The Compass Private Exclusive Book will be available for any agent to view in a Compass office. The book project comes as Compass increasingly makes private listings a core part of its strategy.
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In a sort of throwback to the origins of the first multiple listing services, Compass is preparing to deploy physical books filled with private listings and viewable in company offices.
The company calls the project the “Compass Private Exclusive Book,” and told Inman exclusively that it will officially launch in May. In a statement, the company described the books as “a curated collection of Compass Private Exclusives available for viewing in Compass offices.”
Physical books will be updated weekly, while a virtual version will receive updates in real time. Compass added in the statement that “agents from all brokerages are invited to visit any Compass office to individually browse Private Exclusives listings on a 1:1 basis.”
The Compass Private Exclusive Book comes as the brokerage increasingly makes private listings — which it dubs “Compass Private Exclusives” — a keystone of its marketing efforts. Such listings are the first part of Compass’ “3-Phase Marketing Strategy” and up until the book project were viewable exclusively through the brokerage’s platform.
After debuting privately, listings using the 3-Phase Marketing Strategy then move to “coming soon” status, before finally heading to the local multiple listing service for the broader industry to view.
Compass has argued that the strategy gives sellers freedom to market properties as they see fit, and that it lets sellers try out different staging and pricing plans. Critics, however, have suggested that Compass simply wants to keep listings for itself and that doing so reduces transparency in the market. The debate over private listings has polarized the real estate industry, and last week Compass sued Northwest MLS over rules that block private listings in Washington state.
In its statement about the Private Exclusive Book, Compass seems to have anticipated further debate and responded to several ideas that have come up in criticism of private listings. The company’s statement notes, for example, that the book is meant to “promote greater transparency and collaboration” and that “private isn’t hidden, exclusive isn’t secret.”
“The majority of Compass Private Exclusives that sell off-MLS are co-brokered with non-Compass agents,” a Compass spokesperson said in the statement. “Compass is now the only brokerage sharing all off-MLS listings with the entire brokerage community. Unfortunately, there is a persistent false narrative suggesting the motivation behind Compass Private Exclusives is to double-end deals, which couldn’t be further from the truth.”
The statement adds that if “Compass’ goal was to double end deals, it would keep office exclusives in-house as NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy allows, but instead, Compass is sharing its Private Exclusives with the entire brokerage community.”
A company spokesperson also said that the goal is not to recruit agents. Industry members who visit a Compass office to view a book will not be asked for contact information for recruiting purposes.
Compass also argued in its statement that the Compass Private Exclusive Book “supports fair housing, as any potential group of buyers, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, disability, or other characteristics protected by the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights statutes, can visit a Compass office to view these listings.”
Compass plans to place private listing books in all markets, the statement also notes, beginning with the largest local offices and expanding from there as demand necessitates. And while Compass has met opposition to its private listing strategy from Zillow and other entities, it does not anticipate opposition to its book.
“The National Association of Realtors, the MLS, and Zillow are not expected to prevent Compass from sharing with all agents and consumers given NAR’s MLS Antitrust Compliance Policy, stating, ‘Boards and associations of Realtors and their MLSs shall not prohibit or discourage participants from taking ‘office exclusive’ listings,’” the statement notes. “NAR also recently clarified that any agent can share a Private Exclusive on a 1:1 basis with agents at other brokerages and/or clients.”
Though launching a physical book of listings today is an unusual move, it does harken back to a bygone era. Decades ago, agents used to meet in person to share listings with each other. Eventually, those listings were compiled into books and evolved into the first multiple listing services. Finally, in the 1990s and beyond, those books migrated to the then-new internet and were later syndicated to public-facing portals like Zillow.
In its statement, Compass nodded to that history.
“This initiative reimagines the spirit of the original MLS books,” the company’s statement notes, “by providing a centralized, physical resource to discover unique properties while respecting the privacy, security and marketing strategies of today’s sellers.”
Update: This post was updated post-publication after Compass provided Inman with an updated press release on the private listing book.
