The mad dash for premarket power is showing no signs of slowing, as mega-brokerage eXp announced that it is striking a listing partnership with Realtor.com®, Homes.com and ComeHome.com (HouseCanary’s portal in Google Search), just 24 hours after Zillow launched a similar partnership with five other big national companies.
Starting next month, eXp agents will be able to syndicate their “Coming Soon” listings to those three portals, which the company claims is “bridging the gap” between premarket and public listings.
The announcement comes as big brokerages scramble to follow up on Compass’s partnership with Redfin, announced last month, seemingly all-in on the idea that these types of marketing practices will provide a boost for their businesses—and sellers.
“Our role as an industry is to create the most open and efficient marketplace possible for buyers and sellers,” said eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja in a statement. “This is not about limiting where listings appear. It is about expanding visibility and giving sellers the widest possible audience while maintaining compliance with MLS rules and local regulations.”
Notably, eXp is touting the partnerships as non-exclusive, in contrast to the deals companies struck with Zillow and Redfin.
“eXp is not entering into exclusive portal arrangements and any portal may choose to receive eXp listings on equal terms, subject to applicable MLS rules and seller authorization,” the company’s announcement reads.
In a statement, Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales called the agreement “an important step forward in support of MLSs.”
“We recognize a seller’s desire for price exploration before officially going to market, and a ‘Coming Soon’ status is the ideal solution for buyers, sellers and professionals. By displaying these listings on the open market, sellers can achieve true price discovery,” Eales said.
After Compass faced broad industry pushback in its dogged crusade against MLS rules and advocacy for its “three-phased marketing plan,” many companies now appear to have warmed to the idea of at least limited “premarketing,” with Zillow also relaxing its recently implemented restrictions on limited marketing.
Compass’s acquisition of Anywhere and deal to syndicate listings to Redfin gave it broad power to market listings outside the MLS, with Compass CEO Robert Reffkin saying that his brokerage would send “Coming Soon” listings to Redfin regardless of local MLS policy.
The brokerages that followed suit have not gone that far, promising that their premarketing efforts will follow policies implemented by MLSs in that region. They have also sought to frame these new premarketing efforts as more transparent, even though listings are not disseminated as broadly as they would be if they were on the MLS and syndicated to all portals.
This is a developing story. Stay tuned to RISMedia for updates.
