The Ten: Robert Reffkin’s playbook for industry dominance 

Editor's note: In a year of epic mergers — and industry division — a handful of people and themes have emerged as defining forces. Real Estate News has selected the top newsmakers of 2025, based on their industry impact and influence. They are The Ten.

Residential real estate is filled with strong, driven leaders, but if Robert Reffkin has it his way, Compass will reshape the way consumers buy and sell homes — and reign supreme over the residential brokerage industry. 

For Reffkin, 2025 was a year of battles and a major acquisition announcement that, if approved in 2026, could transform Compass into a mega-brokerage with far greater reach and resources than any other in the world. 

Next year will also be pivotal in determining how lawsuits related to Compass' business strategy play out, whether private listings pick up steam, and if Reffkin will maintain his crown as the most powerful leader in residential real estate. 

Pressing forward on private listings, consumer choice

Throughout the year, Reffkin and his Compass team promoted the theme of "seller choice," arguing that sellers should be able to pre-market their homes and test pricing without "negative insights" such as days on market and price drops. 

Battles with MLSs and Zillow illuminated broader questions about listing ownership and control over how homes are marketed — a debate, Reffkin told Compass agents in June, that represents "the most important moment in real estate history." On one side, he argued, Compass and its allies are fighting for consumer and agent freedom; on the other, MLSs, portals and associations are trying to maintain entrenched interests with "mandatory rules [that] interfere with your client relationships."

"Organized real estate is trying to end the Compass 3-phased marketing strategy," Reffkin asserted — "but I'm not going to let that happen." And Compass could have the opportunity to greatly expand its private inventory if its acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate closes in 2026. The combined companies would be worth $10 billion, with roughly 340,000 real estate professionals worldwide, Compass said. 

Taking his fight to social media — and the courts

Reffkin is not just a brokerage CEO — he's also an industry influencer with nearly 70,000 followers on Instagram and more than 63,000 on LinkedIn. In addition to boosting Compass messaging through his social channels this year, Reffkin frequently used them to punch back at industry opponents and competitors.

When NAR announced its "delayed marketing" addition to the embattled Clear Cooperation Policy in March, some MLSs declined to adopt it, and Washington-based Northwest MLS (NWMLS) stood firm on its policies prohibiting pre-marketing — but that didn't stop Reffkin from staging a private exclusives blitz in the Seattle area in defiance of NWMLS rules. 

During that pre-marketing push, a social media firestorm erupted.

Reffkin took to Instagram and LinkedIn to blast NWMLS and Seattle-based brokerage Windermere, claiming the two organizations colluded to stifle competition and stop Compass from employing its marketing strategy. "These rules harmed sellers and violated fundamental rights to control the marketing of their own property," Reffkin wrote in a Mar. 25 post. Windermere punched back, saying Compass wanted "to keep listings off the open market so that they can double-end deals and boost profits."

But Reffkin continued to use his platform and his army of loyal agents to escalate tensions with other major industry players, including CRMLS and Zillow. It was Compass agents and consumers who were the aggrieved parties, Reffkin frequently argued in his posts, while the MLSs and Zillow were the powerful, monopolistic organizations. 

The war of words ultimately expanded to the courtroom: Compass filed a lawsuit against NWMLS in April, then sued Zillow in June shortly before the home search giant was set to begin enforcing its "listing access standards" — new rules that would effectively ban certain Compass private listings.

Delegating for dominance

While Reffkin has often taken on the industry directly, other Compass execs have been strategically positioned to help fight the brokerage's battles. 

Rory Golod, Compass' president of growth and communications, has steadily climbed the ranks over the last decade after starting in business development. Golod has been responsible for much of the messaging around the company's 3-phased marketing strategy, and at just 39 years old, is positioned to become one of the most powerful millennials in residential real estate.

In July, Reffkin and Compass announced the hiring of Mike Simonsen, a veteran real estate data expert, as chief economist. Reffkin called it "a direct investment" in the company's strategy "to provide world-class market intelligence" to agents. As control over data becomes even more crucial, Simonsen lends credibility and expertise to Compass during a pivotal moment in its trajectory. 

And then in September, amid a flurry of legal wrangling, Compass hired Ethan Glass as the company's chief legal officer. Glass, who had already been working with Compass on the NWMLS lawsuit, was notable for serving as the National Association of Realtors' lead antitrust attorney in the Sitzer/Burnett case. 

Hiring Glass was not just a tactical move, but a symbolic one. 

His appointment reflected Compass' "unwavering commitment to seller choice and challenging these restrictive practices that limit when, where, and how homeowners can market their homes," Reffkin said at the time, signaling that Glass' key focus would be bolstering Compass' antitrust claims while framing portals and organized real estate as the monopolists — and Compass as the reformer.