![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-1.png\")
Inman pushes back on intimidation by brokerage monopoly<\/p>\nQuick take: I still contend that vacations are good, and I saw gas get a little cheaper in the Detroit Metro after about 1,400 miles of our 2,000-mile road trip. For those who missed an earlier post, we\u2019re traveling through the Midwest to visit friends and family. We\u2019ve already hit the DC Metro (the DMV), Nashville, Cincinnati, and Detroit. What we call soda in New York and Connecticut hits different in the Midwest, where it\u2019s called \u201ccoke\u201d in Tennessee and \u201cpop\u201d in Ohio and Michigan. And as a friend recently told me, \u201cwas there ever a question that Mountain Dew was anything other than American? It\u2019s like Scrapple, Wonder Bread and the lightbulb in the pantheon of American ingenuity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Incidentally, the topic of the following post is about 3 days late from the initial drama, but that\u2019s what happens when you go on vacation and unplug. I\u2019m still on vacation but it is currently 98F in Detroit, so I chose to stay indoors and write this.<\/p>\n
Inman pushes back on intimidation by brokerage monopoly<\/p>\n
Kudos to Inman News for standing up to editorial pressure from a large advertiser. Apparently, CEO Thomas Bohn and his organization didn\u2019t like being bullied<\/a> into taking down an op-ed by Bess Freedman<\/a>, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens.<\/p>\n The Bohn op-ed was a spectacular piece<\/a>: \u201cWe can\u2019t be bought, and we won\u2019t be bullied,\u201d which gave me an additional layer of respect for the Inman News organization. This is what industry leadership looks like. The following Bohn quote says it all.<\/p>\n \u201cConcentrated power makes independent coverage harder and more necessary at the same time. Without it, an industry settles for stenography, where the largest players narrate their own story, and everyone else applauds on cue. A demand to delete a story before breakfast is a tell. No one confident in their position asks you to erase it.\u201d<\/p>\n The op-ed that took no prisoners<\/p>\n Bess wrote a terrific op-ed that Compass must have felt was uncomfortably close to reality. Otherwise, why would anyone object to what Bess actually said? \u201cThus protest too much\u201d comes to mind with the Compass pre-breakfast demand. The piece: Bess Freedman: Real estate is falling for the Madoff playbook, asking \u201cWhat happens when our trusted professionals fail us<\/a>?\u201d is also brilliant. She uses Ponzi schemer Madoff<\/a> as shorthand to illustrate how reputational sheen can mask systemic fraud or consumer harm until it collapses. The highlights of the key points she made were:<\/p>\n Compass is systematically steering sellers<\/a> into 90\u2011day private listing periods that keep inventory inside its own network, boosting double\u2011ended deals<\/a> and firm economics while limiting market exposure and likely depressing achieved prices.<\/p>\n The author argues that this behavior violates agents\u2019 fiduciary and fair housing obligations by turning what should be narrow exceptions (e.g., celebrity, security) into the default, thereby reducing transparency and hiding key metrics such as days on market.<\/p>\n Regulators are responding: New York\u2019s AG has opened an antitrust investigation into Compass, and the state\u2019s Fair\/Free and Fair Listings Act would sharply restrict private listings by requiring rapid public marketing absent a state\u2011prescribed opt\u2011out, explicitly to protect consumers from these practices.<\/p>\n You gotta love Freedman\u2019s chutzpah. Both Inman op-ed posts by Thomas and Bess suggest that Reffkin\/Compass leadership didn\u2019t like her op-ed piece and threatened Inman economically, saying they would pull all Compass advertising from the platform.<\/p>\n The real estate media stands tall<\/p>\n And you gotta love Bohn\u2019s chutzpah, too. He confirms that:<\/p>\n \u201cInman does not work for the biggest brokerages, the loudest portal or whoever is writing the largest check this quarter. We work for the agents and brokers who do the job.\u201d Final thoughts<\/p>\n I have talked about their monopolistic<\/a> behavior in the past. This is why monopolies are illegal \u2014 their 80% market share in Manhattan will eventually foster bad behavior. This is why there needs to be a regulatory review of their recent and unprecedented merger with Anywhere<\/a>. Specifically, how they dodged it through knowing someone in the White House. Since federal oversight was missed and won\u2019t be restored under the current administration, more state-level intervention is needed to offset the damage to consumers caused by scaling up private listings.<\/p>\n Disruption of the real estate industry is supposed to improve it for consumers, not mislead them.<\/p>\n The actual final thought \u2013 Rapping brings clarity<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read more Housing Notes columns and sign up for email newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \tRead more \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Compass slides back into antitrust spotlight<\/p>\n \t\t\t<\/a>
Recently, Compass called me directly to say they noticed all my anti-private listings and monopolistic screeds on HousingNotes.com<\/a>, and offered to hire me to write about their strategy and moves, as well as to conduct interviews with their executives. I declined.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n![\"NY](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WEEKND-NY-Compass-slides-back-into-antitrust-spotlight-MAIN-200x133.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t