In a nine-page letter, obtained by Realtor.com, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), requested information about the Compass-MRED partnership to create a national database of private listings.
Warren, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, sent the letter Thursday to Robert Reffkin, CEO of Compass International Holdings (CIH) and Rebecca Jensen, CEO of Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED).
Warren’s letter raises civil rights concerns and data transparency concerns about how private listings work. It also revives antitrust questions tied to Compass’s growth strategy.
Here’s what the letter spelled out and what agents need to know.
What Warren’s Letter Says
Addressed jointly to Reffkin and Jensen, Warren’s letter requests details on the April deal that lets Compass distribute its Private Exclusives listings nationwide through MRED’s database, the multiple listing service that covers the Chicago area.
Warren’s central concern is that the partnership creates two classes of access to housing information.
“Your partnership threatens to create a two-tiered housing market where insiders pay for exclusive access to housing inventory and market data, while everyone else is shut out. I am concerned that this move will increase industry consolidation and harm consumers by driving up housing costs and worsening inequalities in the housing market.”
Warren’s letter asks Reffkin and Jensen to explain how their companies evaluated fair housing and antitrust risk before launching the partnership.
Warren’s request follows a similar one sent weeks earlier by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, who asked for a hearing with the two companies.
Private listings have become a rare issue that draws scrutiny from both parties in Congress.
The Civil Rights and Data Risk Warren Is Flagging
In the letter, Warren says the Compass-MRED deal “increases risks of civil rights violations,” specifically under the Fair Housing Act.
In the letter, Warren argues the nationwide private listings network could enable steering, specifically the kind that directs buyers toward or away from neighborhoods based on race or other protected characteristics.
Because private listings never go fully public, steering becomes easier to carry out and harder to catch.
A related issue involves the data that private listings tend to leave out. Days on market and price history typically stay attached to a public MLS listing, and those numbers feed appraisals and price negotiations across the market.
Warren argues that hiding this information could ripple beyond any single listing.
“Hiding this data could destabilize the broader housing market.”
She noted that the mortgage market relies on complete and accurate listing history to inform appraisals and other parts of the home purchase process.
State-Level Action and What’s Next?
States are moving faster than Congress. Washington and Connecticut both signed restrictions on private listings this year. New York’s General Assembly passed a similar bill, and it awaits the governor’s signature.
Meanwhile, Zillow’s antitrust lawsuit against Compass and MRED remains active.
The suit began after MRED cut off Zillow’s data feed, a response to Zillow’s decision not to display certain private listings once they reached the open MLS.
Compass CEO Robert Reffkin has defended the partnership publicly, framing the traditional MLS system itself as the problem.
“Multiple listing services should have to compete for our business, just as brokerages have to compete for agents and agents have to compete for their clients.”
Compass makes a second case, this one aimed at sellers: private listings offer privacy and control with no tradeoff in outcome.
So far, the research makes that complicated. Bright MLS, which covers the mid-Atlantic region, and Zillow’s own research team both found that private listings take longer to sell and don’t produce a better price for sellers, the two benefits most often used to sell homeowners on going private.
Sharon Cornellissen of the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) backs that up:
“It’s not good for sellers and it’s not good for buyers either, because as a seller I want my house seen by as many potential buyers as possible so I get the best possible deal. As a buyer, I might not even find out about houses for sale and that affects my opportunities.”
From the looks of it, lawmakers and courts will decide what happens to private listings.
Here’s what to watch next:
- Whether Congress moves forward with a formal hearing request
- Whether New York’s governor signs the pending bill restricting private listings
- How the Zillow antitrust lawsuit against Compass and MRED plays out in court
The direction Congress and the states take here will shape how private listings get pitched to sellers for years to come.
Stay tuned for more as this plays out.
