What sellers need to know in 2026
Is a "Private Exclusive" listing the best option?
“Exclusive,” “pre-marketing,” and “private” listings are recent buzz words flying around the real estate industry. Every broker, organization, and pundit in the industry has their own spin. My goal with this post is to help sellers understand the choices available to them as they consider how to market their home. It begins with an explanation of how the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) functions, then discusses one company’s attempt to break it.
The beauty of the MLS
Here’s a succinct explanation about the MLS from an article in Real Estate News, April 7, 2026. I’ve bolded a few phrases for emphasis:
Decades ago, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) was created to streamline the industry — providing buyers with access to available homes and ensuring sellers could reach the widest possible audience. This created the organized real estate industry that we know today in the U.S., in contrast to other parts of the world without a comparable system, where listings are often shared through word-of-mouth and yard signs.
Though it may not be perfect, this structure is fundamentally pro-consumer and pro-competition.
The National Association of Realtors’ MLS Clear Cooperation Policy reinforced that principle by requiring listings to be submitted to the MLS shortly after public marketing begins. The intent is simple: Maintain transparency and equal access across the market. While there are valid perspectives on both sides, maintaining centralized access to available homes remains essential to an organized real estate market.
Sellers, the more buyers who have access to your listing, the more showings and offers you will have, up front when it matters.
The MLS promotes a herd mentality that helps sellers: When buyers see en masse a hot, new listing, a frenzy and multiple-offer situation can result. With years of sustained low inventory across the country, bidding wars happen more often than buyers would like. (Right now on O’ahu, this is true for many single-family homes, but buyer demand continues to be slow for condos and townhomes with HOA fees.)
Sellers: Buyer frenzy is your friend
Buyers in serious search mode get alerts and pings from real estate websites and apps constantly. The impact of a new listing hitting all the real estate websites simultaneously (via their feed from the MLS) is immeasurable. As an agent, I have experienced multiple buyers texting me almost in unison after a particularly attractive and well-priced home hits the market.
Multiple, competing offers are a seller’s dream and a listing agent’s goal. Offer deadlines within the first week or two for the hottest listings are designed to generate the highest and best offer. Sellers are assured of seeing the full and true buyer demand and the highest market value for their home.
Sellers can enjoy this unified response and strong momentum only once: on Day One when your listing launches to 100% of buyers and buyer agents.
For decades, the MLS has been working as it was designed to be a fair, central database. But this system is being challenged by a relatively newer brokerage named Compass. Formed in 2012 with one office in Manhattan, Compass has since aggressively acquired other brokerages and teams to become the largest U.S. residential realty company in 2026 (by transaction volume).
Breaking down the Compass pitch
In late 2024, Compass rolled out their “3-phased marketing strategy” which is at the center of the current controversy:
1st phase: Compass “Private Exclusive” listings are shown only to buyers working with a Compass agent. (The public can also see the listings if they walk into a Compass sales office and start a relationship with a Compass agent.) Compass tells sellers they have a choice. They hype benefits such as more privacy and less traffic through their home, all without having to show the listing’s days on market. Their website even touts that buyers will pay more for the “privilege” of being able to make an early offer.
2nd phase: If it hasn’t sold, the listing is marketed next on Compass.com (and more recently, on Redfin.com) as “Coming Soon.” Buyers are still directed to the Compass agent (not their Redfin agent), along with the lure of a discount off their mortgage from Rocket Mortgage, who bought Redfin in 2025.
3rd phase: If it hasn’t sold, the listing is put on the local MLS and syndicated to all other real estate websites, agents, and buyers.
In the first phase, if a buyer only gets to see a Compass Private Exclusive listing by working with a Compass agent for the “privilege” of making an early offer, who wins? That would be Compass—times two, possibly getting “both sides” of the deal. Who loses? Firstly, Compass sellers—who will never know if they could have gotten a higher offer if their listing was more widely marketed. Compass buyers also might lose, possibly feeling pressured to pay top dollar for the “privilege” of getting first crack at a listing—even when there aren’t any other competing buyers.
But don’t just take my word for it
One of the largest MLSs in the country, the Northwest MLS, moved to prohibit this kind of pre-marketing, which drew the ire of a Compass lawsuit in April 2025. NWMLS countersued that Compass’ 3-phased marketing strategy is a “deceptive scheme” designed to conceal data from the public at large.
The Washington state legislature seems to have sided with NWMLS: they passed a law on June 11, 2026 which prohibits “marketing residential properties to an exclusive group of prospective buyers or real estate brokers, unless the residential property is also concurrently marketed to the general public and other real estate brokers.” Connecticut was the first state to pass a bill supporting listings being publicly and widely available; New York is moving a similar bill through their legislature.
Sellers have always had choices
The MLSs have always had an option for sellers whose circumstances warrant a more private listing. These are called “exempted” listings and the seller and agent sign a form to notify the MLS not to publish it. These are mostly used when the seller has found a buyer on their own: for example, the current tenant wants to buy the property.
Compass has their own consent form sellers can sign in order to participate in the 3-phased marketing program. Not all Compass sellers sign—nor do they have to. A Compass seller could instead start with the Coming Soon phase 2, or the tried-and-true MLS phase 3.
Most if not all MLSs also offer a Coming Soon status. Compass sellers: Do you want your Coming Soon listing visible only on Compass.com and Redfin.com? Or do you want it visible to ALL brokers and buyers? You can insist that your Coming Soon listing will be visible to all via the MLS, and not just on Compass.com and Redfin.com.
Perhaps Compass aims to attract sellers who want to think of their listing (and maybe themselves) as exclusive. We see this aspiration in our country; to each their own. Compass also targets sellers who want to “test” the market—maybe with a high list price, or to see if it’s the right time to sell at all. Again, with only a limited audience, can this be a true test? The buyer pool able to see Compass Private Exclusive listings is just a fraction of all buyers and agents in the market; sellers won’t see the full potential demand and offers until phase three.
Compass’ ultimate goal?
Compass initially recruited top agents and teams with lucrative signing bonuses. These top agents and teams are a big part of Compass’ rise to the top of brokerage rankings, which in turn helps the company recruit more agents. The 3-phased marketing is another strategy to grow their agent rolls—this, after all, is how a brokerage truly makes money. They entice buyer agents to join Compass so their buyers will have access to the Private Exclusive listings. They entice listing agents to come so they can take advantage of the 3-phased marketing strategy.
I left a large, national corporation and now work for a small, local brokerage that supports me as I run my real estate business how God calls me: people over profits. Some may view this post as a sorry rant from a competitor, sore about how the industry is changing. I think the intense, national scrutiny of Compass proves I am not the only one trying to stand up for fairness and equal access in the industry.
I don’t mean any disrespect or have anything against any individual Compass agent—some of my closest friends are Compass agents; I’ve had successful transactions with Compass agents and their clients. In fact, not all Compass agents agree with the 3-phased marketing strategy, as shown in interviews with Compass agents in a Real Estate News article from September 11, 2025.
Especially in Hawaii, our clients don’t necessarily choose an agent because of which company we work for. When I moved from Locations (a large local, independent brokerage), to Redfin, and now to 20 Degrees North, my clients have stayed loyal to me, I hope because they trust I am working hard for their best interests. That’s ultimately the guiding principle for us agents:
How can listing agents (even at Compass) advise and act in the best interests of our sellers?
I welcome comments and messages. Blessings, Ali