Author: O.K. Hogan | REALTOR®/BROKER, CCIM, SFR

On January 9, 2026, the two largest residential brokerages in the United States became one company.

Compass completed its acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, the parent company of Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby's International Realty, ERA, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, and Corcoran. The deal was valued at roughly $1.6 billion in stock, or about $4.2 billion once assumed debt is counted.

Most coverage of that transaction was written for real estate agents. Very little of it was written for the person who actually owns a home on this coast.

So here is the version that matters if you own property in Carteret County or along the Wilmington beaches, and you are thinking about selling in the next year or two.

Nothing about your closing changes. The brand names you recognize are staying. But one long-standing assumption about how homes get advertised is now genuinely open for discussion, and on a coastal market like ours, that question carries more weight than it does almost anywhere else.

What Actually Happened in the Compass and Anywhere Merger

Compass announced the acquisition in September 2025 and originally projected a close in the second half of 2026.

Instead, shareholders of both companies approved the merger in early January, the federal antitrust review window expired without a formal challenge, and the transaction closed on January 9, months ahead of schedule.

The combined company operates as Compass International Holdings. It has roughly 340,000 agents. The two firms together accounted for approximately $415 billion in transaction volume in 2024, more than the next five largest brokerages combined.

The legacy brands are staying in place. Compass has stated publicly that Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby's International Realty, and Corcoran will maintain their separate identities. If you list with a Century 21 office in Morehead City next spring, the sign in your yard will still say Century 21.

On the surface, very little changes locally. The substance is somewhere else.

Why the Private Listing Question Matters More on the Coast

For several years, Compass has been building what it calls a private exclusive network.

This is a way for its agents to market a seller's home to other Compass agents and their clients before, or sometimes instead of, publishing that home to the Multiple Listing Service where every other agent and every public search site can see it.

There is a real argument in favor of it, and sellers deserve to hear it fairly. A quiet pre-market period allows a seller to test pricing without accumulating days on market. Some sellers, particularly at higher price points, genuinely value privacy.

There is also a real argument against it. A listing that is not on the MLS is not on Zillow, is not on Realtor.com, is not in your local brokerage's search feed, and is not visible to the agent representing the buyer who might have paid the most for it.

That concern is why United States Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden wrote to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice in December urging closer review of the transaction. Their stated worry was that consolidation at this scale could make it harder for buyers who are not working inside the acquiring company's network to find homes at all.

Compass has said that no agent will be required to use its off-MLS tools. That statement should be taken at face value. The issue is not a mandate. The issue is that a company with 340,000 agents now has both the inventory and the business incentive to make its own network the first place listings appear.

Your Crystal Coast Buyer Probably Does Not Live Here

This is where a coastal market differs from an inland one, and it is the whole reason the question matters here.

In an inland metropolitan area, most buyers live in that metropolitan area. If a listing circulates privately among one company's agents for two weeks, a large share of the likely buyer pool is still inside that circle.

Carteret County does not work that way.

A meaningful share of buyers for waterfront property in Beaufort, oceanfront condominiums in Atlantic Beach, and soundside homes in Emerald Isle do not live here. They live in Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte, Richmond, northern Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. They begin searching six months to three years before they buy. They search on national websites, from a laptop, at night, from several hundred miles away.

That buyer cannot walk into a local office and ask what is coming up. That buyer finds your home because it is on the MLS, and because the MLS feeds the websites where they are looking.

Anything that narrows public distribution narrows that buyer's view of your property. On the Crystal Coast, that buyer is frequently the one who pays the most, because they are buying a lifestyle rather than a commute.

Second-home and waterfront markets depend on wide, inexpensive, public visibility. That is the specific thing at stake in this conversation.

What a Recent Sale Showed Us

In May, our team listed a custom-built waterfront home on Harkers Island at $2,600,000. Five bedrooms, four baths, 190 feet of frontage on Back Sound, a private dock with lift, and views of Cape Lookout from nearly every room.

It went under contract in 18 days and closed in July at $2,550,000, which is just over 98 percent of the asking price.

The property was advertised nationally and internationally through our luxury marketing program, which placed it in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Robb Report, Mansion Global, and JamesEdition, along with syndication across more than 100 international property portals. The listing tour drew more than 1,300 visits.

But the buyer did not come from any of those placements.

The home sold to a buyer from inland North Carolina, brought by a cooperating agent at another luxury brokerage. That agent found the listing the ordinary way, on the MLS.

That detail is worth sitting with. The wide advertising built the audience and kept a $2.55 million property from sitting. The MLS delivered the actual buyer, through an agent who could see the home because it was published where every agent could see it.

Both mattered. Neither would have been enough alone.

Where Star Team Real Estate Stands

It seems to me that the widest distribution available is what favors the seller. That is the job. Get the most eyes on the property so the right buyer finds it and pays what it is worth.

Until I see a clear advantage to a seller in doing it another way, we are moving with caution. I believe the MLS remains the best way to maintain the broadest coverage of a listing today, and we pair it with the widest advertising reach we can put behind a property.

Reasonable people in this business will disagree about that over the next few years. You should hear both cases before you sign a listing agreement.

Questions Every Coastal Seller Should Ask

These questions apply to any agent at any company, including this one.

• Will my home go on the MLS immediately, and if not, why not?
• If you are recommending a pre-market or private period, what is the business reason for me rather than for your brokerage?
• How many buyers for a home like mine come from outside this county?
• What does my listing agreement say about off-MLS marketing?

There are legitimate answers to the first two. Ask for one that is specific to your property rather than general. On the third, any agent working in this market should have a real sense of the number, because it determines how much public exposure is actually worth to you. On the fourth, read that paragraph before you sign it.

For general background on how listing data is shared and what the rules require, the National Association of REALTORS maintains public guidance on its Clear Cooperation Policy.

What Buyers Should Do

If you are buying on the Crystal Coast from out of the area, the practical consequence is that searching on national websites may no longer show you everything, and the gap will be uneven and difficult to see from the outside.

Work with an agent who is physically in this market and speaking with other agents here every week. Ask them directly what they are hearing about that has not reached the public search sites yet.

On this coast, that conversation has always mattered. It is about to matter more.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Compass and Anywhere merger?

The Compass and Anywhere merger is the acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate by Compass, which closed on January 9, 2026. Anywhere was the parent company of Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby's International Realty, ERA, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, and Corcoran. The combined company operates as Compass International Holdings and has roughly 340,000 agents, making it the largest residential brokerage in the United States.

Does the Compass and Anywhere merger affect my home sale in Carteret County?

The Compass and Anywhere merger does not change how a home sale closes in Carteret County. Contracts, inspections, financing, and closing all work the same way. What may change over time is where listings are advertised, because the combined company has the size to operate its own private listing network rather than publishing every home to the Multiple Listing Service.

What is a private listing network in real estate?

A private listing network is a system where a brokerage markets a seller's home to its own agents and their clients before, or instead of, publishing the listing on the Multiple Listing Service. Supporters say it allows sellers to test pricing privately without accumulating days on market. Critics say it reduces the number of buyers who can find the home, which can lower the final sale price.

Should my Crystal Coast home be listed on the MLS?

For most Crystal Coast sellers, listing on the Multiple Listing Service provides the broadest possible exposure, because a large share of buyers for coastal North Carolina property live outside the county and find homes through national search sites that receive MLS data. Sellers who are offered a private or pre-market listing strategy should ask what specific benefit it provides to them rather than to the brokerage.

Will Coldwell Banker and Century 21 offices close after the merger?

Compass has stated that Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Sotheby's International Realty, and Corcoran will keep their separate brand identities following the merger. Local offices operating under those names are expected to continue operating under those names. The change is in ownership and technology platform rather than in local branding.

Who should I talk to about selling a waterfront home on the Crystal Coast?

To sell a waterfront or second home on the Crystal Coast, work with an agent who understands how out-of-area buyers actually search, how water access and dock condition affect value, and how marketing reach influences the final number. Star Team Real Estate serves sellers across Beaufort, Morehead City, Emerald Isle, Atlantic Beach, Harkers Island, Swansboro, Cape Carteret, and Newport. Call Star Team Real Estate at (252) 727-5656 to talk through your property and your timing.

Talk Through Your Coastal Property With a Clear Plan

This merger is not an emergency for anyone buying or selling a home in Carteret County this year. Your closing will work the way it worked last year, and the brands you recognize will still be here.

What changed is that a single company now holds enough inventory to make its own marketplace viable, and the long-standing assumption that every listing is published to a shared public database has become a business decision rather than a default. For a coastal market that depends on distant buyers finding us online, that is worth watching closely.

If you own property on the Crystal Coast or along the Wilmington beaches and you want to understand how your home would actually be marketed, call Star Team Real Estate at (252) 727-5656 or begin with our coastal North Carolina seller strategy.