Do private listings harm senior home sellers?

Much attention has been given to the potential impact private listings could have on minorities and protected classes, but one Realtor is asking a court to consider how off-MLS marketing could impact senior home sellers. 

Greg Alkema, an 80-year-old California-based real estate agent, posed this question in an amicus brief filed earlier this week in Compass’s antitrust lawsuit against Zillow.

The lawsuit was initially filed in mid-June. Compass claims that Zillow’s listing access standards policy — which bans listings from its site that are publicly marketed for more than one business day prior to being available for display on Zillow — is harming both Compass and competition in the listing portal space. 

For Alkema, central to this lawsuit is the question of whether private listings are a marketing choice or a serious threat to consumers. In Alkema’s mind, private listings and off-MLS listing practices fall into the latter category.

According to Alkema, private listing networks create a “shadow marketplace,” which he says increases dual agency roles, reduces competition and suppresses sales prices.

These effects pose the largest threat to the senior home seller community, according to Alkema, who himself is a senior citizen. He argues that the concealment of a senior’s listing, which is frequently their main financial asset, could cause them to lose value in the sale of their property. According to his brief, this could be seen as elder financial abuse, in addition to a possible breach of fiduciary duty by the listing agent. 

Due to this, Alkema is asking in the court order for Compass to disclose information about sales of its off-MLS listings. This includes how many off-MLS listings there are and what price differences exist between these sales and comparable MLS sales.

He also requests that the court require Compass to prove that off-MLS listings “do no damage” to consumers, especially seniors. 

It remains to be seen if the court will accept this amicus filing. Judge Jeannette Vargas, who is overseeing the suit, is currently contemplating evidence and arguments presented during a four-day hearing last month regarding Compass’s preliminary injunction motion.

The brokerage is seeking to prevent Zillow from enforcing its listing access standards policy. A ruling is not expected on this motion for several weeks.