to gain market share by double ending deals. Any agent or buyer is welcome to register to get listing alerts on Compass Private Exclusives. It’s time for home buyers to understand this reality and find out who the listing agent is who does have direct access to the seller. Good for Compass (which happens to be my Broker) for finally pushing back and giving sellers their Real Property Rights back to them.
Liz was featured in the SF Chronicle for the weekly Real Estate “SoundOff” on Sunday June 22, 2025 to answer this question, the above is her longer answer to this question