Compass makes broker-to-broker cooperation rules official
The brokerage is officially requiring its agents to share listing information on all properties with outside firms unless directed otherwise by a client.
As industry feuds over private listings continue, Compass has made official a policy that will require all Compass agents to cooperate with other brokers and agents, unless expressly directed by a client in writing.
The announcement was made on Nov. 11, about one week after Compass announced record Q3 earnings.
All-access: The policy states that Compass agents must share listing information with other agents and brokers — including those not affiliated with Compass — on all listings by request. That requirement includes details of any "Private Exclusive" or "Coming Soon" listings held by the brokerage.
The policy also stipulates that Compass agents must respond to inquiries in a "timely" manner and make the listing available for showings to qualified buyers represented by cooperating brokers during any periods when showings are allowed.
A representative for Compass clarified that the policy is modeled on a practice that Compass International Holdings Chairman and CEO Robert Reffkin has said for a long time the brokerage follows, namely sharing listings with everyone in the brokerage community. The practice will now be officially enshrined into the brokerage's written policy manual.
Modeling Bright MLS's rule: As part of the policy, the brokerage directed its agents to follow Bright MLS's cooperation rule for listings that are marketed off the MLS.
Bright's policy states that agent subscribers must cooperate with all other agent subscribers "impartially in the best interest of the subscriber's client."
"This includes sharing information about listed properties impartially and arranging showings regardless of any financial arrangement offered by or agreed with another broker and regardless of whether the MLS distributes the property's information," Bright's policy states.
What Reffkin had to say: In a Nov. 11 LinkedIn post about the policy, Reffkin addressed a question he said people have asked regarding why the brokerage does not put all of its listings in the MLS if it truly believes in cooperation.
The reason, he wrote, is because "the MLS isn't just a cooperation system anymore."
"It's become a system that restricts how homeowners can market their homes. For example, 45 of our top 50 MLSs limit how long a seller can list a Coming Soon, prohibit showings for Coming Soons, or restrict accepting offers altogether," he said.
A response to scrutiny? The policy's official inclusion in the brokerage's manual comes about four months after an antitrust subcommittee summoned Reffkin and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) CEO Rebecca Jensen for briefings on the companies' business practices and relationship.
In letters addressed to the CEOs, the judiciary subcommittee raised concerns about the Compass-MRED partnership and its potential to "create a closed information system for certain real estate listings." The letters also requested more information to better understand the relationship between the MLS and the brokerage, as well as the impact MRED's private listing network has on buyers and sellers.
Last month, Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren also wrote a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate potentially "deceptive" real estate industry practices. Although no companies were specifically named in the main text of the letter, the senators encouraged the FTC to look into whether private listings negatively impact the housing market. The letter's footnotes also targeted media coverage of Compass and Zillow.