A growing controversy is sweeping the U.S. real estate industry as the practice of “hidden listings” gains traction among major brokerages, threatening the transparency that has long been a hallmark of the American homebuying process. At the center of the debate is Compass, the country’s largest real estate brokerage by sales volume, which has adopted a strategy of offering certain properties first to select clients through pre-marketing rather than immediately posting them on public platforms like Zillow or Realtor.com.
This approach, sometimes framed as “exclusive previews” or “coming soon” marketing, gives early access to potential buyers within a brokerage’s own network before a property appears on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). While proponents argue that it allows sellers to test pricing and generate targeted interest, critics see it as undermining the MLS system, which for decades has operated as a centralized database ensuring equal access to listings for all qualified buyers.
Zillow, one of the nation’s largest online real estate marketplaces, has responded aggressively to the shift. The company has begun penalizing listings that are not shared promptly on its platform, reducing their visibility and, in some cases, withholding promotional tools available to fully public listings. In a major escalation, Zillow filed an antitrust lawsuit against Compass earlier this month, alleging that the brokerage’s practices create an unfair competitive environment and disadvantage both buyers and smaller brokerages unable to offer comparable early-access programs.
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The implications for the real estate market are significant. The MLS system, long considered a global model for transparency and fairness, operates on the principle that all participating agents share their listings openly, ensuring that buyers and sellers benefit from the widest possible exposure. If hidden listings become more common, industry analysts warn, the market could splinter into closed networks where only insiders gain access to the best opportunities, leaving the average homebuyer at a disadvantage.
Real estate professionals are split on the issue. Advocates for open sharing argue that withholding listings—even temporarily—tilts the playing field toward well-connected buyers and erodes public trust in the market. They point to the fact that first-time buyers, who often rely on online portals to find properties, could be shut out from prime listings entirely if they are sold during the exclusive preview phase. On the other side, some brokers defend the practice as a competitive tool in a fast-moving market, claiming it can reduce the stress on sellers by limiting public showings and preventing speculative bidding before a property is officially listed.
This debate reflects a broader tension in the real estate industry between innovation and openness. Technology has allowed brokerages to create private, curated marketplaces for their own clients, but these advancements can come at the cost of transparency and equitable access. For decades, federal regulators and industry trade groups have supported the MLS as a safeguard against discriminatory or exclusionary practices. The rise of hidden listings could undermine those safeguards if the trend is left unchecked.
Some experts are calling for tighter industry rules to prevent selective disclosure of listings, while others suggest that the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission may eventually need to step in to ensure fair competition. In the meantime, homebuyers are being urged to work closely with agents who have deep networks and are aware of off-market opportunities, in order to avoid missing out on properties that never make it to public databases.
With lawsuits pending and industry groups weighing in, the outcome of this dispute could reshape how Americans buy and sell homes in the years ahead. Whether hidden listings become a permanent fixture or are reined in by regulation, the battle over transparency is set to define the next chapter in the evolution of the U.S. real estate market.
