A top Senate Democrat has expressed concerns that brokerage giant Compass Inc.’s private listings network could create a “two-tiered housing market” that “increases risks of civil rights violations” in a letter to the company’s CEO, Realtor.com® can exclusively reveal.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, on Thursday sent a letter to Compass CEO Robert Reffkin and Rebecca Jensen, CEO of Midwest Real Estate Data, requesting information about their recent partnership to create a national database of private listings.
“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,” Warren wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Realtor.com. “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.”
In April, Compass and MRED, the multiple listing service for the Chicago area, announced a deal to distribute Compass Private Exclusives listings nationwide through the MRED database, which has historically operated only as a regional service. Such private listings are not easily visible to the public online, and are instead primarily marketed to clients within the network.
Warren in her letter raised concerns that the Compass deal with MRED “increases risks of civil rights violations,” including violations of the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing transactions.
“I am particularly concerned that the non-public, exclusive nature of private listings may perpetuate housing discrimination through residential steering that is prohibited under the FHAct and other civil rights laws, also making potential discrimination harder to detect,” she wrote, referring to the illegal practice of “steering” homebuyers toward certain neighborhood based on their race or other protected characteristics.
In the nine-page letter, Warren requested details on how the companies would “mitigate the potential harms” of their partnership. The letter asks the CEOs to explain details of the partnership and how the companies analyzed any fair housing or antitrust concerns.
Warren’s request comes just weeks after the top Republican on the House’s antitrust subcommittee made a similar request and sought a hearing with the companies, making concern over private listings now a rare bipartisan issue in Congress.
In a statement to Realtor.com, MRED said that it looked forward to dialogue with Warren about the issues raised in her letter.
“It would be an honor to speak with Senator Warren and explain the important role of the MLS in the Real Estate marketplace,” the statement said. “Issues such as fair housing, data quality, and rules are critical to any MLS. We look forward to discussing MRED’s value with her.”
A Compass spokesperson declined to comment when reached by Realtor.com.
Private listings under scrutiny
Compass, the world’s largest residential real estate broker, has focused its business strategy heavily on private listings, which it calls Private Exclusives. These are homes for sale that are primarily marketed to the company’s own network of agents and clients, before they are easily visible to the wider public online.
Compass says its Private Exclusives offer sellers more privacy and control over their listings than traditional marketing through multiple listing services, which make listings available to any real estate agent or broker who subscribes. But critics of the practice argue that private listings offer few benefits to sellers, and may hide valuable market information from homebuyers who are not privy to the network.
In her letter, Warren also argued that private listings “have the potential to obscure key data typically used to negotiate home prices, like the number of days on the market or price change history”—information that is typically required by an MLS, but often absent from a private listing.
“Hiding this data could destabilize the broader housing market,” the senator wrote, noting that the mortgage market relies on complete and accurate listing history information to inform appraisals and other aspects of the home purchase process.
Warren also raised concerns about Compass’ acquisition of major rival Anywhere Real Estate last year.
Although the merger sailed through federal antitrust review under the Trump administration, it is currently under investigation for potential violations of antitrust law by the New York State Attorney General’s Office, Realtor.com confirmed in June.
Warren in her letter alleged that “the Trump administration rubber stamped the merger, increasing the ongoing antitrust concerns with Compass’ behavior.
“The Compass-MRED partnership threatens to intensify Compass’s market control and reduce
market transparency, leading to potential violations of antitrust laws and increased housing costs,” Warren wrote.
Compass’ private listings partnership with MRED has now drawn bipartisan scrutiny. In a similar letter to the two companies in July, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust, wrote the partnership may “incentivize brokers to push sellers into private listings.”
Several states have moved to limit or restrict private listings. Washington state and Connecticut both signed restrictions this year. The New York General Assembly has passed a bill with similar restrictions, but it has not yet been sent to the governor for her signature.
In an earnings call on Tuesday night, Reffkin defended the MRED partnership. He called the current system a “monopoly” because typically there is only one MLS serving a specific area.
“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,” he said.
Ongoing legal dispute
Shortly after Compass and MRED launched their private listings network, real estate portal Zillow Inc. informed MRED it would not display some of those listings if they were later added to the MLS. In response, MRED cut Zillow off, saying the company’s actions violated its license agreements.
This temporarily took a large number of Chicago-area listings off the Zillow website. Zillow then sued the two companies alleging antitrust violations, a suit which is still ongoing.
Zillow’s complaint alleges Compass and MRED “are colluding to hide home listings from buyers—and conspired to punish Zillow for not going along with it.”
Compass and MRED deny those claims and are fighting the lawsuit in court.
The Consumer Federation of America and the Urban League in April published a report critical of pocket listings. Then, CFA requested the Department of Justice investigate the deal.
“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,” Sharon Cornelissen, director of housing for CFA, told Realtor.com. “As a buyer, I might not even find out about houses for sale and that affects my opportunities.”
In 2025, Bright MLS, a multiple listing service covering the mid-Atlantic region, found that private listings take longer to sell and offer no price benefits to the seller.
Zillow found something similar in its own research. (Realtor.com recently struck an agreement with Zillow to show preview listings from brokers who participate in Zillow’s preview program, in an effort to boost market transparency.)
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