Episode summary
Rocket’s Joe Rath on the Compass partnership and private listings
HousingWire Daily
· · Hosts: Sarah Wheeler · Guests: Joe Rath
Summary
Joe Rath said Rocket’s partnership with Compass is built around seller choice, not secrecy: the companies want MLS rules to allow a staged marketing process where homes can start as private exclusives or coming-soon listings before broader public distribution. He framed the effort as a response to shrinking affordability and a need to bring more homes to market, arguing that more listing flexibility could get fence-sitting sellers to list.
Rath said the dispute is mostly about MLS rules that force an all-or-nothing model, where a listing is either broadly public or effectively hidden. He pointed to MLSs such as Bright MLS, Unlock MLS, Realtracs in Nashville, and MLS PIN in Boston as examples of systems that already allow more flexibility, while others still require broad exposure and even restrict what can be shown before full publication.
He also argued that the partnership is not meant to disadvantage buyers, because most phase-one and phase-two listings ultimately move to phase three, and the combined Rocket-Redfin-Compass ecosystem reaches tens of millions of users. Rath said the mortgage side of the deal, including up to $6,000 in closing-cost credit or a 1% first-year rate reduction, is meant to support the same affordability goal.
Key takeaways
- Joe Rath said Rocket and Compass are pushing MLSs toward seller-directed pre-marketing because they believe more listing options can bring more homes to market.
- Rath said the partnership is designed around a phased model, with most listings eventually moving from private exposure to broad public distribution.
- He said some MLSs still enforce an outdated all-or-nothing rule set, while others already accommodate seller choice.
- Rath said the combined Rocket-Redfin-Compass platform reaches 60 million users in phase two and 250 million plus in phase three.
- He argued that the mortgage incentives, including up to $6,000 in closing-cost credit or a 1% first-year rate reduction, are part of the same affordability strategy.
Notable quotes
“the way I think about it is because I've been an agent for almost 20 years now”
“we think this could actually bring up to 10% or more inventory to the market”
How the episode opens
Welcome everyone. My guest today is Joe Wrath, head of real estate industry relations at Rocket to talk about their partnership with Compass, how the rules around private listings are changing, and what to expect next. Before we dive in, I want to thank our sponsor, Trust and Will, for making this episode possible. Joe, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks so much for having me. Thank you for being on. Okay, very timely topic.
We have gotten so much feedback um on our stories on this topic because people are are somewhat confused about what's going on. I think it's you know things are rapidly changing on the real estate listing side and you guys are sort of front and center in that. So quick re recap of what's been happening with real estate listings in case people aren't up to speed or even if they are and they're confused is you know broadly the ru the rules around private listings have changed a lot in the last several months right in November the national association of realators changed their policy to give local MLS's and that is your multiple listing services the ability to set their own rules on private listings and non-member access among other things.
So they've shifted the risk and and the decision, right, to those local entities. And so that's kind of where you guys come in. You're you're doing a full court press on on those guys now and saying, "Hey, you should we should talk about private listings.
So my first question to you just to set the stage, what is a private listing versus what we're used to? Yeah, I mean that's the issue too, right, with the terminology because I feel like there's a lot of overlapping terminology with different products and how MLS's think about it and how N thinks about it.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- private listings
- mls rules
- seller-directed pre-marketing
- real estate platforms
- rocket compass partnership
Companies and tickers mentioned
- RKT
- COMP
- Rocket
- Compass
- Redfin
Watch the episode
Watch “Rocket’s Joe Rath on the Compass partnership and private listings” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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