OneKey is latest MLS to strike back at Compass
The New York-based MLS said it will not change its rules governing how publicly marketed listings are shared because the cooperative model “is worth defending.”
Key points:
- OneKey published a defiant response to demands Compass made in September regarding MLS listing policies. It’s the third MLS to openly rebuke the brokerage.
- Publicly marketing homes while keeping them off the MLS “allows a single brokerage to act as a gatekeeper,” OneKey said in a statement.
- Compass pushed back, saying the arguments by OneKey and other MLSs “make a collection of competitors the judge, jury and executioner for how agents compete.”
OneKey MLS, the multiple listing service that operates across metropolitan New York, has become the third MLS to publicly reject Compass' demand to change its listing policies.
In a press release published on Tuesday, the MLS said it won't budge from its commitment to an open, fair and competitive marketplace, which means that its rules governing the sharing of publicly marketed listings within the MLS database will remain in place.
'Obscuring' the impact of selective marketing
OneKey said on Tuesday that it supports flexibility and choice for consumers in the marketing of their homes. However, the MLS argued that Compass' request to advertise homes while "hiding" them from the MLS database and calling it "seller choice" only "obscures its true effect."
"It allows a single brokerage to act as a gatekeeper, controlling who can see a listing and which competing agents can bring buyers to the table," OneKey MLS' statement said. "Real estate firms should earn a homebuyer's or seller's business through better service not by restricting access to the local housing supply."
By applying consistent rules for participation, OneKey added, the MLS serves as a cooperative resource for all and is "inherently pro-competitive."
The cost of compliance
OneKey argued that giving into Compass' demands could threaten the future of the open marketplace, reverting the industry back to a time of decentralized listing access.
"Withholding inventory from the open marketplace comes at the direct expense of consumers by restricting buy access and potentially limiting a seller's return on their investment," OneKey MLS CEO Richard Haggerty said in a statement. "Consumers deserve the freedom to work with the professional they trust without being limited to one company's private inventory. That cooperative model creates equal opportunity, and those fundamental protections are worth defending."
OneKey also pointed to the potential financial impacts of falling in line with Compass' strategy, referencing studies conducted by Bright MLS and Zillow that found that homes on the MLS typically sell for more than off-market listings.
The New York-based MLS also brought up a letter recently penned by U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, which urged the Federal Trace Commission to examine deceptive real estate practices, including private listings. OneKey raised familiar fair housing concerns that have come up in connection with private listings, noting NAACP President Derrick Johnson's warnings that private listings are a "modern form of digital redlining."
Compass: MLSs are allowing brokerages to be 'judge, jury and executioner'
In a response sent to Real Estate News, Compass pushed back on some of OneKey MLS' claims, arguing, for instance, that Compass agents cooperate with other agents regardless of brokerage affiliation, including when they have off-MLS listings. Compass also argued that they are simply marketing homes in a way that avoids restrictive MLS policies and negative insights, like days on market and price cuts.
"The problem with the MLS arguments is that they make a collection of competitors the judge, jury and executioner for how agents compete, and take away from homeowners the freedom to make informed decisions for themselves," a spokesperson for the brokerage said.
The third MLS to take a public stance
OneKey MLS follows California Regional MLS (CRMLS) and the Austin, Texas-based Unlock MLS in making a public stand against Compass' demands for a change to their policies.
Preempting Compass' own threats to sue MLSs who refuse to change their rules to allow for the marketing of private listings off-MLS, CRMLS filed a complaint against Compass on Oct. 5, asking the court for an injunction to bar Compass from suing CRMLS, and to declare CRMLS' rules lawful under the Sherman Act and the California Cartwright Act.
The move came about a week after CRMLS published a public response to threats from Compass and announced that it would establish a legal defense fund to fight Compass in court. CRMLS's move coincided with Compass CEO Robert Reffkin making litigation threats against MLSs across the country from the stage at the Council of Multiple Listing Services' Open House event, where numerous MLS executives were in attendance.
Compass fired back with its own lawsuit against CRMLS on Oct. 16 alleging that the MLS is engaged in antitrust violations through its control of "a home listing database that real estate agents in much of California cannot work without."
Meanwhile, Unlock MLS also said in a response to Compass demands on Oct. 6 that it would not stop fining agents for publicly marketing office exclusive listings, despite Compass' threats to sue. Unlock MLS CEO Emily Girard wrote in a LinkedIn post at the time that "the rules exist for one reason: to keep this marketplace complete, accurate and equitable for every agent, every buyer and every seller."