Compass’ Reffkin sees Clear Cooperation fight as choice vs. control

“This is nothing new, though. I am sure you have heard noise over the years,” he said. “Raise your hand if when Compass came to your market, you heard people say Compass would fail. That’s noise!”

In the past, the “noise” surrounding Compass included criticisms of its technology and its lack of profitability, but much of today’s noise is related to Compass’ three-phase marketing plan, and the firm’s strong stance against the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP).

“Now, the noise isn’t just coming from brokerage CEOs, it’s coming from organized real estate, which is NAR, the 500+ MLSs that NAR owns 80% of, and portals,” Reffkin said. “Organized real estate benefits from controlling your inventory. If they don’t have your inventory, it puts their business model at risk. This is the most important moment in real estate history. This is about choice vs. control.”

Compass’ two goals

As Reffkin looks to the future, he said he has two goals in mind: allowing home sellers “to have the choice of when, where and how their homes are marketed,” and getting agents’ names and branding back on their listings. 

“That should not be hard, but it is because it threatens organized real estate,” he said. “Organized real estate is trying to end the Compass three-phased marketing strategy. But I’m not going to let that happen.”

To illustrate how the three-phase marketing plan is helping agents, Reffkin highlighted the story of Esteban Gomez, a Compass agent in Tribeca, New York, who recently set a price record for Tribeca. 

According to Reffkin, Gomez and his clients decided to use Compass Private Exclusives to test this record price. They used the Network Tool on Compass’ platform to send the listing to the top-50 agents across a variety of firms who serve clients in Tribeca. 

“When I was leaving, I saw three agents from three different firms with their clients – everyone was waiting for their turn to get into the listing,” Reffkin said. “Esteban got an at-ask offer and set a new price record in Tribeca and the buyers even paid the transfer tax because he told the buyer that if they didn’t pay that tax, then he’d put the listing on the MLS. He created tension, scarcity. That’s marketing.

“Now think about that. Organized real estate is telling you that you can’t do this, but Esteban could not have set a new price record without this,” Reffkin continued. “The irony here is that everything Esteban did that his clients said made him look like a magician, organized real estate are trying to stop. Why? Because he was successful outside of the MLS and portals. Their ‘mandatory’ rules are interfering with your relationship with your client and they don’t want you to do things outside of their platforms.”

Standing up for agents

According to Reffkin, Compass’s three-phase marketing plan is simply just another tool he and his firm are offering agents, like Compass Concierge, Likely to Sell, coaching programs and in-office support. 

“When we identify the things that help give you an edge and help you win, we have a responsibility to make them better and better and better. Because if we are not doing that, then what are we doing?” he said. “So when people are trying to get rid of your edge, I have a responsibility to push back aggressively and ensure that doesn’t happen.”

Reffkin recommended that agents just ignore the “noise,” claiming that the good news was that “truth is on [their] side.”

“If you want to stand up for your industry, I want to make sure you are fully prepared to speak to your clients about the choices they have when it comes to pre-marketing their property. You should be able to offer your clients choice,” he said. “I am not against clients putting their listings on the MLS or any portal. I fully support it. I just want you and them to have the choice to do that and not be forced to do it.”

Reffkin added that he plans on continuing to push NAR and the MLSs to “stop taking the billions of dollars of dues and fines you pay every year and use those funds to restrict and limit you, but rather support you.” He also plans on continuing to push portals to put agents’ names back on their listings and to be partners to agents, “not companies that use [their] data and listing to further their financial goals.” 

“I am confident this will happen. I am confident because when in a debate of choice vs. control, choice will always win,” he said. “But this will take time – it won’t happen overnight. We are pushing for change against a very large and powerful group of organizations.”

Compass continues to bet big on tech

In addition to discussing Compass’s crusade against CCP, Reffkin also highlighted the firm’s technological advancements, noting that the company continues to invest over $100 million in technology every year. Compass’s latest venture is Compass AI. 

“Imagine you just finished meeting a new prospective buyer. You are in between appointments in your car and can’t wait until you are back in your office. What about if you could just tell the Compass AI what you need it to do and it does it for you,” he said.

Some of Compass AI’s core functionalities include building comparative market analyses, creating marketing collateral and creating a list of past clients searching for listings who the agent hasn’t reached out to.

“Our entire team is fully focused on harnessing the power of this amazing technology to give you an edge that was unimaginable just a few years ago!” Reffkin said. “We’re going to launch next month to some beta testers and then to the rest of the company later this year.”