Home customers scrolling via actual property search engines like google and yahoo like Zillow or Redfin this spring might discover some uncommon listings: houses labeled “Coming Soon” or “Preview.”
They appear to be common listings, with property photographs and neighborhood particulars – however one key characteristic is lacking: gross sales historical past, the info consumers use to see how lengthy a house has been on the market or whether or not its worth has been lower. The houses can nonetheless be bought, though they haven’t but formally hit the market.
The new itemizing format is the brainchild of Robert Reffkin, the co-founder and chief govt of Compass. For almost two years, Reffkin has pushed selling new listings on-line earlier than houses are technically on the market – a observe generally known as pre-marketing – and different actual property corporations are starting to observe his lead.
Reffkin, who oversees the world’s largest actual property brokerage, is reshaping how houses are offered. Supporters say “Coming Soon” listings give sellers and actual property brokers extra management over how properties are marketed. Critics warn the method might splinter the housing market, making it more durable for consumers to know what houses are actually price; sellers might additionally wrestle to check demand and get high greenback, they argue.
Traditional listings usually present a house’s worth historical past and the way lengthy it has been on the market — info pulled from native Multiple Listing Services, the databases actual property brokers use to share properties on the market. Reffkin has known as that file a “killer of value,” arguing that consumers typically deal with that data as an invite to barter a cheaper price.
“I believe buyers have the right to know what attributes of the house are real and accurate. I don’t believe buyers have the right to know days on market and price drop history,” Reffkin mentioned in an interview with NCS. “You can’t buy days on market and you can’t buy price drop history. You buy the attributes of the house.”
Reffkin’s technique is rippling throughout the business. Zillow as soon as tried to dam pre-market listings from its platform. Now Zillow has its personal characteristic showcasing houses earlier than they formally hit the market. Rival brokerages are experimenting with related techniques.
In February, Redfin additionally partnered with Compass to completely showcase the brokerage’s “Coming Soon” listings. Varun Krishna, the interim CEO of Redfin, advised NCS that he sees the partnership and Compass’s embrace of pre-marketed listings as a way to revive the nation’s stalled housing market, which has been hampered by scarce stock and excessive mortgage charges.
“No one can say that what’s happening today is working. It’s just not,” Krishna mentioned. “There is a housing crisis today. We have no buyers, we have no sellers, and someone has got to do something to unlock that.”
Reffkin calls Compass’s signature advertising method the “3-Phase Marketing Strategy.” Instead of itemizing a house in all places without delay, Compass encourages brokers to roll out listings steadily: first privately to a small community of brokers and consumers, known as a “private exclusive,” then as “coming soon” listings on-line, and at last as conventional public listings throughout actual property platforms.
“If buyers deserve to know days on market and price drop history, then sellers deserve to know how long the buyer has been searching on the portals and MLS, and how many offers they put in that fell through,” Reffkin mentioned.
Many in the actual property business initially balked at Compass’s advertising technique. The methodology breaks with the long-standing norm that if a house is marketed anyplace, it ought to concurrently be marketed in all places. Critics say the system might unfairly push dwelling sellers to make offers with consumers represented by different Compass brokers, leading to the brokerage amassing fee from each side of the transaction. Compass denies that declare.
Pre-marketing might attraction to sellers who wish to keep away from open homes and foot site visitors, however it comes at the price of broad publicity and will drawback consumers, mentioned Tanya Monestier, a professor of legislation at the University of Buffalo School of Law.
“We’ve had this really open system, and now it may become a system where you almost have to check individual brokerage websites to see listings,” Monestier mentioned. “A buyer would have to know to that, but no one even knows this is happening.”
Regardless of the criticism, Compass’s method to advertising houses, together with its push for “coming soon” listings, carries much more weight now that the brokerage has expanded dramatically.
In January, the firm introduced the largest acquisition of Reffkin’s profession: Anywhere Real Estate, the mother or father firm of main brokerage manufacturers together with Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Sotheby’s International Realty and Corcoran. The $1.6 billion all-stock deal created a brokerage with roughly 340,000 brokers throughout 120 international locations.
Despite a struggling actual property business, Compass reported a file $7 billion in income final yr, earlier than the acquisition closed. Meanwhile, US dwelling gross sales in 2025 remained at a 30-year low.
Pre-marketing combat lands in courtroom
The fiercest pushback to Compass’s advertising technique got here from Zillow, the nation’s largest home-search platform. Last yr, the firm mentioned it will cease displaying listings that appeared on completely Compass’s web site in the “private exclusive” or “coming soon” part for greater than 24 hours, in the identify of transparency for consumers. Redfin, then beneath a special chief govt, quickly adopted with an analogous rule.
Compass sued Zillow, accusing the firm of attempting to crush competitors in the home-search market. But in February, a decide declined Compass’s request to dam the coverage whereas the swimsuit performed out, saying Compass didn’t present it was more likely to win its antitrust claims.
At the identical time, a wave of consolidation was reshaping the actual property business. Last summer season, Rocket Companies, one in all the largest retail mortgage lenders in the US, purchased Redfin in a $1.75 billion all-stock deal. Then Compass purchased Anywhere.
As a part of Redfin’s partnership with Compass, Rocket pays Compass to combine its mortgage utility course of into Compass’s expertise.
“This isn’t really a change. I would call it an evolution,” Krishna mentioned of Redfin’s embrace of Compass’s advertising technique after the Rocket acquisition. “We have an inventory crisis, and if you don’t create more inventory, somehow, some way, nothing changes.”
Reffkin was raised in Berkeley, California, by a single mom who labored as an actual property agent. He has mentioned that watching her profession helped inform his philosophy at Compass, which he based in 2012.
“The secret to Compass’s success is knowing that the real estate agent is the client,” Reffkin advised NCS.
Even a few of Reffkin’s former critics have taken notice. Leo Pareja, the CEO of eXp Realty, one other of the nation’s largest brokerages, was a vocal opponent of personal and pre-market listings – however in March, eXp introduced that it will syndicate “coming soon” listings to a few actual property search portals: Realtor.com, Homes.com and ComeHome.com.
“If a portion of inventory is removed and only shown to a small group of people, by definition, that’s an exclusionary behavior that’s going to hurt others,” Pareja advised NCS final yr.
Zillow has shifted its technique, as properly, just lately announcing “Zillow Preview,” completely that includes pre-market dwelling listings from greater than two dozen associate brokerages, together with Keller Williams and REMAX.
Compass dropped the lawsuit this spring after Zillow started permitting premarket listings on its web site. Compass known as it a victory.
Still, in a press release, Zillow mentioned it stays skeptical of personal listings that may solely be considered by choose folks.
“The underlying issue remains: Private listing networks are not in the best interests of consumers, and they never have been,” an organization spokesperson mentioned. “Restricting listings to hidden networks limits transparency, disadvantages buyers and sellers and undermines fair access to real estate information which is so critical in this housing affordability crisis.”
Critics agree.
“This is nothing more than companies trying to make more money under the guise of seller choice,” James Dwiggins, the CEO of actual property brokerage SubsequentHome, advised NCS. Dwiggins has been vocal about his opposition to the push to decentralize listings.
“I don’t know how limited exposure in a market where there’s already few buyers is a benefit to the seller,” he added.