NAACP president asks states to ‘take action’ on private listings
In a recent opinion column, Derrick Johnson called for “commonsense guardrails” to protect against what he sees as “a modern form of digital redlining.”
The industrywide debate over pre-marketed and private listings has gotten the attention of fair housing advocates, including the NAACP.
'Every state' should take action: In a column published earlier this month in Time, NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson called on states to pass legislation protecting public access to home listings, referencing Illinois' House Bill 4964, which was proposed in February.
The legislation would require a property to be publicly advertised within one day after a listing agreement has been signed, unless the seller signs an opt-out form. Similar bills have been passed or proposed in Connecticut, New York, Washington, Wisconsin and Hawaii.
"Every state should consider that kind of common-sense guardrail," Johnson wrote.
'A modern form of digital redlining': Efforts to limit public visibility of real estate listings has prompted concerns about fair housing and discrimination — issues, Johnson noted, that have denied generations of Black families equal access to the opportunity to build wealth.
"Now, a modern form of digital redlining threatens to emerge. This is more than an industry dispute. It's a civil rights issue," Johnson wrote.
He said he felt compelled to speak out after observing a growing acceptance of private listing networks "by power real estate interests." That acceptance, he added, signals a shift in how the market has been operating to a system with "selective access becoming a central feature rather than an exception."
The ongoing industry discussion: The leading voice in the pre-marketing debate has been Compass and its CEO, Robert Reffkin, who continues to bolster the brokerage's 3-phased marketing approach. Sellers should be able to test the waters without showing metrics like days on market and price drops, Reffkin and other pre-marketing advocates argue.
Other leaders have countered that listings should be made widely available to the public and that private listings actually lead to lower prices for sellers.
Congressional attention: The debates over private listings have also attracted the attention of an antitrust subcommittee within the U.S. House of Representatives, which summoned Compass International Holdings CEO Robert Reffkin and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) CEO Rebecca Jensen for briefings on the companies' business practices.
The lawmakers raised concerns about the partnership between the brokerage and MLS, announced in April, suggesting that it could limit consumer choices.