by Lillian Dickerson | May 20, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
Zillow will send warnings about non-compliant listings beginning May 28, but enforcement won’t start until June 30. Agents will receive two warnings before their third non-compliant listing is blocked, executives said.
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Zillow on Tuesday published additional details for agents and brokers regarding how its new listing standards will play out once they go into effect in June.
In April, Zillow said it would begin enforcing the National Association of Realtors’ Clear Cooperation Policy with a ban on real estate listings that fail to make it on a multiple listing service or IDX feed of a portal within one business day of being marketed privately. The company also noted that listings that violated these new standards would be banned from the portal for the life of the listing agreement between that specific listing broker and homeseller.
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The announcement spurred questions about what qualified as public marketing and which types of listings would violate Zillow’s new terms. With the more detailed guidance directed at industry professionals published on Tuesday, Zillow sought to bring more clarity to the standards as they are rolled out later this month.
“These listing access standards are how we’re implementing NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy on Zillow sites and reflect our belief in fair access for all,” Zillow’s post states. “The standards apply to listings regardless of any applicable MLS rule. They apply to all listings subject to an exclusive for-sale listing agreement between a broker and a seller and therefore do not apply to builder inventory represented directly by the builder, rental listings or for sale by owner listings.”
The full listing access standards are now available for reference within Zillow’s Terms of Use.
Zillow clarified that it would be rolling the new standards out in phases, beginning in large markets in the U.S. and then nationally over the summer.
Agents will begin receiving notifications about non-compliant listings on May 28. However, the portal won’t begin blocking listings until June 30.
Zillow also noted that it will be adopting a type of ‘three-strikes, you’re out’ policy, where agents will only receive warnings about a listing violation for their first two non-compliant listings, and then their third non-compliant listing will be blocked from Zillow and Trulia starting on June 30, without warning. Still, those listings that meet Zillow’s standards — even if held by an agent who has received past violations — will remain visible on the platform.
“This notification period is designed to give agents ample time to understand and ensure they’re complying with the new listing access standards so all publicly marketed listings can reach the broadest audience of home shoppers online,” Zillow said.
In the guidance published on Tuesday Zillow addressed specific types of listings that agents had doubts about following their initial announcement in April, including office exclusives, coming soon listings and “sneak peeks” of listings. Under Zillow’s standards, office exclusives are permitted if a homeowner signs a seller disclosure and a listing is only shared within a single brokerage or during a one-on-one with clients, and not marketed publicly. Coming soon listings that are entered into the MLS within one business day and made available via IDX or VOW are also allowed. Likewise, sneak peeks on social media or in newsletters are also considered ok if they don’t include details that would liken it to a listing, including price and address or any call to action.
Zillow also specified that for sale by owner listings will not be impacted by the new standards, nor will new construction listings, unless they are listed with an agent under an exclusive listing agreement — in which case, those listings will be held to the new standards.
Zillow also said that delayed marketing listings, a new designation recently established by NAR, will also be allowed under the new standards as long as they are entered into the MLS and available to all MLS participants, including in an IDX or VOW listing feed.
The portal pointed out that sellers who want to sell their home privately still have multiple options available to them, including posting their property on the MLS for all participants to see but opting out of internet display, and hiding their address while still publishing a home on the MLS and to other websites that receive MLS feeds. If sellers wish their listing to remain completely private, Zillow said, they should be informed of the tradeoffs and sign a written agreement with their agent not to distribute the listing in the MLS or elsewhere online.
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by Lillian Dickerson | May 16, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
The 14-agent team, which was previously affiliated with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices under a different team name, closed over $100 million in sales last year, and has closed more than $410 million since 2020.
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Compass is growing its foothold in New York’s Hudson Valley with the addition of the Unlock Upstate Team in Kingston, the firm has informed Inman.
The team, previously known as the Clement, Brooks & Safier Team, comes to Compass from Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices (BHHS), where they were the No. 1 BHHS-affiliated team in New York State and No. 15 team nationally, according to sales volume. In 2024, the team closed over $100 million in sales and has closed more than $410 million since 2020.
Led by Donna Brooks, Harris Safier and Hayes Clement, the rebranded team has also moved into a new office at 16 Hurley Avenue, Kingston, New York, with the move.
“We’ve always viewed ourselves as hyper-local experts,” Brooks said in a statement. “But as the industry has evolved, we knew it was time to move on to a brokerage with next-generation tools and a vast New York City referral network. That’s how we continue to deliver above and beyond for our clients.”
From left to right: Donna Brooks, Hayes Clement and Harris Safier | Courtesy of Unlock Upstate Team
The 14-agent team serves clients across the Hudson Valley, and has crafted a niche in assisting clients with dual citizenship who want a home that is easily commutable to New York City.
“The Hudson Valley has become much more than a weekend retreat,” Clement said in a statement. “It’s a place where people want to spend more time, while staying connected to city life. Our job is to help them find the lifestyle, community and the home that works.”
Clement is a former publishing and TV executive who has become a shrewd real estate negotiator over the years, as well as an advocate for affordable housing initiatives, and previously served as board president of the social services agency Family of Woodstock Inc.
Brooks grew up in Queens and later moved to the Hudson Valley. Prior to starting her real estate career about eight years ago, she worked in business and sales and owned a coffee shop for several years.
Safier is a Brooklyn native and formerly a brokerage owner and construction advisor. He served as Ulster County Board of Realtors president for two terms, and has also served on the board of the Boys & Girls Club in Kingston.
With a market currently constrained by high prices and low inventory, the team said that Compass’ tech platform was a draw.
“Compass gives us a way to connect with more sellers and buyers alike,” Safier said in a statement. “It’s about innovative solutions and a best-in-class marketing platform. That’s the future of real estate, and we’re excited to be a part of it.”
All told, Compass now has about 20 offices across Westchester and the Hudson Valley combined.
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by Lillian Dickerson | May 12, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
The SERHANT. CEO jabbed at Compass’ launch this month of physical books of the brokerage’s exclusive listings in offices nationwide, likening it to old-school bookstores like Barnes & Noble.
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Luxury broker and CEO Ryan Serhant has likened rival Compass to old-school bookstore Barnes & Noble. Ouch.
The SERHANT. founder pushed back against the brokerage’s own narrative as a forward-looking firm on the cutting edge of new technology by saying Compass is banking on the “real estate model of yesterday.” The comments were made during The Real Deal’s New York City Showcase + Forum last Wednesday.
Cast members of the Netflix real estate reality TV series Owning Manhattan also joined Serhant on stage where the CEO also took aim at Compass’ recent acquisitions and its tug-of-war with portals and the National Association of Realtors over private listing networks.
“Compass’ goal is to break everything and own the pieces,” Serhant said on Wednesday. “They’re not building Amazon, they’re building Barnes & Noble. And that story has already been told.”
The call out to the brick-and-mortar book chain came on the heels of a decision by Compass to release physical books of private listings in the brokerage’s offices. Those books will update weekly with new listings, and a digital version will also be updated in real time. Marketing properties privately is the first phase of the brokerage’s “Three-Phase Marketing Strategy,” which also includes marketing properties as “coming soon” during a second phase and entering properties into the local multiple listing service during phase three.
Serhant seemed to agree with Compass’ general attitude that brokerages should resist “third-party vendors that hold our listings and lead flow and business hostage,” but found Compass’ approach to be a backward-looking model.
“If you want access to our listings, you have to come together on a physical book in a physical brick-and-mortar office,” Serhant said. “High tech, high touch books, right? It’s Barnes & Noble.”
When Inman reached out to Compass for comment, the brokerage pointed to comments CEO Robert Reffkin made last week during the company’s first quarter earnings call.
“I don’t know a homeowner who would say they want NAR, the MLS or a portal to tell them how they must market their home,” Reffkin said.
He also asserted that the brokerage’s moves surrounding private listings were not about what Compass wants, but rather, what homeowners want. “Homeowners want more choice, not less choice,” Reffkin said.
Reffkin also likened moves by portals and MLS’s to discourage consumers from private marketing to those made by power players in the cable and music industries in the past to raise prices.
“In both industries, the incumbents tried to block change by making it harder to leave, but that strategy only made consumers more aware of their dissatisfaction and sped up the shift,” Reffkin said.
“The same is now happening in real estate: MLS’s and portals are raising friction to discourage homeowners and listings agents from marketing off-MLS. But that resistance is increasing the migration to off-MLS alternatives because it’s making listings agents increasingly question the risks of MLS exposure for their clients — which are days on market, price drop history, diverted buyer inquiries, valuation estimates less than the value of the house — and ultimately, this is creating less trust with the people that give them their inventory.”
Reffkin also predicted that those negative factors will only lead to more private listings in the upcoming year, which will be to Compass’ advantage with their growing network of office exclusives.
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by Lillian Dickerson | May 12, 2025 | Industry, News Feed
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Agents and homesellers alike dread seeing days on market slowly tick up on their listing.
To homebuyers, a high number of days on market often triggers a warning signal: There must be something wrong with this property.
But with luxury and ultra-luxury properties, especially, it may simply be that the listing hasn’t hit the right eyes yet, Chad Roffers, founder and CEO of Concierge Auctions, told Inman.
“Do not cut the price,” Roffers said during a recent conversation. “The problem wasn’t the price. The problem was, the pool of buyers for your house is small, if not very small, and cutting the price isn’t going to expand the pool of buyers. You need an alternative strategy for expanding the pool of buyers.”
Still, if days on market for ultra-luxury properties continue to rise and exceed a critical threshold of 180 days, according to Concierge Auctions’ 2025 Luxury Homes Index released in April, the effects to seller returns could be significantly detrimental.
The report found that ultra-luxury properties that took more than 180 days to sell only received an average of 80 percent of their asking price. By contrast, properties that sold in less than 180 days received an average of 87 percent of the original list price. The report also found that, on average, ultra-luxury properties take 319 days to sell. But, for properties that take more than 180 days to sell, the average days on market swells to 569 days on market.
So, if an ultra-luxury property sits on the market for more than 180 days, the costs and additional headaches involved in selling multiply quickly.
Inman recently spoke with Roffers about Concierge Auctions’ latest findings to learn more about how luxury agents can minimize days on market and how the current economic environment is impacting the luxury auction space. Here’s what he had to say, edited for brevity and clarity.
Inman: There were some really interesting findings in this report surrounding days on market and how you identified 180 days as this pivotal time frame. And so I’m curious, just based on what you’ve seen, do you feel like agents are underestimating the potential negative impacts of days on market and how that can affect them and their sellers?
Roffers: Yes, very much so. It’s interesting — we have the good fortune of kind of pulling the lens back and looking broadly. We’re active in 40 states, 38 countries, right? So, very broad perspective. And I think when you have that perspective, and you look at what happens, and then kind of overlay this index that we’ve done now for a decade, initially it was pretty obvious, and now it’s incredibly obvious, that days on market are not your friend.
There are two camps: There’s the sell quick, it’s really like 90 days or less, if not shorter, or you’re in for the long haul. So these are the very clear patterns. And I think that the time to start having difficult conversations with your seller as a listing agent is Day 90.
Let’s just assume for a minute that the average listing agreement is still six months. It’s kind of an industry [standard]. And what we see is, people start having hard conversations with two weeks to go in the listing, and it’s almost too late at that point in time. The sellers are probably starting to interview other brokers.
And while there are clear rules about non-solicitation, it seems to me that sellers are really aware that they have alternatives coming up to a listing expiration, so I see agents wait too late. They’re too late, versus being proactive.
So what we have is, 90 days is kind of like the warning signal, like, you better do something about this. And then at 180 days, we start noticing these huge drop offs in sale price if a listing extends beyond 180 days, and also the days on market suddenly balloons to a huge average. So I guess I’m curious, what do you think it is about that kind of roughly six-month marker that makes the difference?
I think it’s the ‘Zillow-fication’ of it, if that’s a term. But, the Zillow-fication of the way consumers, buyers evaluate properties. And I think buyers look at days on market and the Zestimate, and we know the Zestimate can be really unreliable in the ultra-luxury segment of the market.
In fact, oftentimes it is because there’s just not enough data to accurately predict the value of a high-end property. But the days on market, there’s no interpretation needed. And I think that the typical consumer sees 180 days and immediately asks themselves, ‘What’s wrong with this property?’
That is tricky. I know another issue that you all discussed in the report is this kind of overly aspirational seller, who might be really wanting a certain [sales price] and that, of course, can contribute to the days on market as well. So I guess, what’s another strategy that agents can maybe use to try and address sellers’ aspirations?
It’s a great question. I have a lot of empathy for the brokerage community, because, talk about a tough business to be in when there’s literally an unlimited supply of alternative agents who will take a listing at any price versus an agent who’s trying to educate a seller about the essential nature of having the right list price. So that’s a very challenging backdrop for even the best professionals in our business.
So I think that ultimately, the key to success is leaning into the data. My hope this year would be that even if an agent’s not working with us, that they’re using our index data to show a seller how important the first 90 days is, and using our index to say — this is like the oldest adage in real estate — but, your first offer is your best offer. Take the first offer that works, especially if it’s not 90 days [yet], because the odds of a better one coming down the pike aren’t great, and even when it comes, you’re now, as a seller or an agent, battling those days on market — and with a buyer who thinks that they have all the leverage.
So, ultimately, the bottom line is, with agents, it’s like getting comfortable having uncomfortable conversations with your sellers at every stage, from before you get hired to immediately after you get hired, to 90 days in. And, actually, the payoff for those hard conversations is great.
It’s great for the consumer, because they’re taking a proactive approach, helping them take a proactive approach, versus head in the sand and hope for the best, which I just I don’t think that’s a great strategy in life, and it’s certainly not a good strategy when it comes to selling your luxury property.
How I see this, too, is that some agents will go the auction route as an alternative once being on the open market or whatever other strategy doesn’t work. At what point in this days on market cycle do you think that it’s most advantageous for them to do that, if they don’t choose an auction as the primary way that they’re going to market this property?
Agents that consistently succeed with their clients as a result of using our platform introduce us Day 1, Day Zero, and they can kind of shift into gear at whatever inflection points necessary, because they’ve already laid the foundation with the seller. So what I would argue is, we should be a topic of conversation at the listing stage, because we’re the most potent tool for fixing that days on market problem.
And what works for an average house, which is a price reduction, does not work for the typical incomparable property. In fact, price reductions are counterproductive to selling luxury properties.
Concierge Auctions also sometimes preps properties for auction while an agent is simultaneously listing it. How well do you feel like that works typically? Is that a good second choice as opposed to purely auctioning the property? Or where do we see that in terms of ideal marketing?
Interestingly, we’re seeing a lot of sellers and agents using us right out of the gate, like Day 1 of the listing, and they tend to either be a repeat seller or a repeat agent. So it’s somebody who’s worked with us before, and they learned the power of bringing everybody to the table early, and the duration of a property being on the market, and so that works incredibly well.
What I would say, in general, if I were to say kind of a default best practice for a seller and agent is, one, I think it’s important for sellers to get feedback from a handful of top agents in their respective market. So even if you have somebody that you know and trust that you worked with before, who you’re probably going to want to use, I would still get the feedback of two or three other top agents in the market.
And I would, as a seller, be asking them, please be honest with me about price. Don’t tell me what I want to hear. Tell me where you think the market is for my property, and regardless of who you pick as an agent, whoever gave you the lowest suggested list price is probably your list price.
Interesting.
And then from there, what I would say is — I used to say it was 180 days, now it’s more like 120 days — call me. Do not cut the price. The problem wasn’t the price. The problem was that the pool of buyers for your house is small, if not very small, and cutting the price isn’t going to expand the pool of buyers. You need an alternative strategy for expanding the pool of buyers. I think that’s where we come in and where we shine.
Right, Concierge Auctions has that network and that wider exposure.
Yeah.
I also wanted to ask you to just about the current economic uncertainty, and if you think that that’ll impact the luxury auction space at all, either positively or negatively?
You know, I think a couple of things. Our process shines when there’s market uncertainty, and the reason is that sellers value liquidity, and buyers want to know that they’re paying a fair price. So environments like 2025, which as far as I can tell, we’re in a choppy environment for real estate, it is a type of market where our platform really benefits everybody.
It benefits a seller by giving them a predictable sale timeline. It gives agents the ability to sell something that, there’s a good chance, is going to go unsold. And I think for buyers, there are always buyers for quality properties.
I’ve been at this a long time now, I started this business in the middle of the Great Recession, and even then, there were buyers who were willing to line up for the best properties, but they do hold back unless they feel like they’re paying a fair price. And I think when we can show them you’re competing against seven other people and you know and everybody knows exactly where everybody is in terms of price. I think that’s really important right now.
I know it’s still a bit early, it’s been about a month since this kind of global trade war started, but I’m curious if you’ve noticed any kind of trends, maybe either away from investment in US properties, or like towards certain countries, or anything like that.
It’s interesting. Here’s the one thing that I’ve noticed: Even when the majority is going one way, like selling off, there are always people who, in markets like this, kind of buck the trend and march to their own beat. And it gives me a lot of confidence in our year in the market, in that there are always plenty of people who kept their powder dry and are looking for opportune times to buy, and I think this year is going to represent one of those times for buyers.
Any final tips for agents who are getting ready to list an ultra-luxury property this spring?
This sounds counterintuitive, and I think it requires some sincere self-confidence of the agent — but I would be asking the seller, ‘Who else are you talking to? What are they telling you about price?’ It’s almost like a tee-up to having an uncomfortable and honest conversation with a seller about what’s the best way to price their property, and I think that’s something that, again, somebody’s got to be pretty comfortable in their skin to do that, but I would encourage them to do that.
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