It has been a pivotal week in the world of residential real estate marketing.
With the three major real estate listing portals making announcements this week about how they’ll treat private or coming-soon listings, the National Association of REALTORS® released the following statement:
The American housing market is the most consumer friendly, transparent, and efficient across the world, in large part because of the MLS system. The MLSs provide an efficient and reliable marketplace, which allows sellers to market their properties in accordance with their interest and potentially receive the best offer. Likewise, they provide buyers the ability to learn about as many properties on the market that meet their criteria. NAR will continue to be a pro-consumer association that champions MLS policies that advance fair housing, ensure equal opportunity to housing, and facilitate transactions that benefit home buyers and sellers. All agents who participate in MLSs agree to follow their MLSs policies regarding listing standards. Due to the unique needs and characteristics of local housing marketplaces, NAR MLS policies provide each MLS with the flexibility to establish local rules that work best for their brokers, agents, and consumers, including policies regarding pre-marketing efforts.
Movement on Coming Soon Listings Announced at Portals
At Realtor.com®, CEO Damian Eales released a blog post and statement Wednesday on real estate brokerage eXp’s announcement to syndicate its “Coming Soon” listings to the site. Eales said:
Our new agreement with eXp marks an important step forward in support of MLSs and our aligned mission to ensure a fair marketplace driven by MLS transparency. Sellers want clicks, not cliques and eXp is delivering for them. 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. It eliminates the need for restrictive private marketplaces and ensures equal access for all buyers, not a subset selected by the listing agent. Ultimately, a public 'Coming Soon' status drives more engagement and more bidders, often resulting in a higher final sale price.
One day earlier, Zillow announced the launch of a new program, Zillow Previews, that would enable brokerages to add premarket listings onto Zillow and Trulia.
Zillow’s Errol Samuelson, chief industry development officer, explained the program on a T360 webinar Thursday. Coming-soon listings are promoted along with other listings—because they’re new on the market, they’ll appear high in search results, Samuelson said—and consumers will see two buttons on each preview listing:
- “Contact agent” will direct them to the listing agent.
- “Schedule a tour” will pop up a calendar enabling them to schedule a tour when the listing hits the market and directing them to an agent who advertises with Zillow.
Because the listings are in preview mode, the system gives brokerages the option to not accumulate days on market and not show price changes.
Andy Woolley, vice president of industry development with CoStar Residential, which operates Homes.com, also spoke at the T360 webinar, saying the portal would enable brokers and agents to showcase pre-market listings free as “coming soon.”
Sellers and their agent can decide when the days-on-market clock starts, Woolley said, and all leads will be directed to the listing agent. Woolley said about 80% of MLSs already offer a “coming soon” option. Where brokerages don’t have that option, they can provide an IDX feed of their coming-soon listings to the portal.
In an FAQ produced for MLSs, NAR clarified that national MLS policy does not require MLSs to track days on market or price reduction information—this is a matter of local discretion. However, if an MLS tracks that information, participants may share days on market and/or price change history with their consumers.
Compass Drops Lawsuit, Promises Aggressive Measures on MLS Rules
Following the announcement of Zillow Previews, Compass announced it was dismissing its lawsuit against Zillow. The lawsuit was filed last June after Zillow released listing access standards, which specify that the portal will display only residential listings that have been shared on the MLS within one day of marketing them to the public. In early February, a court rejected Compass’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop Zillow’s ban on private listings.
Real Estate News reported Wednesday that the dismissal was without prejudice, meaning that Compass could file again in the future. Compass Chairman and CEO Robert Reffkin said Zillow Previews represented a reversal of the company’s ban.
But in a statement released after Compass’s announcement, Zillow said, in part:
“The underlying issue remains: Private listing networks are not in the best interests of consumers, and they never have been. Restricting listings to hidden networks limits transparency, disadvantages buyers and sellers and undermines fair access to real estate information which is so critical in this housing affordability crisis.”
Samuelson reiterated the point in his webinar remarks, saying: “We are still enforcing our access standards” and “the preview product works hand-in-glove with Clear Cooperation for those who have it.”
NAR’s Clear Cooperation policy went into effect in 2020. It requires broker participants in a REALTOR® association–owned MLS to submit listings to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants within one business day of marketing the property to the public. CCP doesn’t prohibit pre-marketing listings such as “coming soon” or office exclusives. Rather, it sets out to ensure that all MLS participants and buyers have market clarity on the availability of properties, equal opportunity and the fullest view of the inventory in their market, and that sellers have full exposure of their property.
In March 2025, the National Association of REALTORS® announced a new policy statement called “Multiple Listing Options for Sellers (MLOS),” which operates alongside CCP. MLOS provides sellers with more choice when it comes to delayed marketing, while at the same time giving MLSs the ability to determine how long that delayed marketing period should be.
In his statement, Realtor.com®’s Eales said, “We thank eXp for their leadership and encourage all brokers to prioritize the interests of their clients by making ‘Coming Soon’ listings widely available through their MLS. If an MLS doesn’t support ‘Coming Soon’ status today, we encourage the MLS to create it.”
Late last month, Compass announced it would partner with Rocket Companies to syndicate its Coming Soon listings to Redfin, a Rocket company, before they’re listed on the MLS.
“Association and MLS executives will be discussing the developments around coming soon listings at the AE Institute in Minneapolis next week. The Institute is an annual educational event for REALTOR® association executives.”
