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With the fate of NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy hanging in the balance, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin on Wednesday argued that those fighting to keep the rule are financially motivated, criticized what he characterized as monopolistic industry rules and said he wants agents’ names on their listings.
Reffkin made the comments while on stage at Inman on Tour Nashville. The session began with moderator and Inman founder Brad Inman asking about Clear Cooperation, a National Association of Realtors rule that requires agents to put their listings into their MLS within a day of marketing the property. Reffkin has become a vocal critic of the rule in recent months.
Reffkin replied that agents are the “cheapest creators of content in the world,” and that they “pay the [multiple listing service] to take your content.”
“And then the MLS’s sell it multiple times over,” he continued. A moment later he wondered aloud why agents can’t watermark their own photos or take other liberties with the content they create. “You get the listing. You pay for the photos. You take the photos. And then the MLS, in the agreement that every brokerage firm has to sign, they legally own your content afterward. We have no choice. And the definition of monopoly is you have no choice.”
Reffkin reiterated the point a moment later: “There is no brokerage firm that’s a monopoly. You can all work at thousands of other places. The only thing where you have no choice is the MLS.”
The comments are in line with the broader argument that Reffkin has mounted in recent months. His criticism of Clear Cooperation is that, among other things, it takes away the ability of homesellers and their agents to market properties as they see fit.
“Cooperation was designed decades ago to allow me as an agent to collaborate with an agent in another company,” Reffkin added at another point. “But now you’re forced, every one of you, any time you collaborate with an agent, you’re forced to collaborate with portals — companies that don’t have agents, don’t have listings, and don’t have clients.”
Later in the session, Reffkin reiterated other complaints he’s previously expressed about Clear Cooperation, including that the current status quo attaches metrics such as days on market and price drops — which Reffkin has previously described as “negative insights” — to listings.
Portals such as Zillow additionally came up more than once Wednesday, with Reffkin saying at another point that his “goal is to get your name and contact information back on your listings on Zillow. And not in a hidden place where no one can see it. That’s my goal.”
That concept sounds similar to the pitch CoStar is making with its Homes.com portal, which is being marketed to agents with the tagline “your listing, your lead.” Reffkin previously praised Homes.com at Inman Connect New York in 2024.
Portals were also a focus of a recent proposal from the American Real Estate Association — a NAR rival — that last week suggested replacing Clear Cooperation with a new policy that wouldn’t lead to automatic syndication of listings to consumer-facing search sites.
Brad Inman, left, and Robert Reffkin at Inman on Tour Nashville Wednesday. Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services
Also Wednesday, Reffkin told Inman on Tour Nashville attendees that the U.S. Department of Justice believes Clear Cooperation “restricts homeseller choices” and “prevents competition from listing systems.” And despite being billed as a pocket listing ban, Reffkin believes the policy creates pocket listings, saying “it’s a rule that says any listing that is off the MLS must be a pocket.”
Reffkin also criticized the push from some factions in the industry to keep Clear Cooperation.
“It’s all financially motivated,” he said of support for Clear Cooperation, adding that the rule was created to protect NAR and the money it brings in.
Reffkin later discussed recent mergers and acquisitions. Compass itself kicked off a recent bout of mega deals late last year when it bought @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, and the trend continued this month when a private equity firm bought part of Keller Williams and when Rocket announced plans to buy Redfin.
Speaking generally of the deals, Reffkin said that times are tough for brokerage CEOs and that “there’s going to be a lot of mergers.”
But he also said that what’s going on in the M&A story is a race to get more data, with Reffkin adding that “data is the new oil.” He went on to note that the private equity company that bought a piece of Keller Williams, Stone Point Capital, also owns CoreLogic, which makes Matrix, a software used by “80 percent of the MLSs.” And Stone Point also owns real estate software company Lone Wolf.
Reffkin went on to argue that Clear Cooperation is also about control of data.
“The ones that sell houses,” he said, “not only do they have to be more mindful of what’s going on with their data, but it’s time that alternative networks are formed that provide competition to Zillow, and also to the MLSs.”
The comments all came the same day Inman reported that NAR is nearing a decision on Clear Cooperation. At the same time, attorney Michael Ketchmark — who has litigated the highest profile antitrust commission lawsuits against NAR and others — has threatened to depose NAR leaders if they vote to keep the rule in place. While the outcome of that process remains to be seen, Reffkin ultimately floated the possibility during his session of a new type of MLS in the future.
“I do think what will happen, if I had to guess, I think there will become a national MLS,” he said, “or a bigger MLS, and it’ll feel more like a normal company, not one ruled by these mandatory rules created by a trade group.”
Update: Two quotes in this story were updated after publication with additional commentary Reffkin provided after his session.
