Secret Shopping Compass Coming Soon Listings
Between May and September 2026, I hired a research firm to secret-shop 33 Compass Coming Soon listings on Redfin in Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
Why it matters: My research targets the biggest strategic questions in real estate, and the Compass and Redfin partnership raises one: what happens when buyer leads go straight to the listing agent?
The research reveals that most of the time, the listing agent answered personally, responding to 19 of the 33 inquiries.
Another eight got a response from someone else at Compass – a teammate, an assistant, or a different agent – and every one of the 27 led to a real conversation.
On the other six inquiries no one from Compass reached out in the first 24 hours (five received an automated text), and the buyer phoned the listing agent themselves.
A response rate of 82 percent is far better than in my 2024 secret shop of brokerage websites, where 47 percent of inquiries got no response from a person.
If anything, 82 percent is conservative: this study gave agents 24 hours to respond, while the 2024 study counted replies that took as long as four days.
Most responses came fast, with 17 of the 33 inquiries answered inside an hour and another 10 within a day.
In Arlington, Massachusetts, one shopper wrote, "Within less than 30 seconds of me submitting an inquiry, I received a call."
That's roughly in line with my 2024 study, where the median response took 39 minutes, although the average was over eight hours.
There is a belief that Coming Soon is a way to lure buyers and double-end deals (this research did not target private exclusives) – on the first call, few agents pushed to represent the buyer while most offered a tour.
Of the 19 shoppers posing as buyers without an agent, only one was asked whether they had one, three got an explicit offer of representation, and none was asked to sign a buyer agreement.
Another three agents hinted at representation without offering it, usually a line about helping them find another home.
Of the 14 shoppers posing as buyers who already had an agent, half were never asked; when it did come up, four Compass agents told the buyer to have their agent reach out, two kept talking to the buyer directly and offered a showing, and one lost interest.
When asked what Coming Soon means, agents described a home that isn't ready to show or a chance to test the price.
Seven agents never explained the status at all; as one buyer in Arlington, Virginia, put it afterward, "Still not fully clear to me, honestly."
One agent, after pointing out the home was "not on Zillow," pitched the window as a price test – "If we get a buyer before then, then it's at the price that it is at right now" – just as Compass's Rory Golod described on my podcast.
The bottom line: “Your listing, your lead” comes with a common warning – be careful what you wish for – because listing agents may not be able to handle the flow of leads.
This research suggests otherwise for agents with the proper infrastructure behind them, and when it comes to the last mile, the winning move is still pretty simple: just call people back.
Note: This research was self-funded and not done at the prompting of any company, individual, or industry group – I’m just curious.