Subject: A Personal Message About Our Shared Marketplace
Dear OneKey MLS Participants,
I want to speak with you directly about the demand letter OneKey MLS received from Compass, our response, and our responsibility to the marketplace we serve.
I've spent my career working alongside brokers and agents who care deeply about their clients, their businesses, and the communities they serve. Real estate isn’t easy. I know how much you invest in your work, and I have tremendous respect for the relationships you've built and the trust your clients place in you.
That is what makes this conversation important to me.
Compass has challenged certain MLS policies and requested changes to them. OneKey has carefully considered the issues raised and has formally responded. We are sharing that response because we want you to understand our position and the reasons behind it.
At OneKey, we believe seller choice and broker cooperation can, and should, coexist.
We've worked hard to put that belief into practice. Our listing exposure options give sellers and their brokers meaningful flexibility in how properties are marketed, whether through private listings, MLS-only exposure, or broader public distribution. Sellers have different circumstances and priorities, and they should understand the benefits and limitations of those options when making decisions with their brokers.
We believe that flexibility can exist alongside the cooperation that allows competing brokerages to share reliable listing information and create meaningful opportunities for the buyers and sellers they represent.
That exchange depends on participants contributing listing information under common rules, including the options available to sellers who choose to limit exposure. It helps buyers learn about properties listed by different firms and helps sellers reach prospective buyers represented by those firms. Those consumer benefits are central to the position we have taken.
I also want to be especially clear about something.
To our Compass participants and agents: You are valued members of the OneKey community.
We appreciate the professionalism, contributions, and relationships you bring to our marketplace. This policy disagreement does not change our respect for your work or our commitment to serving you. We remain fully committed to providing you with the same care, resources, and service we provide to every OneKey participant and subscriber.
OneKey serves a diverse community of brokerage firms, from independent offices to regional and national organizations, each with its own business model, priorities, and perspective. That diversity is one of our strengths. We are committed to administering our rules fairly and consistently across participating firms.
What unites us is a shared interest in a marketplace where information can be trusted, consumers can make informed choices, and brokerages can compete through the quality, service, and innovation they offer.
Our responsibility at OneKey is to support those outcomes while continuing to evolve. We will keep investing in technology, listening to your needs, and creating flexibility that helps you serve your clients.
We also understand that thoughtful people may have different views about how our industry should move forward. We respect those differences, and we welcome constructive conversations about them. We will continue to evaluate our policies with attention to their practical effects on consumers and competition.
Our commitment to informed seller choice, reliable listing information, and the cooperation that connects buyers and sellers across brokerage firms remains strong.
I encourage you to read our response and explore the resources we've developed to explain OneKey's position and the choices available within our MLS.
Read OneKey's Response and Explore Our Resources
Thank you for the trust you place in OneKey and for the contributions you make to this marketplace every day.
I value the opportunity to work with you, and I look forward to continuing to build an MLS that serves all of us and the consumers who depend on us.
Warm regards,
Richard Haggerty
Chief Executive Officer