Many agents said they would make, or perhaps consider, a move if Compass and Anywhere merge — a possibility other brokerage leaders are keeping an eye on.
AJ LaTrace3 mins
Leading home search site Zillow has thrown some gas on its feud with Compass via the release of a new survey of Anywhere agents — real estate professionals who will ultimately report to Compass CEO Robert Reffkin if the New York-based brokerage giant's planned merger with its leading competitor goes through next year.
Zillow survey suggests Anywhere agents would be looking to leave: The results of the survey, which Zillow says was conducted during the second half of October, found that 18% of Anywhere agents surveyed signaled that they would "definitely" leave their brokerage in the next year should Compass close the deal, while another 35% of agents said that they "might consider" leaving Anywhere.
Additionally, 23% of the Anywhere agents surveyed by Zillow suggested that the acquisition by Compass would overall be negative to their business.
Zillow also asked Anywhere agents about the theme of listing transparency amid the industry's growing debate over private listings — which Compass has focused a major part of its brokerage strategy on in the past year. Zillow has been a staunch opponent to office exclusives and off-MLS listings. About 70% of the Anywhere agents surveyed by Zillow expressed that private listing networks are not in a seller's best interest.
The survey comes amid fierce legal wrangling between giants: Zillow's survey of Anywhere agents comes at a point where the home search leader is embroiled in a fierce legal fight with Compass. And at the heart of the legal feud is the use of private listing networks and Zillow's rules — formally, Zillow Listing Access Standards — around listings that are publicly marketed but not widely available to consumers.
Zillow began barring noncompliant listings from appearing on Zillow.com and Trulia.com starting in late June, but not before Compass sued to stop the company's enforcement of its rules. Compass CEO Robert Reffkin alleged at the time that the home search site was "abusing its monopoly power to ban homeowners and their agents" for marketing homes elsewhere and argued that Zillow's listing standards would "cause irreparable damage to Compass and home sellers and home buyers."
Do industry leaders expect an agent shakeup post-acquisition? Zillow isn't the only one wondering what could happen to Anywhere agents following a merger with Compass. During the question and answer section of Real Brokerage's earnings call on October 30, an analyst asked CEO Tamir Poleg if he saw an opportunity in agents looking to leave Anywhere following the Compass acquisition.
"I think that once that transaction closes, we will likely see a little bit more interest from people who are searching for a new path, but we're not counting on that," he explained. "We're counting on our organic growth and our ability to attract agents based on our value proposition — we're not capitalizing on anybody else's troubles or discomfort in order to fuel our growth."
eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja also sees an opportunity for his company to pick up agents from Anywhere.
"I think that anytime there's a change, it makes people pause and ask questions," he told Real Estate News in October. "Agents are independent contractors who take the 'independent' portion of that statement very seriously. So if there's any change, that creates the opportunity to review where you're at and find out if you're aligned. I think this will create questions."
