A binder of house photos chained and padlocked on an old office desk, with a Vermont dirt road through autumn hills outside the window

Quick Answer

Compass wants sellers to market homes privately, inside its own network, before they reach the MLS and Zillow, and it cites its own study to say sellers earn more. My view: the number is shaky, the real prize is agents and two-sided deals, and gatekeeping listing data never serves consumers. Sellers lose audience, buyers lose visibility, and one company gains leverage.

Hiding Homes Helps the Company, Not You

Here is my position, plainly: when big players gatekeep listing data, consumers lose. Every time.

Remember how house hunting used to work? You drove from one brokerage to the next to see what each office had in its binder. You cruised the back roads of Moretown on a Sunday looking for a sign at the end of a driveway. Whoever controlled the listing controlled the buyer.

Open listing data ended that. Sellers got the widest audience. Buyers got the whole picture.

Full disclosure: I run an independent brokerage. But this is not about my business. It is about yours.

Who Compass and Anywhere Are

Compass is a New York brokerage founded in 2012. Anywhere Real Estate, formerly Realogy, owned and franchised some of the best-known names in the business: Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby's International Realty, Corcoran, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and ERA. In January, Compass bought Anywhere for $1.6 billion. The combined company counts roughly 340,000 agents and associates, franchises included.

You will not see many Compass signs in Vermont. You will see Coldwell Banker signs, and Compass now owns that brand. Franchise offices are typically independently owned, so your local agent did not change overnight. The company that owns the brand did. That is why a fight in Chicago and New York is worth a Vermonter's five minutes.

The Number Behind the Pitch

Compass says homes it marketed privately first sold for 4.6% more. It is Compass's own study of Compass's own sales. It leaves out listings that were withdrawn or expired, so the private flops never count. And Compass agents chose which homes to market privately in the first place. Zillow's economist found the opposite. That is not independent research. It is a sales pitch with numbers attached.

Asking a brokerage whether its private listings are good for sellers is like asking a casino whether you should play one more hand. My read: this number is aimed at agents more than sellers. A brokerage is only as big as its agents' listings. Promise agents an in-house inventory that other firms cannot see, and more deals where the company is paid on both sides, and you have a powerful recruiting and retention pitch. Zillow's court filings say Compass private listings are double-ended far more often, meaning the same company represents both the buyer and the seller.

In Vermont, we used to call this a pocket listing, and it got mentioned at the church craft fair, somewhere between the maple jelly and the hand-knit mittens. At least the craft fair was open to everybody.

Bigger Is Not Better for You

Two senators asked federal regulators to consider blocking the Anywhere deal, and an analysis cited by HousingWire found the combined company is big enough in at least a dozen states that antitrust rules would normally treat it as a red flag. Regulators let it through. You do not have to pick a political side to be wary when one company controls more of the market and then asks to control who sees the homes, too.

Zillow has business reasons of its own. On this one, the consumer happens to be on its side.

The Coming Gatekeeping War

If Compass wins, it will not be the only one building walls. Howard Hanna has launched its own internal network, HannaList. Douglas Elliman runs its own private program. And Compass now feeds its Coming Soon listings to Redfin through a deal with Rocket.

Here is the math. The moment two companies gatekeep, a buyer has two places to search just to learn what is for sale, and a seller's pool of ready buyers is cut in two. And you can bet that if there are two, there will be three, then four. Every new wall makes the buyer's search longer and the seller's audience smaller. Every wall costs you something, and you are the one who pays.

The other camp is organizing too. In October, Keller Williams, REMAX, HomeServices of America and AGNT, parent of eXp Realty, announced Open Real Estate, a shared listing platform with one hard rule. The CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, an early member, put it simply: there are no private listings allowed. Gary Keller, Keller Williams' co-founder, said in March: "We believe an open market serves consumers the best." Even this camp is testing early previews, but on public sites everyone can see.

Scale is a moat, and listing data is the water in it. That is the old drive from office to office, rebuilt online. It is the old binder system with better software.

If You Are Selling

Your home sells for the most when the most qualified buyers compete for it. Ask every agent: How many buyers will see my home in week one? Where, exactly, will it appear, and when? Will your firm represent the buyer too? You can say no to that last one. A velvet rope makes a club feel exclusive. It also keeps people out. When you are selling, you want the line around the block. Privacy has its place: an estate, a divorce, a safety concern. For everyone else, a smaller audience is a cost.

If You Are Buying

Ask whether you are seeing the whole market or one company's shelf. Do not sign with a brokerage just to get a peek behind its wall.

If You Are Staying Put

Your home's value is measured by public sales. Every home that trades in the dark makes your own number harder to know.

If You Are Renting or Still Dreaming

First-time buyers have the most to lose. Open search levels the field.

What to Do This Week

Thinking of selling in 2027? Ask every agent you interview for a written marketing plan that says where your home will appear and when. Mine puts your home on the MLS and in front of every buyer from day one.

By the Numbers

  • Compass's claim: its pre-marketed (Private Exclusive or Coming Soon) listings sold for 4.6% more than comparable listings that went straight to the MLS (95% range 4.2% to 4.9%), based on 70,809 Compass closed sales from April 2025 to March 2026. Compass's own study; it excludes listings that were withdrawn or expired.
  • Zillow's counter: its retained economist, Dr. Lawrence Wu, found likely Compass private-network sales priced 4.8% lower nationally and 4% lower in the Chicago area (Zillow data, 2022 to 2025, court filing July 6, 2026).
  • An independent study of 20 years of Dallas-Fort Worth sales by the University of Georgia's Darren Hayunga found pocket sales sold for 1.7% more. One market only.
  • Zillow Listing Access Standards: a listing marketed to the public must reach the MLS within one day, or Zillow will not show it.
  • Zillow seller survey: 63% of sellers said an agent pitched a private listing, up from 18% five years earlier; 81% want listings freely viewable online. Zillow's own survey.
  • Compass completed its $1.6 billion acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate on January 9, 2026 (SEC filing). Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden had asked the DOJ and FTC to consider blocking it; the federal waiting period ended with no action (HousingWire).
  • Compass's platform: about 340,000 agents and associates after the Anywhere deal, including franchised businesses. Anywhere brands include Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby's International Realty, Corcoran, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate and ERA (Wikipedia).
  • A Capitol Forum analysis of RealTrends data, cited by HousingWire, found the combined company's market concentration above presumptively illegal thresholds in at least a dozen states.
  • Open Real Estate: founded by Keller Williams, REMAX (Real REMAX Group), HomeServices of America and AGNT; announced Oct. 26, 2026, with a full launch expected in early 2027. It drew 826 letters of support from brokerage leaders in its first week, 59% from independent firms (The Real Deal).
  • Court timeline: a federal judge denied Compass's request to block Zillow's rule (February 2026); Compass dropped its suit (March 18, 2026); Zillow sued Chicago's MRED and Compass (May 12, 2026, pending); six MLSs sued Compass on October 21, 2026, and a seventh joined, asking a court to declare their rules lawful.
  • Caveat: the Compass and Zillow studies come from interested parties and measure different sets of homes. Neither is the final word.

See how I market Vermont homes to every buyer or call Tony at 802-233-4107.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a private listing or office exclusive?

A private listing, sometimes called an office exclusive or pocket listing, is a home marketed only within one brokerage's agents and clients, or to a small group, instead of being entered on the MLS and shown on public sites like Zillow.

Do private listings sell for more?

The evidence is disputed. Compass says its private-first listings sold for 4.6% more than comparable MLS listings. Zillow's economist found likely Compass private sales sold for less. Both are interested parties, and their studies measure different sets of homes.

Can I keep my home off Zillow?

Yes, a seller can choose not to advertise publicly. Under Zillow's Listing Access Standards, a home that is marketed publicly but not placed on the MLS within one day will not be shown on Zillow.

What is the Compass lawsuit about?

Compass is fighting rules from Zillow and several MLSs that require homes marketed to the public to be shared widely. Compass calls it seller choice. Zillow and the MLSs say private networks hide homes from buyers. Several cases are pending in federal court.

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Sources

Tony Walton, Principal Broker, New England Landmark Realty, Waterbury Center, Vermont. 802-233-4107.