This week, Compass announced its biggest website redesign in a decade.
The centerpiece is a new trademarked feature called “See It First,” and Compass is putting a multimillion-dollar national ad campaign behind it.
The launch came one week after a federal judge denied Zillow’s request for a preliminary injunction against Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), the Chicago MLS that has sided with Compass in the fight over how listings get shared.
Here’s a breakdown of the new feature and where it fits in Compass’s ongoing battle with Zillow.
What See It First Is and How It Works
See It First pulls listings from “every stage of marketing” across the nine brands under Compass International Holdings (CIH) and puts them in one place on Compass.com. It’s woven into the site’s search experience from the homepage on.
On a September 19 Instagram post, three days before the official announcement, CEO Robert Reffkin commented simply, “Coming soon…See it First™.”
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The coming soon listings aren’t exclusive, but the “See It First” suggests some will see those properties before others will, which fits with the “elevated consumer experience” Compass is aiming for.
The redesign adds these features to the site:
- See It First badges on qualifying listings
- A dedicated landing page for homes in the early stages of marketing
- No days on market or public price drops displayed
- The listing agent’s name and photo on every listing
- The agent’s brokerage affiliation shown next to their name, with buyer inquiries routed to the listing agent
Compass is pitching the feature to sellers as a way to “test pricing and build buyer demand” during the early phases of marketing.
The brand lives on Compass.com, and the site’s search experience falls under Julie Keef, Compass’s first Head of Consumer Search. She joined the company in March after nine years at Redfin, where her last role was vice president of product.
Compass.com traffic grew 56% year over year in August 2026, and the Company is keen to build on that momentum with a multi-million dollar investment in a nationwide advertising campaign to introduce See It First as the star of its redesign.
In the launch announcement, Keef explained what Compass wants the feature to do for buyers.
“With See It First, we’re giving consumers the opportunity to discover more homes earlier. By bringing more homes and local expertise together in one place, we’re making Compass.com an even more valuable destination for buyers to start and continue their home search.”
What Agents Should Know About Access
According to Compass’s announcement, any buyer or buyer’s agent can view and inquire on participating See It First listings, no matter which brokerage they’re with.
Each See It First listing features the listing agent’s name and photo. Their brokerage appears next to them on every home they represent.
Compass says this lets buyers and their agents get answers from the person who knows the home best. For sellers, the company says, it means any interest their home draws goes to the agent they hired.
The Friction Behind the Launch
See It First arrives in the middle of a long-running fight over who controls listing data. The biggest recent development came out of Chicago on Sept. 15, when U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp denied Zillow’s request for a preliminary injunction against MRED.
Here’s where the ruling leaves things:
- MRED’s listing syndication rules don’t violate antitrust laws, according to the court
- The court found MRED didn’t enter into an unlawful group boycott of Zillow with Compass
- The court made no claims about Zillow’s listing access standards being anticompetitive
- No final ruling has been made, and the court directed the parties to pursue arbitration
The Chicago dispute goes back to May 2026, when MRED cut off its listing feed to Zillow for a stretch. Before the cutoff, Zillow promoted a workaround that let agents and brokers submit listings to the portal on their own.
The fight has spread to New York City, where Compass is based. Zillow owns StreetEasy, the metro’s leading home search portal, and StreetEasy is rolling out new rules meant to curb selectively marketed listings.
In response, Compass offered a $1,000 digital marketing package to New York City agents who pulled their active and in-contract listings off StreetEasy.
NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy is another front. The policy requires listings to go into the MLS within one business day of public marketing. Reffkin told NAR and MLS leaders in July 2025 that Compass wouldn’t treat Clear Cooperation or any other national NAR MLS rule as binding.
In March 2026, Compass, Redfin, and Rocket Companies followed up with an open letter pledging to defend agents who face MLS penalties for carrying out seller-directed marketing strategies.
What to Watch as See It First Rolls Out
See It First gives buyers a new place to look for homes earlier in the marketing process, and Compass is spending millions to make sure they know about it.
Several open questions will shape how the feature affects agents on both sides of a deal:
- Whether Private Exclusives become viewable on Compass.com without registration
- How arbitration plays out in Zillow’s case against MRED
- Any changes Zillow makes to its listing access standards
- Where the StreetEasy standoff goes in New York
- Whether Compass’s 56% traffic growth figure gets independent verification
Agents who want to know what their buyers will find on Compass.com can search the site the way a consumer would.
