Samuelson on Tuesday took issue with how Compass defines the polarizing Zillow listing rules, saying Compass CEO Robert Refkin is not “true.”
Zillow’s Errol Samuelson walked out of the gate upset Tuesday, saying Compass CEO Robert Refkin “hasn’t been honest with you guys.”
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Samuelson, Zillow’s chief industrial development officer, made the comments on stage at Inman Connect New York. His session was one of the first on Tuesday morning, and it came just after Levkin himself appeared on stage to discuss Compass’ lawsuit against Zillow. In his remarks, Levkin said Zillow “offered $1.30.” [billion] Compass would be paid $1.6 billion if we could stop our agencies from marketing to us through Zillow. ”
However, Samuelson objected to this characterization. At the urging of session moderator Brad Inman, Samuelson explained that he attended a meeting involving both companies on the 40th floor of Zillow’s headquarters in Washington state. “We didn’t offer him a billion dollars,” Samuelson said at the meeting.
“What we discussed at that meeting were products currently available at Zillow or currently in development that we thought Compass could use to grow its business,” Samuelson said.
The meeting in question is in fact recorded in an extensive recent court filing that is part of the companies’ lawsuit. Among other things, the document mentions an April 2025 meeting in which “Zillow presented various terms for a potential partnership, including various product offerings and benefits that Zillow projected would generate an additional $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion in annual revenue for Compass and double Compass’ market share.”
Zillow’s chief financial officer, Jeremy Hoffman, was also questioned about Compass’ funding during a deposition as part of the lawsuit. Hoffman said Zillow “offered at a high level what we thought was a very interesting set of ways to collaborate and grow the business together,” according to a transcript of the deposition.
Brad Inman (left) and Zillow’s Errol Samuelson on stage at Inman Connect New York on Tuesday. Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services.
In any case, Mr. Refkin’s and Mr. Samuelson’s comments highlight the intensity of competition between the two companies and the stakes of litigation. Compass first filed suit last June over Zillow’s listing access standards. This standard prohibits listings that are publicly available for sale but do not make them available to local MLSs and Zillow within 24 hours.
Read: Levkin floats idea for national MLS
But the two companies disagreed Tuesday on even the basic definition of the rule. Levkin said during the session that the rule prohibits “public marketing of products that are not listed on Zillow.” This comment is consistent with other comments Compass leaders have made in the past, arguing that the standard is not about private listings, but is actually about Zillow’s access to those listings.
But Samuelson took a different view Tuesday, saying the portal’s rules “don’t say you have to put it in Zillow. It says you have to put it in MLS.”
“That means Realtor.com gets it, Homes.com gets it, Redfin gets it,” he said.
Samuelson also criticized the concept of private listings more generally, saying the United States has a unique open real estate system that is better than other countries. And he floated the term “private listings” as a potential alternative to the more common term “private listings” that has been used in the industry in recent years.
“If a large broker hides listing information in a dark pool that only agents can access, other large brokers will soon do the same,” Samuelson said.
Although competing comments between Compass and Zillow executives dominated the hallway conversation at Connect on Tuesday, Samuelson’s session covered a number of other topics, including artificial intelligence. He explained that products such as chatbots are valuable tools at the moment, but more “agent-like” AI may soon begin to emerge in real estate. This means that the AI will not only answer questions, but also actively complete tasks.
As an example, Samuelson described a date night where an AI tool not only tells someone the movie time, but also buys tickets, makes dinner reservations, and calls Uber.
“So now it’s becoming an extension of you,” he said.
In the real estate industry, that technology could help schedule home tours, fill out forms, and even help determine asking prices.
Samuelson said, “At the moment we don’t see much agent AI in the real estate industry, but give it six months.”
Email Jim Dalrymple II
