Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, said Compass One, which launched Monday, is to concentrate business through private, exclusive channels.
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The launch of Compass One, the in-house dedicated list of Compass, and the private experience platform, are holding red flags for me and many others in the real estate industry. Let’s clarify. Securities companies that advocate internally only marketing lists are trying to fill their own pockets rather than putting their clients’ interests first.
Real estate is a service and information business, and private listings minimize client competition by capturing information and limiting exposure. The main tenet of everything we do as real estate professionals is to serve our clients’ greatest interest, especially in front of ours. This new compass program is against all of that.
Is it unusual for an agent to first notify a brokerage agent before the real estate appears on the market? As long as it is within local association guidelines, it is definitely not. Will it help sellers protect their homes from the open market? Rarely.
For sellers, casting a wide range of nets ensures that the maximum number of potential buyers are viewing your list, allowing you to get the best prices from the most qualified buyers. If you just have a list internally, you won’t know who is interested in the property and who is looking from different parts of the country where you can pay incredible prices.
At Brown Harris Stevens, we hope to get the best possible offers to sellers, whether from a compass or elsewhere.
What will the buyer do if a broker starts hiding the list from the public market? A fragmented market means less transparent. The platform is launched at a time when it is extremely difficult to buy, especially for younger generations and first-time home buyers.
Buyers should be able to see what is available on the market. You cannot trade without them. Keeping half of the stakeholders in the dark makes the market less efficient. It helps the gates maintain the committee.
I’m not just about what private listing channels mean to the industry and to the public. Lisa Rice, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance in Washington, DC, told Mercury News:
A transparent market is good for everyone, not just one company.
