Compass to share real estate listings that have yet to hit the market broadly with Redfin

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Compass will allow its property listings that have yet to hit the broader market to appear immediately on fellow real estate brokerage Redfin's portal, part of three-year agreement announced Thursday.

The move could potentially bring more than 500,000 additional listings across Redfin's website and app, New York-based Compass and Detroit-based Rocket Cos., a mortgage lender and parent of Redfin, said in a statement.

As part of the agreement, Rocket Mortgage will also offer “preferred pricing” to Compass’ clients, including an interest rate reduction of 1 percentage point in the first year of their loan or a lender credit of up to $6,000.

The pact, which comes as the spring homebuying season gets underway, gives Compass a wider platform to list its clients' homes. It comes as the company is in a legal tousle with Zillow after the popular real estate website stopped listing properties on its site that have were first advertised for sale elsewhere for more than a day.

Typically, agents list a home for sale on any number of listing databases, known as the multiple listing service, or MLS, which online real estate portals source many of their listings.

But, from a seller's vantage point, one drawback to listing a home on the MLS, and large listing search sites like Zillow, is that such listings show how long a home has been on the market and whether it has had any price reductions over time. Such information can be a signal to potential buyers that they may have more leverage to negotiate a lower price, or other concessions, from the seller.

For homeowners who prefer to test the waters — and their pricing strategy — before listing their property far and wide, Compass offers the option of marketing their property a couple of different ways. One is as a “Private Exclusive,” in which the property is only visible to Compass agents and their clients. The other is as a “Coming Soon” listing, which shows up on Compass.com, but allows sellers to hold back on details like how long the property has been on the market or whether the seller has lowered their listing price.

The ability to have a measured rollout when marketing a home can help sellers feel better about listing their home, especially in the midst of a multiyear housing slump.

“As we go into the spring market, we want to give sellers more choices on how they market their home,” said Compass CEO Robert Reffkin. “This gives sellers the ability that other portals don’t give them to publicly market their home to 60 million buyers without days on market, without price drop history, without home valuation estimates. And that’s a huge win for sellers.”