Compass Expands Pre-Market Listings Amid Acquisitions and Industry Shifts

Compass, the world’s largest real estate brokerage, has rolled out a new listing format that excludes sales history information such as days on market and price cuts. Homes in this format can still be purchased, even though they have not officially hit the market.

The format was created by Robert Reffkin, the co-founder and chief executive of Compass, who has pushed for promoting new listings online before homes are technically for sale for nearly two years.

This practice, known as pre-marketing, is gaining traction as other real estate firms begin to follow Compass's lead. Supporters state that “Coming Soon” listings give sellers and real estate agents more control over how properties are marketed. Traditional listings show a home’s price history and days on market from local Multiple Listing Services.

In an interview with CNN, Reffkin said: “I believe buyers have the right to know what attributes of the house are real and accurate.” Compass encourages agents to roll out listings gradually: first as private exclusives to a small network, then as “coming soon” online, and finally as traditional public listings.

Despite a struggling real estate industry, Compass reported a record $7 billion in revenue last year. In January, the company announced the acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, the parent company of major brokerage brands including Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Sotheby’s International Realty and Corcoran.

The $1.6 billion all-stock deal would create a brokerage with roughly 340,000 agents across 120 countries.

In February, Redfin partnered with Compass to exclusively showcase the brokerage’s “Coming Soon” listings. The interim CEO of Redfin told CNN that the partnership and Compass’s pre-market listings aim to revive the country’s stalled housing market hampered by scarce inventory and high mortgage rates. The interim CEO said: “No one can say that what’s happening today is working.”

Rocket Companies, one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the US, bought Redfin last summer. As part of Redfin’s partnership with Compass, Rocket will pay Compass to integrate its mortgage application process into Compass’s technology.

The interim CEO said of Redfin’s embrace of Compass’s strategy after the Rocket acquisition: “This isn’t really a change.” US home sales in 2025 remained at a 30-year low. Robert Reffkin founded Compass in 2012 and was raised in Berkeley, California, by a single mother who worked as a real estate agent.

Zillow once tried to block pre-market listings from its platform but now has a feature showcasing homes before they officially hit the market. Zillow recently announced “Zillow Preview,” featuring pre-market home listings from more than two dozen partner brokerages including Keller Williams and REMAX.

Last year, Zillow said it would stop displaying listings that appeared exclusively on Compass’s website in the “private exclusive” or “coming soon” phase for more than 24 hours.

Redfin followed Zillow with a similar rule to stop displaying certain Compass listings. Compass sued Zillow, accusing it of trying to crush competition in the home-search market. In February, a judge declined Compass’s request to block Zillow’s policy while the suit played out.

The judge said Compass did not show it was likely to win its antitrust claims. Compass dropped the lawsuit against Zillow this spring after Zillow began allowing premarket listings on its site.

The CEO of real estate brokerage NextHome is vocal about his opposition to the push to decentralize listings.