Yesterday, reader Jim repeated the common belief about the Compass 3-Phase Marketing Plan:

Compass isn’t going this route to protect sellers – they are trying to increase their dual agency transactions which will lead to more profits for a publicly traded company. In addition to hoarding inventory which numerous studies say will not increase the selling price for a seller, Compass is trying to force agents to join their brokerage or be left out of a portion of the inventory.

I’ll agree that the Compass messaging hasn’t been great.

It hasn’t acknowledged that selling homes before they go on the open market is a VERY sensitive topic. Observers are quick to assume that the money-grubbing agents only care about padding their wallets, and not what is best for consumers. It does appear that way, though a case can be made that in a soft market it might be better for the sellers to not risk a listing launch failure.

When the first phase of our 3-Phase Marketing Plan is called Private Exclusives and we publicly declare that’s where we ‘test pricing’ among other Compass agents only, it’s natural for outsiders to assume we’re making deals there.

But nobody within Compass is pushing it – in fact, there is no organized effort to arrange off-market sales. It’s the category where a new listing starts out on our platform, and most have no photos, descriptions, or showing instructions.

How is it working?

The graph above shows the monthly sales between January 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025.

There were 155 of the 2,234 sales (7%) that showed zero days on market, which is the universal sign of an off-market sale. There is a MLS rule that states all sales must be inputted into the MLS at some point, and the glee with which the listing agents display their off-market escapades is remarkable. I doubt I’m missing any.

Of the 155 off-market sales:

Compass agents had 37, or 24%

Three-quarters of all off-market sales are done by non-Compass agents!

All the complaining comes from industry veterans and the ivory-tower types. You won’t hear ANY agents on the street complain about round-tripping their listings off-market – they are proud of them!

The Compass NSDCC market share is ~30%, so the 24% sounds right.

Of the 37 Compass off-market sales:

Only 25 were sold to Compass buyers

So there it is – the off-market sales within the Compass brokerage amount to about 1% of the total sales. It’s hard to believe that another 12 were sold to outside agents, which shows that selling to other Compass agents isn’t a priority. Completing a sexy off-market sale with any agent is the goal!

Has Reffkin’s relentless battle against the CCP caused any changes?

It started soon after the NAR Settlement began on August 17th, so let’s compare (I stretched out the time period to Apr 15th to get about the same number of sales in each sample):

There hasn’t been any discernible change in the number of off-market sales between Compass agents.

This hot topic provides our competitors an opportunity to dogpile on Compass and Robert Reffkin, which is fine. We are taking a very public stance about the CCP.

You don’t hear ANYONE talking about eliminating off-market sales. NOBODY!

The Clear Cooperation Policy allows for off-market sales within a brokerage, and EVERY company is doing them.

If you ever hear industry leaders demanding a change regarding off-market sales – and not just beating the crap out of Compass – then you know their intentions are pure.

I have yet to hear one.