The battle between Zillow Group and Compass International Holdings in New York City is escalating, with the brokerage incentivizing its agents to remove listings from Zillow-owned StreetEasy.
StreetEasy, a New York-focused marketplace, has long played a significant role in the city’s fragmented residential real estate market, where listings flow through the Real Estate Board of New York’s Residential Listing Service rather than a traditional MLS. According to StreetEasy, the site averages roughly 2 million visitors per month.
The latest push builds on a fight that was already taking shape this summer, when two New York renters sued Compass over allegations that the brokerage had encouraged agents to pull rental inventory from StreetEasy.
Now Compass appears to be broadening that effort. Corcoran and Sotheby’s International Realty — both brought under the Compass International Holdings umbrella through its acquisition of Anywhere — have recently begun promoting inventory unavailable on StreetEasy and directing consumers to their own websites. Compass CEO Robert Reffkin amplified that message himself this week in social media posts, pointing consumers toward Corcoran.com and highlighting thousands of listings he said were unavailable on StreetEasy.
Compass is also reportedly offering agents marketing support to participate in the campaign, while additional materials obtained by Inman appear to show how at least some agents are being equipped to make the case directly to sellers.
The campaign comes as StreetEasy prepares to tighten its own listing rules Thursday, bringing its New York marketplace more closely in line with the listing-access philosophy that parent company Zillow has been battling Compass over nationally through its Zillow Listing Access Standards.
Compass dials up the pressure on StreetEasy
The latest escalation is rooted in a much larger fight between Compass and Zillow over who controls the distribution of real estate listings.
The battle in New York had already begun taking shape this summer. A lawsuit filed in August alleged that Compass leaders encouraged top agents during July meetings to temporarily remove rental listings from StreetEasy and route some of them through REBNY’s RLS under a “Participants Only” designation that kept them off consumer-facing sites.
More recently, a coordinated social media and advertising push has broadened the fight, with Corcoran and Sotheby’s International Realty promoting inventory unavailable on StreetEasy. According to longtime appraiser and industry commentator Jonathan Miller, who recently highlighted the campaign in his Housing Notes blog, Corcoran leadership has also discussed a multimillion-dollar marketing effort aimed at drawing more consumers toward its own website.
But the listing push appears to extend well beyond consumer advertising. According to Real Estate News, Compass sent its New York City agents an email on Sept. 13 encouraging them to remove active and in-contract listings from StreetEasy where sellers agreed. Agents who participated were offered a 30-day, $1,000 digital advertising package across Google, Facebook and Instagram, the publication reported.
The listings targeted by the campaign do not necessarily disappear from the public market. Materials obtained by Inman tell agents that homes can remain available through the RLS, IDX feeds, Corcoran.com and other websites even after being removed from StreetEasy — shifting the fight from private listings to whether a brokerage can selectively withhold publicly marketed homes from one of the market’s largest consumer search platforms.
Compass’ latest ground game in New York also echoes other recent battles in major city markets where the brokerage has used its scale to challenge existing listing rules and push for greater control over how and when homes are marketed.
In Seattle last year, Compass staged a coordinated Private Exclusives campaign despite Northwest MLS restrictions on pre-marketing, with company leadership telling participating agents it would cover any fines stemming from the effort. And for much of this year in Chicago, Compass has aligned with Midwest Real Estate Data in a broader fight with Zillow over its Listing Access Standards, backing an expansion of MRED’s private-listing network and defending rules that ultimately put Zillow’s access to the MLS feed at issue.
Compass has scored significant wins in both of those earlier battles. In Washington, its lawsuit against Northwest MLS ended in a settlement that created a new “First Look” status allowing agents to publicly pre-market listings for up to 21 days — the first time NWMLS has permitted a coming-soon category. In Chicago, a federal judge this week denied Zillow’s bid for a preliminary injunction against MRED and dissolved a temporary restraining order that had required the MLS to restore Zillow’s listing feeds, while sending Zillow’s claims against MRED to arbitration and staying its case against Compass.
How agents are being coached to make the pitch
StreetEasy’s updated Listings Quality Policy takes effect Thursday, requiring agents who publicly market an exclusive sale listing to submit it to StreetEasy on the same calendar day. The policy applies broadly to listings marketed through brokerage websites, other real estate portals, multi-brokerage networks and REBNY’s Residential Listing Service.
As those rules take effect, materials obtained by Inman appear to show how agents are being coached to persuade sellers that removing a listing from StreetEasy can still preserve broad exposure.
A document titled “Seller Script” lays out a suggested talk track for agents to use in conversations with homeowners. Inman has sought to confirm the document’s authenticity and whether it was distributed by Compass, Corcoran or another affiliated entity with Compass International Holdings. The company did not immediately comment.
The script opens by recommending that agents tell sellers it makes sense to remove their home from StreetEasy while continuing to market it through other platforms, networks and agent channels. It frames the move as a way to preserve flexibility and protect a listing’s days on market and pricing history, while arguing that broad exposure can still be maintained without StreetEasy.
To support the pitch, the script points to Corcoran.com and a broader digital ecosystem that it estimates reaches more than 103 million visitors, compared with roughly 2 million visitors for StreetEasy. It also emphasizes that listings entered into REBNY’s RLS can continue flowing to participating brokerage websites through IDX feeds.
StreetEasy pushed back on that comparison, arguing that the size of Corcoran’s broader network does not reflect the intent of New York City homebuyers.
“A brokerage’s strategy shouldn’t rely on making its agents try to convince their sellers that a few social media ads will make up for keeping their listing off of StreetEasy,” a StreetEasy spokesperson told Inman over email. “StreetEasy’s 2 million average monthly visitors are New York City buyers actively searching for a home. Compass’ 100 million figure describes a national network where the vast majority of visitors have no interest in buying a home in New York. Reach without intent doesn’t sell homes.”
Another section of the Corcoran script takes direct aim at StreetEasy’s lead-generation model, telling sellers that inquiries can be redirected away from the listing agent to another agent participating in the portal’s lead program. The script then argues that StreetEasy is in the business of selling leads rather than homes.
The script also promises additional paid marketing for participating listings, including a 30-day digital campaign across Google, Facebook and Instagram. It says Corcoran is making a broader multimillion-dollar investment to promote the idea that New Yorkers can find homes directly through Corcoran.com and other channels.
The seller script appears to dovetail closely with the separate marketing package reportedly offered to Compass agents who remove listings from StreetEasy, though it was not immediately clear whether the two materials are formally part of the same program.
StreetEasy’s new policy puts that strategy in direct tension with the platform’s rules. Beginning Thursday, homes marketed publicly elsewhere must also be submitted to StreetEasy the same day, even as the Corcoran pitch encourages sellers to keep listings broadly distributed while leaving StreetEasy out.
Inman reporter Jessi Healey contributed to the reporting for this story.
