Compass Declares War on CCP

The battle over how listings are marketed — and who controls them — is entering its most volatile chapter yet.

Compass has officially walked away from the National Association of Realtors’ Clear Cooperation Policy, escalating a long-simmering fight that could upend how agents, MLSes and buyers interact with the market.

The brokerage notified NAR and multiple MLSes this week that it will no longer follow the Clear Cooperation Policy — or any national MLS rules. For those keeping score, CCP has long required brokers to submit listings to the MLS within 24 hours of public marketing. Compass calls the rule outdated and anti-consumer; defenders say it promotes transparency and fairness.

But Compass isn’t just talking anymore — it’s walking. The firm has sued MLSes in Seattle, battled with CRMLS in California and is now taking its boldest step yet: openly defying CCP and daring NAR to stop it.

The fight isn’t new. Compass has been blasting CCP since its debut in 2019 — so much so that insiders often refer to it as the “Compass Rule.” But now, the legal stakes are rising. Compass warned NAR that fresh class-action lawsuits targeting CCP (separate from the high-profile commission suits) could soon hit the industry.

Compass is framing this as a fight for consumer choice, but at its core, it’s also about control. The brokerage’s entire marketing strategy hinges on keeping listings off the MLS — using private exclusives and coming-soon listings to create inventory its agents can market directly. That’s a big recruiting tool, and Compass hopes it translates to bigger market share.

Compass is also suing Zillow, accusing the listings giant — and partners like Redfin and eXp — of using new listing rules to block Compass from the market. At the center of that case is Zillow’s policy requiring listings to appear on the MLS and its platform within 24 hours of public marketing, effectively gutting Compass’ prized three-phase marketing strategy.

Meanwhile, Mauricio Umansky’s Pocket Listing Service is reviving its own lawsuit against NAR, arguing CCP was designed specifically to crush competition from platforms like his.

This isn’t just a squabble over policy, it’s a pivotal fight over the future of residential real estate. Compass is betting everything on a model that leans heavily on exclusive inventory and off-market marketing. Zillow, meanwhile, is pushing for a centralized, transparent marketplace that all buyers can access.

The stakes are already showing. Compass agents report pushback from sellers concerned their listings won’t appear on Zillow, and the firm has seen a drop in use of its three-phase strategy.

But Compass isn’t retreating. CEO Robert Reffkin recently rallied agents with a clear message: double down. “If every one of you doubles your listings,” he told them, “we can’t be bullied anymore.”

There was plenty of other news this week. California rolled back key CEQA provisions, South Florida’s condo market is struggling and we spotlight the faces of the country’s broadening fraud scandal.

Meet the players tied to the big mortgage mess

A commercial mortgage fraud scandal is getting big and ugly. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and other government agencies have been investigating suspect deals for the past few years, but their work and scope is intensifying. Judges have handed out prison sentences, and more criminal charges are expected to come. Our “yearbook” presents the participants who were loosely caught up in, actively participating in the mortgage fraud scandal, or put under Fannie and Freddie’s scrutiny.

Industry group flails as CEQA adjustments hit California builders unevenly

Small to midsize urban housing developers are the winners in California’s rollback of environmental protections this week. The details of the adjustments to CEQA appear to be deepening a rift in the industry between infill builders and the Building Industry Association, which represents many of the biggest homebuilders in the state and nations.

Winners and losers emerge in South Florida’s condo boom

The South Florida housing market has possibly never been this confusing, as economic, social and regulatory trends intersect and clash here in unexpected ways. New development behaves differently than old stock; listings at high price points exist in an alternate universe to lower-end resales. And everyone is trying to intuit whether there’s still enough demand to keep building. What happens next will be determined by whether demand revives and for what sort of supply.

At 80 Clarkson, an “it” building, and a chance for the Zeckendorfs to train a successor

Zeckendorf Development and Atlas Capital Group, the developers of 80 Clarkson Street, have barely said a word about the two-tower development in the far West Village. Contracts will eventually show how 80 Clarkson fares with buyers. But for the Zeckendorfs, the project is about more than the total. If the project meets expectations, Artie and the Zeckendorfs could signal an ability to pull off the big-swinging family’s first planned handoff.

Here are the country’s “new downtowns”

The streets aren’t paved with gold, but they’re clean, edged in plantings and dotted with retailers. At new commercial developments, often outside cities’ longtime commercial cores, such details have lured office tenants by offering the perks of downtown without the strife and grime that still plagues some major hubs after Covid’s upheaval. Brand-new buildings stack high-end office space above outposts of sought-after restaurants and shops. Reporters in five of The Real Deal’s markets analyzed new or rehabilitated commercial developments.

Vanbarton eyes the conversion crown

Vanbarton Group has in short order become one of the busiest converters in New York. Richard Coles and Gary Tischler jumped at the chance to snap up discounted office towers and turn them into apartments for the kind of profits that have everyone talking about rolling up their sleeves. Vanbarton has five conversion projects in Manhattan with more than 2,200 units in the pipeline and doesn’t appear to be slowing down. But the window of opportunity may be small.

Trump real estate portfolio showed widespread distress before reelection

The Trump Organization’s core real estate holdings are struggling mightily behind the scenes. The portfolio’s issues forced a strategic pivot away from property development toward brand licensing and cryptocurrency ventures, the New York Times reported. The publication took a look at thousands of documents filed in the president’s New York civil fraud case.

Jennifer Pritzker’s firm sells Rogers Park portfolio for $45M

Another major player is cashing in on Chicago’s hot multifamily investment market. Jennifer Pritzker, President and CEO of Tawani Enterprises and cousin to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, recently sold a 6-building Rogers Park portfolio for $45 million. The sale of the 263-unit portfolio to Silver Property Group comes out to $171,000 per unit.

Josh Flagg drops Stephen Kotler from hacking lawsuit

Josh Flagg is still on the hunt for his alleged hacker. The “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” agent and Compass broker is dropping his former Douglas Elliman boss, Stephen Kotler, from a lawsuit he filed last year over claims that someone accessed and shared his private information.