A thought hit me this morning while reading (yet another) piece about Compass suing Zillow over their “three-phased marketing strategy.” You know the one, start off with an “exclusive listing,” then open it up to Compass agents, and eventually put it on the MLS when the seller realizes they’d like actual offers.
It occurred to me: this whole thing smells a lot like the pitch we heard from iBuyers.
Think about it. What were iBuyers really selling? Convenience and certainty. “Skip the open house.” “Pick your closing date.” “Avoid strangers in your home.” That kind of thing. Compass’s exclusive listing strategy is, in many ways, pushing the same emotional buttons. It just has a better front man. Don’t get me wrong. I understand the appeal. I have more Opendoor stock at $22 per share than I care to admit.
But here’s where it gets interesting: Compass says that 94% of their listings end up on the MLS anyway. That stat feels oddly familiar—probably because Opendoor said the same thing when they quietly started syndicating to the MLS after realizing selling homes off-market wasn’t exactly a winning proposition. Hell, they recent shifted their strategy to sending seller lead to agents!
So if Compass listings are eventually going to land on the MLS… what’s the point of the detour?
Offering sellers a “soft launch” gives them a sense of control. Maybe they think their perfect buyer will materialize from Compass’s magical internal network before they have to show the place to the unwashed public. But just like the iBuyer promise of certainty came with a service fee and a haircut on price, the Compass pitch has its own catch: fewer eyeballs, fewer offers, and usually—eventually—a trip to the MLS anyway.
Call it what you want—three phases, soft launch, “concierge listing”—at the end of the day, broad exposure still wins. Everyone eventually runs back to Mama (the MLS).
Exclusive? Maybe. But if the final destination is still the MLS, it starts to feel more like a layover than a luxury.
