Compass CEO defends private listings, says MLSs make homes look ‘damaged’
As consumers contemplate a softening housing market thanks to rising inflation and mortgage rates, Compass International Holdings CEO Robert Reffkin is warning prospective sellers of what he feels are the risks of listing a property on the open market.
In a segment on CNBC’s The Exchange Tuesday afternoon, Reffkin told CNBC’s Kelly Evans that even though home prices have risen year-over-year for the past 39 months, in September, 43% of all homes on the market had a price drop in their listing history.
“As an unintended consequence, days on market is the killer of value, price drop history is the killer of value and when you have extended days on market or price drops on your listings, it leads to some sellers taking their homes off the market,” Reffkin said. “So 6% of the homes on the market last month were actually taken off the market because sellers don’t want to look stale.”
Evans noted that this was part of the strategy behind Compass’s private exclusives marketing plan, asking him to address comments previously made on the show by Brown Harris Stevens CEO Bess Freedman, who said that “hidden listings… create a real challenge” for consumers.
Reffkin, however, doesn’t see how this is an issue for consumers, stating that agents owe a fiduciary duty to their seller.
“When you market your home as a private exclusive or as a coming soon, you get to put whatever you want in your listing. There’s no days on market, there’s no price drop history, just like anything else you sell in your life,” he said. “But when you give it to the real estate websites, to the that system of the MLS’s, they put these negative insights on your listing and make it look damaged unintentionally.”
Doubling down on the MLS being ‘anti-competitive’
Reffkin went on to reiterate claims that the MLS is anti-competitive, noting that MLS boards are made of companies who are direct competitors to Compass.
“They are dictating how we can and cannot compete in the living room. They are dictating how our agents can and cannot serve their clients,” Reffkin said. “They’re dictating how our clients can and cannot market their homes. And so we believe that sellers have the right to choose, again, how they market their homes.”
Evans also asked Reffkin about fair housing concerns raised by civil rights groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), regarding private listings.
According to Reffkin, a private listing, simply means that the listing is “private from real estate websites.”
“There’s not a single form of advertising or marketing other than real estate websites that isn’t allowed. So private exclusives can be marketed on Google, they can be marketed on your social media, they can marketed in digital newsletters. There [are] signs in the yards that say private exclusive. They are fully out there,” Reffkin said. “They’re just private from real estate websites that put these negative insights on your listing.”
These comments came nearly two weeks after Reffkin threatened MLS executives gathered at the Council of MLS’s Open House conference that his firm would sue any MLS that prevented or fined his agents for publicly marketing office exclusive listings.
Both California Regional MLS (CRMLS) and Unlock MLS have refused to give into these demands, with CRMLS filing a suit asking for the court to prevent Compass from filing a suit against CRMLS that alleges that its “Cooperation Rules violate the federal or state antitrust laws.” Compass has said lawsuits will be filed against both MLS in the coming weeks.
Source: www.housingwire.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.