As a real estate professional who has spent years working directly with buyers, sellers, brokers, and MLS organizations across the country, I have seen firsthand how important transparency and equal access are to a healthy housing market.

Over the course of my career, I have facilitated more than 16,000+ MLS closed transactions and maintained affiliations with 84 different MLS organizations. I have also ranked among the top three real estate agents nationally for five consecutive years. That experience has given me a broad view of how real estate markets function and what happens when consumers do not have access to the full picture.

Today, certain proposed policies and brokerage practices threaten that transparency by encouraging exclusive or restricted listings that never receive full exposure on the open market.

When listings are withheld from the broader MLS marketplace, consumers lose choice. Sellers may miss opportunities to reach qualified buyers, buyers may never learn that certain homes are available, and a limited number of companies gain an advantage simply because they control access to information.

That is not what an open, competitive real estate market should look like.

The MLS has long played an essential role in creating a more transparent marketplace. Broad access to accurate listing and sales information supports competition, helps sellers make informed decisions, gives buyers greater opportunity, contributes to fair housing, improves the accuracy of appraisals, and helps protect the integrity of property values.

Restricting that access can have consequences far beyond an individual transaction. A fragmented marketplace can reduce competition, limit consumer choice, distort available market data, and create conditions in which private business interests are placed ahead of the people the real estate industry is supposed to serve.

Homeowners should not have to sacrifice market exposure simply because one company wants to keep a listing within its own network. Buyers should not need a relationship with a particular brokerage to know which homes are actually available. And no organization should be able to create an information advantage at the expense of an open and competitive marketplace.

This issue is bigger than any single brokerage, association, or business model. It is about protecting the basic principles that allow consumers to participate confidently in the housing market: transparency, access, competition, and choice.

These concerns are no longer limited to an industry debate. They are now receiving serious scrutiny at the federal level. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, recently requested information from Compass and Midwest Real Estate Data, or MRED, regarding their private listing network partnership and its potential effects on competition, consumer access, market transparency, fair housing, and housing data. Senator Warren warned that the partnership could contribute to a two-tiered housing marketplace in which some consumers and industry participants have access to inventory and information that others do not. She has requested responses from Compass and MRED by August 21, 2026.

The U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust has also sought answers from Compass CEO Robert Reffkin and MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen regarding the companies' private listing partnership, citing concerns involving transparency, competition, and consumer outcomes.

I recently published an open letter to Senator Warren supporting greater examination of these issues and urging policymakers to hear directly from professionals who work within the MLS system every day. My position is simple. Consumers should understand what information may be withheld, where their property will and will not be exposed, what alternatives are available to them, and what financial interests may exist when a brokerage recommends keeping a listing within a private network.

I urge policymakers, MLS organizations, industry associations, brokers, and real estate leaders to oppose policies that unnecessarily restrict access to property listings and market information.

We should be moving toward greater transparency, not less.

We should be giving consumers more information, not creating private channels that limit what they can see.

And we should protect a marketplace in which every seller has the opportunity for broad exposure and every buyer has a fair opportunity to compete.

If you believe consumers deserve an open, informed, and competitive housing market, please join me in supporting this petition.

Your signature sends a clear message: real estate should work in the best interests of the public, and access to the marketplace should not be reserved for a select few.

Steve Koleno
Founder, Open Access in Real Estate
#3 Ranked Agent Nationally