Real estate giants launch national home database as battle over private listings heats up
Some of America’s biggest real estate brokerages are joining forces to challenge Compass — launching a national home-listing database in an escalating battle over who gets to see properties for sale.Four major real estate groups — AGNT, HomeServices of America, Keller Williams and Real REMAX Group — are backing a new platform called Open Real Estate, designed to make property listings more accessible across competing brokerages.The initiative takes aim at the growing use of private listings, a practice championed by Compass that allows homes to be marketed outside traditional public databases, potentially limiting what buyers and rival agents can see.The move comes as Compass faces mounting legal challenges over its listing practices, including a federal lawsuit that now involves New York’s OneKey MLS.Six regional multiple listing services representing more than 120,000 real estate professionals filed a federal lawsuit against Compass last month, seeking to defend rules requiring brokers to share property listings.The legal battle has since expanded, with OneKey MLS joining a separate lawsuit brought by California Regional Multiple Listing Service.The new Open Real Estate platform, announced Oct.26, would allow participating brokerages to enter their listings into a shared database, with information distributed to multiple listing services, real estate websites and other authorized platforms.Participating brokerages would be required to submit new listings within one business day of signing an agreement with a seller.Joining the network would initially be free, with the four founding companies covering the cost of building the technology.Brown Harris Stevens, Lamacchia Realty, Samson Properties and Windermere are among the initial participants.The database would operate alongside existing multiple listing services rather than replace them, according to its founders.The effort represents a direct challenge to Compass, which has aggressively expanded its pr...