Compass amplifies reach in deal with nation’s largest MLS
The brokerage has significantly increased its listings exposure in recent weeks through MLS collaborations, with Bright its biggest partner to date.
Compass International Holdings is adding to its growing list of MLS partnerships — and its latest collaboration is the broadest one yet.
Biggest brokerage teams up with biggest MLS: In a column shared exclusively with Real Estate News, Bright MLS President and CEO Brian Donnellan announced today that "Compass has committed to making its nationwide data available to our subscribers through our system" and will "subsidize new Bright subscriptions for its agents under Compass International Holdings in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, or elsewhere in the country so they can take advantage of Bright's capabilities across regions."
Bright is currently the country's largest MLS, with more than 100,000 subscribers spanning several Mid-Atlantic states.
The collaboration, Donnellan explained, is part of the MLS's "move toward unified listing data flows" and reflects the modern real estate environment where business is increasingly conducted across borders.
Compass rapidly expanding its reach: This is the fourth MLS to officially partner with Compass in just three weeks. MRED announced on April 24 that it was opening access to agents nationwide, and Compass had agreed to share its full inventory feed with the Chicago-area MLS.
A week later, Realtracs made a similar move. Tennessee's largest MLS said it would allow any licensed agent to subscribe and revealed that Compass and United Real Estate were launch partners in the endeavor. Fast forward another week, and California's The MLS/CLAW joined the trend, updating its IDX policies and gaining access to all Compass listings.
Earlier this year, Compass also formed a partnership with Rocket Companies to display its Coming Soon listings on Redfin.
Zillow pushes back: On May 12 — a day before the Bright MLS announcement — Zillow filed a lawsuit against Compass and MRED, alleging that the companies "colluded" to conceal listings from homebuyers and "conspired to punish Zillow" for banning selectively marketed listings on its websites. The search giant claimed that MRED threatened to cut its listing feed to Zillow if the portal didn't allow all Compass listings — exclusively marketed or otherwise — to be displayed.
No other MLSs have been named in the lawsuit.