Compass Reportedly Advises NYC Agents to Pull Listings from StreetEasy

The Real Deal has reported that executives at Compass have lobbied top agents in New York City to temporarily remove their listings from Zillow's New York City specialist portal, StreetEasy.

Sources within Compass told The Real Deal that Compass CEO Robert Reffkin and other brokerage chiefs suggested that agents should pull together in August by removing properties from the portal to maintain greater control over their hard-earned listings.

The Real Deal also saw a marketing playbook sent via email to Compass agents, with the first step of a refreshed listings strategy being "Delist from StreetEasy".

However, Compass agent Leonard Steinberg told agents he pulls listings from StreetEasy in August because it is a slow month for sales in New York, and that's "what the sellers want to do."

A Compass spokesperson said, "We believe agents have a fiduciary duty to represent their clients’ best interest, and that providing sellers with choices on how to market their properties helps them achieve their individual goals."

A spokesperson for StreetEasy told The Real Deal that "New Yorkers deserve better", saying, "This is the Compass playbook: pull listings from open platforms, consolidate buyers into their own channels, and call it seller choice."

Zillow and Compass are in an ongoing legal dispute that recently saw the portal operator sue Compass for alleged collusion with the Chicagoland MLS, MRED. Zillow's complaint argued that Compass and MRED violated antitrust legislation by "conspiring to threaten to cut off Zillow's access to all listings in a naked effort to coerce their competitors to abandon pro-transparency policies."

MRED had taken a stand against Zillow's Listing Access Standards guidelines that threaten to ban listings from appearing on Zillow if they are not uploaded to an MLS within a given timeframe from winning a listing.

Zillow has argued that its guidelines are for the betterment of the market, giving maximum visibility to the maximum number of listings, while Compass has continued to argue that Zillow is using its dominant market position to bully agents into handing over their prized listings.

Compass had originally sued Zillow, alleging abuse of monopoly, in June this year before withdrawing the lawsuit after Zillow agreed to drop the controversial listings ban.