When the National Association of Realtors introduced our Clear Collaboration proposal last year, we weren’t just proposing policy adjustments. We were beginning a national conversation about breaking away from the dogma and legacy systems that have long held our industry in bondage.
The response told us we were on edge. With 30,000 agents now participating in ARA, the conversation around seller selection and platform control is moving from the fringes to the mainstream.
Now, the Compass-Rocket-Redfin partnership is born. This is a deal that defends the very principles we have been advocating. That means expanding sellers’ options for where, when and how they list their homes, and sharing that information with real estate professionals instead of keeping it siled.
Two shifts are in place here.
The reaction to the deal was as expected. Enthusiasm from some people. Anger from others. One industry veteran called this a “war.” But what most commentators missed were two fundamental changes occurring beneath the surface.
First, the agreement reaffirms that the agent has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller, not the MLS or portal. At the heart of this debate is a simple question: Who decides how homes are sold?
Sellers want more choice, not less. They want to be in control of their own transactions, not a one-size-fits-all pipeline dictated by someone else. Compass and Redfin’s partnership is a vote on sellers’ choice to manage the platform.
If this deal is so bad for sellers, why haven’t they stood up for the opposition? The simple fact is they haven’t. Instead, dissent is limited to those whose control of the industry is at risk.
Second, Compass and Redfin’s relationship accelerates a significant transformation in how we properly price homes.
For decades, real estate price discovery was a purely quantitative exercise. We calculate comparable sales, analyze days on market, study absorption rates, and make educated guesses about where the market stands today. Then start listing it at the price you think is right and wait to see what happens.
What if I’m wrong? The damage has been done.
Compass and Redfin’s partnership enables price discovery to become a quantitative and qualitative activity. Sellers can gauge buyers’ actual interest and pricing reactions in real time before officially putting it on the market. It’s not a theoretical interest based on a 3 month old comp. Real feedback from real buyers who are actively shopping.
Consider how other industries approach product launches.
Tech companies don’t release new products at full price without beta testing. Streaming services will soft launch in select markets before rolling out content more broadly. Fashion brands preview collections to gauge demand before deciding on production volumes.
These industries understand that real-world feedback is more valuable than internal predictions. Why should real estate be different?
Under the current system, a seller who starts a sale at $700,000 receives feedback that the market values the home at $550,000 and adjusts accordingly, resulting in a penalty. This price reduction will remain on the listing forever, letting all subsequent buyers know that something must be wrong. A seller who gets the same feedback through the Coming Soon phase and starts selling for $550,000 on day one will receive a vastly different response from the market.
What the data says
The data supports this. Compass has found that listings using tiered marketing ultimately achieve higher sales prices. It’s not because the seller is hiding information from the buyer. That’s because they themselves are entering the market with better information.
For these reasons, the Compass-Rocket-Redfin Alliance is fully aligned with Clear Collaboration. Compass submits your listings to MLSs that accept Coming Soon listings (Bright, MRED, SFAR, TheMLS, Unlock, HAR, etc.) without forcing syndication.
Traditionally, the real estate industry has operated on the assumption that they know more than their consumers. NAR’s clear cooperation policy tells homeowners that they cannot publicly sell their property without immediate MLS submission and portal syndication, no matter its original intent. Once a seller engages an agent, any public marketing of the property, including a simple Instagram post, will trigger the one business day MLS filing requirement.
Who exactly does that policy protect? Is it really about transparency, or is it about protecting MLS and Zillow’s listed supply chain?
I’ve been in this industry for 20 years. I’ve seen it resist change at every turn. I remember the day Facebook was banned at the first brokerage firm I worked for. Management considered it a distraction, the digital equivalent of Solitaire or Minesweeper, and a productivity killer.
It took a marketing expert to point out what should be obvious. This was not a waste of time. It was a sales tool.
What I learned is that successful agents and brokerages don’t cling to the old ways. They are the ones who recognize that our obligation is to our clients, not to organizational inertia.
Change is unpleasant. Change threatens existing power structures. Change requires adaptation. But in a profession built around helping people make the biggest financial decisions of their lives, we can’t prioritize our discomfort.
Compass and Redfin’s partnership represents a move toward a more flexible, consumer-centric model, with data serving buyers and sellers rather than the institutions that have long claimed to speak for them.
At ARA, we continue to promote clear collaboration. We will continue to advocate for policies that empower consumers. And we continue to welcome innovation, even when it challenges comfortable assumptions.
The future of real estate belongs to those willing to embrace it.
Jason Haber is an associate broker at Compass in New York and co-founder of the American Association of Realtors.
