Zillow’s Errol Samuelson hits back at Compass

Samuelson said on Tuesday that Compass CEO Robert Reffkin was not “truthful” and took issue with the way Compass has defined a polarizing Zillow listing rule.

Zillow’s Errol Samuelson came out of the gate swinging Tuesday, saying that Compass CEO Robert Reffkin “was not being truthful with all of you.”

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Samuelson — Zillow’s chief industry development officer — made the comments while on stage at Inman Connect New York. His was among the first sessions Tuesday morning, but it came shortly after Reffkin himself appeared on stage and discussed Compass’ lawsuit against Zillow. During his remarks, Reffkin said that Zillow “offered $1.3 [billion] to $1.6 billion to Compass if we prevented our agents from marketing off of Zillow.”

But Samuelson pushed back against this characterization. At the prompting of session moderator Brad Inman, Samuelson described a meeting he attended involving the two companies on the 40th floor of Zillow’s headquarters in Washington state. And Samuelson said that in this meeting, “We did not offer him a billion dollars.”

“What we discussed in that meeting were products that were either currently available or currently under development at Zillow that we thought Compass could use to grow their business,” Samuelson said.

The meeting in question is actually documented in a large trove of recent court filings that are part of the companies’ lawsuit. Among other things, the documents mention a meeting in April 2025 in which “Zillow offered various terms for the potential partnership, including a variety of product offerings and benefits that Zillow predicted would result in Compass earning an additional $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion annually and doubling Compass’ market share.”

Jeremy Hoffman, Zillow’s Chief Financial Officer, was also asked about offering Compass money during a deposition that was part of the lawsuit. According to transcripts of the deposition, Hoffman said that Zillow “offered, at a high level, what we thought were a pretty interesting set of ways to work together and grow our businesses together.”

Brad Inman, left, and Zillow’s Errol Samuelson on stage at Inman Connect New York on Tuesday. Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services.

Either way, the comments from Reffkin and Samuelson highlight the intensity of the rivalry between the two companies and the stakes the lawsuit represents. Compass first filed the case in June of last year over Zillow’s Listing Access Standards. The standards ban listings that are publicly marketed but not made available to the local MLS and Zillow within 24 hours.

READ: REFFKIN FLOATS IDEA FOR NATIONAL MLS

But the two companies disagreed Tuesday even on the rule’s fundamental definition. During his session, Reffkin said that the rule bans the “public marketing of listings that aren’t on Zillow.” The comment is in line with others Compass leaders have made in the past, arguing that the standards are not about private listings, but actually about Zillow’s access to those listings.

However, Samuelson offered a different take on Tuesday, saying that the portal’s rule “doesn’t say you have to put it on Zillow; it says you have to put it on the MLS.”

“That means Realtor.com gets it, Homes.com gets it, Redfin gets it,” he said.

Samuelson also criticized the concept of private listings more generally, saying that the U.S. has a uniquely open real estate system that is superior to those in other countries. And he floated the term “hidden listings” as a potential alternative to the more common “private listings” terminology that the industry has used in recent years.

“If you get a large broker hiding listings in a dark pool that’s only accessible to their agents,” Samuelson said, “you’re going to see other large brokers do the same thing very quickly.”

Though the competing comments between Compass and Zillow executives dominated hallway conversations Tuesday at Connect, Samuelson’s session ranged over a host of other topics as well, including artificial intelligence. He explained that right now, products such as chatbots are valuable tools, but that soon, real estate may begin to see more “agentic” AI. That means AI will not just answer questions, but also proactively complete tasks.

As an example, Samuelson described a date night in which an AI tool not only tells someone what time a movie is playing, but also buys tickets, books a dinner reservation and calls an Uber.

“So now it is becoming an extension of you,” he said.

In real estate, that technology might be able to schedule a home tour, fill out forms or even help determine an offer price.

“We’re not seeing a lot of agentic AI in real estate right now,” Samuelson said, “but give it six months.”

Email Jim Dalrymple II

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