The brokerage’s efforts to build a powerful exclusive catalog of listings unifies many of its recent efforts — including now the debut of a multiphase marketing strategy.
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Amid a push to get rid of NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy, and days after pointing to video streaming as an analogy for the future of home sales, Compass has announced a new marketing effort that leans into private listings.
The brokerage is calling the effort its “‘3-Phased Marketing Strategy.” In a statement, the company explained that the effort will let Compass agents “start working for homeowners well ahead of traditional timelines, maximizing exposure for their listings.” The company also believes the strategy “empowers Compass agents to deliver the best value for homeowners,” according to the statement.
The first phase of the strategy, the statement explains, involves “Compass Private Exclusives” — or listings that are only visible to Compass agents and their clients. The statement notes that launching listings as private exclusives lets homesellers “fine-tune” their presentations and “extend their marketing runway.”
The second phase involves “Compass Coming Soons,” during which the “listing is publicly launched on Compass.com, exposing it to a broader audience without showing ‘days on market’ or price drop history.”
The third phase then takes the listing live on all platforms. The statement notes that at this point the listing will become “visible to a broader audience, accrue days on the market, and provide a visible price drop history.”
Robert Reffkin
The phased marketing strategy fits neatly into a variety of interconnected projects Compass is currently engaged in — the most obvious one being eliminating Clear Cooperation. The National Association of Realtors adopted the rule in 2019, and it requires agents to put their listings into their NAR-affiliated MLS within a day that they start marketing those listings.
Compass, and especially CEO Robert Reffkin, have in recent months been among the most vocal opponents of the rule, saying it limits homeowner choice, introduces ethics violations, and penalizes homes with “negative insights” such as days on market or price drops.
Compass’ statement on its new marketing strategy mentions those same “negative insights,” calling it a “critical flaw” that popular portals share them.
“For years, the most well-known real estate websites have built their business models at the expense of homeowners by showing negative insights on their listings, such as days on market, price drops, and home value estimates,” the statement notes. “This practice compromises a seller’s financial future by risking their home’s value.”
Portals Zillow, Realtor.com and Redfin have expressed support for Clear Cooperation — putting them on the opposite side of the issue relative to Compass.
Compass has also been open about its desire to build an exclusive catalog of inventory that is only available via its platform and agents. Such a network represents a distinct competitive advantage and was also a factor in the backdrop of other recent company moves, such as the debut of Compass’ “reverse prospecting” tool.
During Compass’ most recent earnings call, which took place last week, Reffkin laid out his vision for the future of listings by pointing to video streaming. His point was that in the same way consumers go to Netflix, Disney Plus, Apple TV and other platforms for all of their shows, they might in the future visit a variety of platforms to see all of the home listings in their area.
“I think in the future of real estate at some point in this country, people will come to Compass to find listings, they’ll go to the MLS to find listings, they’ll go to one or two aggregators to find listings,” Reffkin said while talking to analysts on the call. “But it’s not going to be unlike almost any other product you want to buy.”
That idea — of course with Compass dominating the listings landscape — is the thread that unifies everything from reverse prospecting to Clear Cooperation opposition to, now, the new multi-phase marketing effort. And to Reffkin’s point that existing home listings should resemble other types of products, the new statement on multi-phase marketing repeatedly states that it’ll give agents the same tools that homebuilders already use.
“Real estate developers and professional homebuilders have long used this sophisticated playbook to sell homes,” the statement says. “Now, with this new 3-phased marketing strategy, we are providing this playbook to Compass agents so that they can help deliver the best outcomes for their home sellers.”
Reffkin also added in the statement that the marketing effort is part of the project of building “a company that better serves homeowners.”
“A person’s home is their most valuable financial asset, and they deserve the best return when they sell it to buy their next home, feel secure in their retirement, or pay for their child’s education,” he added. “It’s Your Home. Your Choice.”
Email Jim Dalrymple II
