Compass declared victory in Washington on Monday, as it announced it had reached a settlement agreement with the region’s multiple listing service that will allow agents to market coming-soon listings for the first time.
The settlement agreement comes in the case Compass filed against the Northwest MLS (NWMLS) in April 2025, shortly after the brokerage briefly lost its access to the MLS data feed when a dispute over coming-soon listings boiled over.
The agreement is the latest major policy change by an MLS in response to action by Compass, the megabrokerage that has sought to use its massive size to shape the real estate policies governing the industry into a mold that more closely aligns with its goals.
The full details of the agreement weren’t immediately available and haven’t yet been filed in court. A summary was provided by Compass, whose CEO Robert Reffkin said the company had achieved all of its goals in filing the lawsuit last year.
“Our original objective in taking legal action against the NWMLS has been fully realized,” said Robert Reffkin, Chairman and CEO of Compass International Holdings. “Ultimately, we achieved what we set out to accomplish, securing vital protections for both homesellers and their real estate brokers.”
Compass has long considered NWMLS to be the most restrictive MLS in the country, in large part because it was the only MLS that didn’t allow for pre-marketing real estate listings. Some of that will change under the settlement agreement, starting Friday.
On Sept. 4, NWMLS will roll out a “First Look” status, during which agents can market properties as coming-soon listings. During that phase, listings won’t accrue days on market or changes in price, both of which Reffkin has historically called “negative insights” that hurt a property’s attractiveness to buyers.
NWMLS said that “First Look” listings will be required to be submitted to the MLS and available to its more than 30,000 members in a timely manner, a provision the MLS said would prevent off-MLS “shadow” networks.
“First Look” listings can be publicly marketed in that status for up to 21 days, and sellers can decide whether those listings are distributed via IDX websites while in that status, NWMLS said.
Meanwhile, the MLS will retain the data around how long listings were kept in “First Look” status.
The Compass statement said that real estate search portals like Zillow won’t be able to divert buyer inquiries away from the listing’s broker. Sellers can decide whether showings and open houses are allowed during the “First Look” phase and whether offers can be accepted.
This will be the first time NWMLS has allowed for a coming-soon listing under its rules.
“Coming soon is arguably a misrepresentation because you’re telling consumers that this house is coming soon to the market when really you can buy it today,” NWMLS CEO Justin Haag told Inman earlier this year. “So it’s not coming soon. It’s already for sale.”
In a statement shared on Monday, Haag said that the updates are in line with the MLS’s efforts to continuously update its rules to meet consumer needs.
“We are giving sellers the flexibility they desire when preparing a home for market, while steadfastly protecting buyers from private networks,” Haag said. “Simply put, First Look modernizes the pre-launch preparation process, while ensuring an open marketplace and fair competition, in full compliance with Washington State’s open-market laws.”
Among other changes:
- By Oct. 15, NWMLS will require all portals and other real estate websites that use the NWMLS data feed to prominently display the name and contact information of listing agents, “using a font and color that are as prominent as any call to action or contact broker buttons, and adjacent to any contact broker button.”
- By Oct. 15, NWMLS will stop adding a watermark to listing photos.
- By Nov. 15, “NWMLS will give broker platforms the data fields and supplements that are relevant for brokers to do their jobs (eg, Legal, Firpta, 22k, 22j, Prelim, Surveys/maps, Resale cert), unless legally prohibited. That means brokers will no longer need to access multiple systems to do their jobs.”
“Compass proudly invested millions in the case against NWMLS for our real estate professionals and clients, and it was worth it,” Reffkin said. “MLSs are a group of direct competitors that are telling their competitors how they can and can not compete, which is the textbook definition of an antitrust violation. MLSs exist to distribute listings, when the homeseller wants to use it, not to let brokerage competitors collectively dictate how other brokers compete in marketing services or how homesellers market their homes.”
