Latest news with #ClearCooperationPolicy
UPI
24-06-2025
- Business
- UPI
Compass sues Zillow over new rule in home listings fight
Compass is suing home listings search giant Zillow over a new rule that the real estate brokerage firm claims is meant to create a digital monopoly. File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI | License Photo June 23 (UPI) -- Compass is suing Zillow over what it calls the "Zillow ban," a new rule that the real estate brokerage firm claims is meant to control home listings and crush the home search competition. Compass filed the lawsuit against the listings giant Monday in a New York federal court. The company argues Zillow's new rule, which took effect on May 28, violates antitrust laws by forcing all listings to be published on Zillow within a day. Non-compliers are told they will be banned from the website. "It was adopted to harm a competitive threat, it eliminates a new and innovative business model that creates competitive differentiation in the market and it reduces homeowner choice," Compass wrote in the lawsuit. "The Zillow Ban is designed to make it hard, indeed nearly impossible, for home sellers to sell their home outside of Zillow, in an effort to force all listings to be on Zillow where Zillow makes money selling leads off the homeowners' listings," according to the complaint. Zillow, which draws 227 million new visitors every month and makes money through ads on its listings, argues the new rule is meant to provide more visibility to homes that are for sale. "At the heart of this issue is a simple principle: when a listing is publicly marketed, it should be accessible to all buyers -- across all platforms, including Zillow," a Zillow spokesperson said in a statement. "Hiding listings creates a fragmented market, limits consumer choice and creates barriers to homeownership, which is bad for buyers, sellers and the industry at large, especially in this inventory and affordability-constrained environment." According to Zillow, the real estate fight is over what is called the Clear Cooperation Policy. The rule limits semi-secretly marketed homes, which are created for "off-market" deals. Compass has promoted its Private Exclusives channel, which provides access to luxury, off-market listings. "Zillow believes the claims in this lawsuit are unfounded and will vigorously defend against them," added the company spokesperson.
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Compass sues Zillow over privately marketed listings bans, escalating a long-running fight
Real estate brokerage Compass (COMP) sued Zillow (Z, ZG) after the listings giant banned certain privately marketed properties from appearing on its website, the latest escalation in an ongoing fight over semi-secret listings. In the lawsuit filed Monday in New York, Compass argued that Zillow's ban violates antitrust laws because 'it was adopted to harm a competitive threat, it eliminates a new and innovative business model that creates competitive differentiation in the market, and it reduces homeowner choice.' 'The Zillow Ban is designed to make it hard, indeed nearly impossible, for home sellers to sell their home outside of Zillow, in an effort to force all listings to be on Zillow where Zillow makes money selling leads off the homeowners' listings,' the lawsuit stated. Representatives for Zillow didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Zillow and Compass have been two of the most outspoken voices in a real estate industry fight over what's known as the Clear Cooperation Policy, a rule designed to limit homes that are marketed semi-secretly in what are known as 'pocket' or 'off-market' deals. Read more: 3 tips for selling your home in today's housing market Zillow, which makes money through ads on its listings platform, has supported the policy, arguing that the transparency helps sellers get higher prices for their homes, improves buyer trust, and better aligns with fair housing laws. Compass, which touts its access to off-market listings and its private-first marketing approach, has said the policy limits choice for sellers and buyers. Most home sellers want to market their homes to the widest possible pool of potential buyers. But a small group, especially those with luxury homes, seek off-market listings to maintain privacy or test their listing prices without having information on price cuts or time on the market visible to all. In April, after the National Association of Realtors announced a new rule designed to settle the fight by giving sellers the option to delay broadly advertising their homes online while keeping in place a rule requiring agents to list homes on shared databases known as multiple listing services (MLS) within a day of beginning public marketing, Zillow said it would not allow homes that were first marketed only to select buyers to appear on its website. Read more: How to sell a house fast Zillow's move effectively banned Compass listings because the brokerage encourages sellers to use its '3 Phased Marketing Strategy' that first makes a property available only to Compass agents, then publicly displays it on Compass's website as a 'Coming Soon' property, and finally launches the property on the MLS and third-party listings services. Compass said in the suit that 94% of the listings the company sold last year were eventually broadly marketed on the MLS and sites like Zillow, but sellers like the phased marketing approach. 'Zillow is an unfriendly place for home listings because it tracks metrics like time on market and price cuts and provides estimates of home values and climate risks that may not be accurate," the lawsuit said. Claire Boston is a Senior Reporter for Yahoo Finance covering housing, mortgages, and home insurance. This story is developing. Check back for updates. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Compass sues Zillow over privately marketed listings bans, escalating a long-running fight
Real estate brokerage Compass (COMP) sued Zillow (Z, ZG) after the listings giant banned certain privately marketed properties from appearing on its website, the latest escalation in an ongoing fight over semi-secret listings. In the lawsuit filed Monday in New York, Compass argued that Zillow's ban violates antitrust laws because 'it was adopted to harm a competitive threat, it eliminates a new and innovative business model that creates competitive differentiation in the market, and it reduces homeowner choice.' 'The Zillow Ban is designed to make it hard, indeed nearly impossible, for home sellers to sell their home outside of Zillow, in an effort to force all listings to be on Zillow where Zillow makes money selling leads off the homeowners' listings,' the lawsuit stated. Representatives for Zillow didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Zillow and Compass have been two of the most outspoken voices in a real estate industry fight over what's known as the Clear Cooperation Policy, a rule designed to limit homes that are marketed semi-secretly in what are known as 'pocket' or 'off-market' deals. Read more: 3 tips for selling your home in today's housing market Zillow, which makes money through ads on its listings platform, has supported the policy, arguing that the transparency helps sellers get higher prices for their homes, improves buyer trust, and better aligns with fair housing laws. Compass, which touts its access to off-market listings and its private-first marketing approach, has said the policy limits choice for sellers and buyers. Most home sellers want to market their homes to the widest possible pool of potential buyers. But a small group, especially those with luxury homes, seek off-market listings to maintain privacy or test their listing prices without having information on price cuts or time on the market visible to all. In April, after the National Association of Realtors announced a new rule designed to settle the fight by giving sellers the option to delay broadly advertising their homes online while keeping in place a rule requiring agents to list homes on shared databases known as multiple listing services (MLS) within a day of beginning public marketing, Zillow said it would not allow homes that were first marketed only to select buyers to appear on its website. Read more: How to sell a house fast Zillow's move effectively banned Compass listings because the brokerage encourages sellers to use its '3 Phased Marketing Strategy' that first makes a property available only to Compass agents, then publicly displays it on Compass's website as a 'Coming Soon' property, and finally launches the property on the MLS and third-party listings services. Compass said in the suit that 94% of the listings the company sold last year were eventually broadly marketed on the MLS and sites like Zillow, but sellers like the phased marketing approach. 'Zillow is an unfriendly place for home listings because it tracks metrics like time on market and price cuts and provides estimates of home values and climate risks that may not be accurate," the lawsuit said. Claire Boston is a Senior Reporter for Yahoo Finance covering housing, mortgages, and home insurance. This story is developing. Check back for updates. Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Year in review: Cash-flow positive Compass faces resi headwinds
Could Compass be suffering under the weight of its own expectations? The firm spent much of its first cash-flow positive year buying up competitors and duking it out with major industry players over private listings, generating positive headlines and stock moves for its financial and strategic wins. Compass reported its first-ever cash flow-positive period in the second quarter of 2023. It was an important milestone after a year-long cost-cutting campaign and a first in its life as a public company. It kept positivity in the following quarter, but fell into losses while finishing the year. It returned to cash flow positivity in the first quarter of 2024 and marked a full year in its results announced in May. Compass upped its free cash flow in the first quarter to $19.5 million and narrowed its net losses by $82 million to $51 million — only for its stock to fall 19 percent the following day. While Compass continued to improve many of its key operating metrics, the company's ability to return on its massive investment remains unclear, while CEO Robert Reffkin's continues big swings against Clear Cooperation Policy. Compass put up by far the worst May of its publicly-traded competitors, watching its stock fall to $5.91 from $7.81 to close the month, down 24 percent. Douglas Elliman was the only other brokerage to see its stock price swing double-digit percentage points, but its value went in the other direction. The beleaguered brokerage saw its price jump over 60 percent, from $1.69 to $2.72, on news that it received a merger offer from Anywhere Real Estate. The offer for Elliman — which some have speculated could be a target for Reffkin's firm as well — comes after Compass had added a number of brokerages in the last year, including @properties and Christie's International Real Estate. In March, there were reports that Compass was nearing a deal for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, which were later denied by HomeServices executives. After arguably exceeding expectations for most of 2024, Compass opened 2025 with a bit of dud, missing consensus estimates on revenue and earnings per share, according to Yahoo Finance. Analysts responded by moving full-year breakeven projection to 2026 from 2025. 'We took down our forecasts pretty massively,' said Needham analyst Bernie McTernan, noting much of that was related to a weak housing market. But in a critical moment for Compass being able to cut its way to profitability and create a flywheel for agent growth with its recent inventory push, 'I don't think the thesis is shaken,' he added. A Compass spokesperson said that the 'miss relative to consensus was largely driven by volatility that we began to observe in mid-March as the news around tariffs caused a pause in activity.' They added that the reduced analyst forecasts were driven by lower-than-expected overall market growth. The company also suffered a blow on a strategic front when Zillow unveiled an updated listing policy that appeared to target Compass' three-phased marketing strategy, which involves listing homes without publishing them on the MLS. 'It definitely seems like Zillow took one of the legs out from under the stool,' McTernan said. Compass, which has taken in over $2 billion in equity investment and has an earnings multiple more in line with a tech company than a brokerage, also has more pressure to perform like a growth stock. Although Compass managed to hit a profitable second quarter last year, it ended the year with a net loss of over $154 million. The company has splurged on a number of acquisition deals in the past year, which has been a major revenue driver and helped increase its market share to a record 6 percent. For Reffkin, a housing market boom could be the thing that vaults the company into profitability as its gross profit numbers can finally begin to outstrip its operating expenses — but that bull market appears further and further away, raising questions about how Compass will continue to float its losses in the meantime. 'When they're growing revenue, fixed costs are great,' McTernan said. One workaround for the company has been the use of stock-based compensation to incentivize employees and recruit agents, which CFO Kalani Reelitz said he expects to be managed down to $100 million per year. But the company still has over $277 million in unrecognized stock-based compensation, all of which will weigh on the company's long-term trajectory. 'We have a well-defined path to reducing our annual stock-based compensation over the next three years,' a Compass spokesperson said. 'The $277 million is factored into the $100 million target we expect over the long term, so it is not a concern for us.' The company recognized over $30 million of stock-based compensation in the first quarter of last year, down slightly from the year prior. While Reffkin has maintained that he will be aggressive in seeking M&A opportunities, the less costly growth trajectory relies on continued organic agent recruitment. On the earnings call, Reelitz said that he continued to hear that Compass' 'inventory strategy, the depth of inventory [and] the three-phase marketing' have helped in agent recruitment. Last year, Reffkin said that in 2025 Compass would have more off-MLS and make-me-move inventory on than any publicly searchable active market, incentivizing buyers and agents to work with the firm. Halfway through this year, that expectation looks all but shot as Zillow and a number of MLSes have challenged Compass' hegemony play. Earlier this year, Compass sued Seattle-based Northwest MLS for interfering with the company's private exclusive model, claiming at one point the listing service shut off its access to the listing service's data feed until Compass removed all of its private exclusive inventory from the market. At the Compass' annual retreat held in early June, Reffkin confirmed to agents that Zillow would 'say every private listing is banned' if Compass didn't remove references to private exclusive listings from its website. 'Does it feel to anyone that we've been discouraged from our private listings, or is it just me?' Reffkin asked the audience, claiming that listing services have flouted a National Association of Realtors' policy that prohibits listing services from discouraging the use of office exclusives. Last month, the California Regional MLS voted in approval of a NAR amendment that would remove the office exclusive carve-out that currently allows Compass' private exclusives to exist. The conversation shift has put Compass on the defensive for the first time since it began waging its battle for the repeal of the Clear Cooperation Policy. Now the company is simply fighting to maintain what existed one year ago. For Reffkin, the solution remains the same — just keep growing, which is what he told over 1,200 Compass agents at the firm's annual retreat. 'If every one of you doubles your business, if every one of you doubles your listings, we can't be bullied anymore,' he said. 'That is the path.' Compass scored first cash flow positive year in 2024 Compass narrows losses amid surge in deals, mergers This article originally appeared on The Real Deal. Click here to read the full story.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Real estate giants crack down on exclusive 'off-market' home listings in major shift for buyers
Two major real estate marketplaces are making big changes to what home listings can appear on their websites. Zillow and Redfin are both taking aim at listings of homes up for sale that have been publicly marketed prior to being entered into the multiple listing service (MLS), taking steps to bar them from their respective platforms. In April, Zillow unveiled new "listing access standards" for its site under which the real estate marketplace said it will not publish listings if they are "marketed directly to consumers without being listed on the MLS and made widely available where buyers search for homes" within one business day. The company has argued that a listing "marketed to any buyer should be marketed to every buyer" and that consumers "deserve fair access to listings without having to get access behind a velvet rope controlled by any one company." Home Sellers Face Harsh New Reality As Listings Hit Record $69B Value Zillow began sending out notifications of listings in large U.S. markets that don't meet them to agents starting in late May, with each one getting recorded as a violation. Read On The Fox Business App At the end of June, Zillow will bar an agent's third noncompliant listing and any listings by the agent that violate its listing access standards from its platform as well as Trulia "for the life of the listing agreement between that listing broker and seller," according to the company. Its new standards are being implemented "in phases" with a national expansion taking place over the summer. Zillow said the new policy affects all listings of for-sale homes "subject to an exclusive for-sale listing agreement between a broker and a seller." The new listing access standards "are consistent with NAR's Clear Cooperation Policy and reflects our belief in fair access for all," according to the company. The Clear Cooperation Policy mandates the sharing of listings on the MLS within one business day of public marketing. The option for sellers to delay the marketing of their homes on the MLS is slated to come into force in September, the NAR announced earlier this year. There are, however, some exemptions to Zillow's new listing access standards policy. The site will allow home listings that were "only shared among agents within the listing brokerage and the seller has signed a waiver or opt-out form" as well as "delayed marketing" and "coming soon" listings uploaded to the MLS. Additionally, listings of newly built homes marketed by their builder, rental properties and "for sale by owner" homes will not be subject to Zillow's new rule surrounding public marketing, the company said. The New Palm Beach? Jupiter, Fla, Is Drawing Luxury Homebuyers Fellow real estate marketplace Redfin is taking a similar stance. CEO Glenn Kelman said in a mid-April Redfin post that the platform "will not publish any listings that have been publicly marketed before being shared with all real estate websites via the MLS." The company is also calling for the MLS to set up a "coming-soon" designation that "precludes" search sites from displaying the amount of time a home has been on the market and their prices, according to the post. Redfin believes "all buyers should be able to see all listings," Kelman said. The real estate marketplace will start implementing its policy barring listings that were publicly marketed ahead of being shared on the MLS beginning in September, a Redfin spokesperson told FOX Business. "Delayed marketing exempt listings will be displayed on Redfin as long as they're shared in the MLS and disseminated to sites like Redfin through a Virtual Office Website (VOW) where buyers can access them," the spokesperson added. These States See The Most All-cash Home Purchases Zillow and Redfin are some of the biggest online real estate marketplaces, hosting millions of listings on their sites. Zillow Group reported that its apps and sites notched 227 million average monthly unique users during the first quarter, while Redfin said its platforms saw 46 article source: Real estate giants crack down on exclusive 'off-market' home listings in major shift for buyers Sign in to access your portfolio
