A New Private Listing Site – Benefits and Potential Fallout

Four of the largest real estate companies in the country announced Open Real Estate, a shared listing platform that any brokerage can join for free. The founders are AGNT Inc. (the parent of eXp Realty), Keller Williams, Real REMAX Group and HomeServices of America. It’s their answer to Compass, the largest brokerage in the country, which markets some homes privately inside its own network before they ever reach the MLS.

Our take: more ways to market a home is good for buyers and sellers. But for most houses, getting in front of every possible buyer right away still wins. Private testing makes the most sense for unique properties, sellers who need privacy, and sellers whose price expectations are ahead of the market.

Hear the full conversation

On Beyond the Rate, Charlie and Will Braden walk through how we got here, who wins under each model, and whether the MLS still has the same job a few years from now. Listen to the episode →

How we got here

This didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the latest step in a chain reaction that started a few years ago.

1. The NAR commission settlement. The lawsuits over agent commissions ended with the National Association of Realtors and several large brokerages settling, and new rules followed, including written buyer representation agreements. We think NAR gave up more than it had to. Either way, it opened the door to brokerages rethinking how listings get marketed.
2. Compass vs. Zillow. Zillow largely republishes what’s on the MLS and earns money selling leads from the clicks. A home that isn’t on the MLS isn’t on Zillow, so Zillow pushed back on listings that stay off-market. Compass went the other way and leaned in.
3. Compass private exclusives. Compass, which has grown through a string of acquisitions, now lets sellers market a home only to agents in its own network first. The home can go to the MLS later.
4. Open Real Estate. Now the next four largest players have teamed up on a platform of their own, and they’re inviting every other brokerage to join.

Private exclusives vs. Open Real Estate

Both are reactions to the same shift, but they’re built around different ideas.

	Compass private exclusive	Open Real Estate
Who runs it	Compass	AGNT (eXp), Keller Williams, Real REMAX Group, HomeServices of America
Who can join	Compass and its affiliated brokerages	Any brokerage, free
Who sees the listing	Agents inside the Compass network	Participating brokerages and agents. Whether the public can browse it directly hasn’t been announced.
Relationship to the MLS	Listing can stay off the MLS during the private period	Built to work alongside MLSs and send listings to them, not replace them
Status	Live	Announced. The founders are choosing a technology partner, expected in early 2027.

Based on the October 26, 2026 announcement and early reporting. Open Real Estate’s rules and technology are still being developed.

In their open letter, the Open Real Estate founders lay out four principles: expand buyer opportunity, help sellers make informed decisions, protect the integrity of listing data, and promote fair competition. They say listing access and transparency “should be a benefit, not a barrier.” Plenty of details are still open, including how much of a private marketing window, if any, it will allow before a listing goes wide.

Who could benefit

1. Smaller and boutique brokerages

This is the biggest upside we see. A 50-agent local shop in Anytown, USA can’t match Compass’s internal network on its own. If it joins Open Real Estate, its listings can reach every Keller Williams, eXp and REMAX agent in the area. An agent who prefers a boutique brokerage gets the reach of a national network without leaving. The founders say they’ve already had a wave of inquiries from brokerages asking how to sign up.

2. Sellers who need privacy

We work with a lot of veterans, and our realtor partners work with firefighters and police officers. Many of them don’t want their home and personal details spread across the internet, and some can keep their address off public property records for that reason. A listing that stays within a network of agents for as long as possible fits those sellers well, and either model can offer that while still reaching a large pool of buyers.

3. Sellers who want to test a price

Say a seller wants $650,000 and the agent’s honest estimate is $560,000. Normally that’s a listing the agent might turn down, because an overpriced home sits, piles up days on market, and ends up with price cuts. A private period changes that conversation. The agent can take the listing, market it privately at $650,000, and let real buyer feedback set the price without the days-on-market clock running.

That matters right now. Many markets have shifted toward buyers, and an overpriced home that isn’t a standout can sit for a long time. Good agents already have this talk with sellers: we’ll try your number for two weeks, and if there are no offers, we lower it to where the market says it belongs.

4. Unique and luxury homes

Luxury-focused brokerages have matched buyers and sellers inside their own walls for years. A $4 million listing finds a buyer while it’s still being prepared for market, and it never needs to be listed publicly. A house that will sell fast no matter what can also benefit. The seller can share a few quick, professional photos before every update is finished, line up a buyer early, and skip some of the usual prep. The buyer gets a home before it hits the open market.

The fallout

Is the seller better served?

This is the real question. Is a seller better off quietly testing a price, or putting the home in front of every possible buyer on day one? For roughly 98% of homes, we think it’s the second one. More buyers means more competition, and more competition is what gets a typical house its best price.

Compass argues the other side. It says sellers benefit from more control over their listing information and the chance to refine the price before going fully public, and it cites its own analysis showing a 4.6% higher closing price for homes marketed this way. We’d want to see the methodology before leaning on that number. For example, it matters whether homes that never sold or later took price cuts are counted. If the figure holds up, though, it does support testing a price privately first and then listing at the right number.

Does the MLS still matter?

Here’s where the snowball could become an avalanche. On one side you have the largest brokerage in the country. On the other, the next four largest, open to everyone else. Strip it down and the MLS is a place to find homes for sale, and Zillow mostly republishes what’s on it. If a network that big starts holding most listings, the MLS starts to look like a duplicate, and so do the MLS and NAR dues that come with it.

For now, Open Real Estate says it will work alongside MLSs, not replace them. But it’s fair to ask whether, over the next few years, brokerages lean more on state law and their own legal guidance and less on NAR’s national rules. This is the kind of change we expected once the dust from the commission settlement settled.

Realtors, we want to hear from you

This news is a day old, and several agents we talked to hadn’t heard about it yet. If you’re with one of these brokerages, or you have clients in a private exclusive, tell us what you’re seeing. Does this help or hurt your buyers and sellers?

What this means if you are buying or selling

Selling: Ask your agent which networks your home will be marketed in and for how long before it reaches the MLS. A private period can make sense if your home is unusual, if privacy matters to you, or if you want to test a price. If none of those apply, broad exposure from the start is usually the stronger play.

Buying: More homes may be sold, or at least shown, before they ever hit Zillow. Working with an agent who has access to these networks matters more than it used to. So does being ready to move. When a home surfaces privately, the buyer with a full pre-approval already in hand is the one the seller takes seriously.