I want to walk you through something significant that just happened up in the Pacific Northwest, because it's going to ripple down here and affect how we do business. According to HousingWire, Northwest MLS and Compass settled an antitrust dispute, and as a result, NWMLS is rolling out a new listing status called "First Look." This is essentially a coming soon listing option that lets sellers market their properties publicly before they officially go active, while still keeping those homes available to all MLS members. For a broker-owned MLS that had never allowed this kind of thing before, it's a pretty big shift.
What makes this interesting is the context behind it. Compass sued NWMLS back in April because the MLS didn't allow office exclusive listings, which prevented Compass from using their three-phase marketing strategy. They start homes as private exclusives, move them to coming soon, and eventually list them as active. The settlement essentially gives Compass what they wanted on the coming soon side while eliminating the private exclusive piece from being off the MLS entirely.
Industry experts are pointing out something telling in the data. According to the reporting, Compass's private exclusive listings are down significantly year over year, while their coming soon listings have surged. Commentators believe this signals that Compass's real strategy is actually shifting away from private exclusives and toward coming soon listings instead. One analyst quoted in the piece suggested the private exclusive model is fading away.
The bigger picture here is what this settlement might mean for other MLSs around the country. Several industry observers think this NWMLS agreement will become a template. They expect other MLSs that have been holding out against coming soon policies will start adopting them. There's also the matter of Compass's public statements and a recent letter from Compass, Rocket, and Redfin pushing MLSs to allow pre-marketing and phased distribution strategies. The messaging from these companies is clear: they want sellers to have more options, and they're willing to fight for it legally if necessary.
What I'm seeing locally in the Bay Area and East Bay is that these national fights eventually make their way to our MLS. When a major brokerage like Compass pushes this hard and gets results out in Seattle, other regions take notice. My sense is that coming soon listings are going to become more standardized across California MLSs if they aren't already. For sellers, this could mean more flexibility in how and when they bring properties to market. For buyers and their agents, it means staying even more plugged in to understand what's truly available versus what's still in presale phase.
