A Portland homebuyer is suing Zillow (NASDAQ: Z, ZG) for allegedly tricking him into splitting his agent’s commission with the Seattle-based brokerage.
The Seattle Times is reporting the lawsuit filed with the US District Court for the Western District of Washington is claiming the man bought his Portland property was under the impression that the Zillow website’s links for “Contact agent” or “Request a tour” on a Zillow listing page would connect him with the home’s listing agent. However, those links sent the man’s contact data to Zillow-affiliated buyer’s agents.
The lawsuit observed that when a buyer’s agent is part of Zillow’s “Flex” program, the company receives up to 40% of the agent’s commission — but the homebuyer is not told about that arrangement.
“Zillow buries the listing agent in tiny print, barely visible to the average reader,” said the lawsuit, noting that Zillow agents in this program are not encouraged to adjust their commission or negotiate prices down to benefit the buyer.
The plaintiff, who was not publicly identified, is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit that will include financial compensation of up to $25,000 a person.
Zillow spokesperson Chrissy Roebuck issued a statement saying the lawsuit distorted how the company does business.
“Contrary to its claims, we stand by our long-held belief that buyers and sellers deserve to have the choice to work with an agent who is committed to their best interests and only represents them,” Roebuck said. “We will vigorously defend ourselves against these claims.”
Applause, applause, applause for the plaintiff.
About time!
Zillow is the biggest leach in real estate. they live off the hard work of agents.
They absolutely do. They didn’t when they first started. In fact they were pretty good to deal with. But I guess like many – they got too big for their britches which means they got way too greedy. They also stopped caring about how well or unwell agents were doing.
The Law of real estate is Disclose! Disclose! Disclose! Realtor for 27 years licensed in Virgina & North Carolina.
Zillow has always been very deceptive. They do place the listing agents contact information somewhere in the listing, but the problem is a magnifying glass is needed to find it. The prospective purchasers are deceived in thinking that they are contacting the listing agent when in fact hey are a contacting an agent affiliated with Zillow. The Zillow agent’s contact information is much larger and magnifying glass is not needed.
Yes, Candice, Joan, Justin & Roger I agree with each of you !
Finally! Some sanity! YES! YES! YES!
It is about time that someone challenges this deceptive practice.
As a realtor, I am pretty sure the realtor shown with the listing is getting raped by having to pay absorbent rates to get there info next to the listing per zip code. And yes, they very little or nothing about the listing and have to look it up like any other realtor.
It is very deceptive and you do not get any advantage to contacting that agent. (THEY PAY DEARLY FOR THAT SPOT)
Years ago, the biggest mistake that Brokers and Agents have made was believing that Zillow was offering “free” advertising for their listings. As we now know, Zillow only wanted to use our listings to gain the wealth & power that they now have in real estate and to be viewed by the general public as the authority on real estate. They used our listings and now they have taken over Trulia, Dotloop, Showingtime, Hotpads, and more! It’s really time for all Brokers and all Agents to disallow IDX and disallow Zillow from advertising other real estate companies listings. Otherwise, we are only contributing to the demise of most agents’ profession as we know it.
absolutely, I’ve been an agent rounding my 34th year and have seen and advocated for many changes we live with today. Zillow, in my opinion, from the start was a tick on the neck of the industry bringing with it drained lifeblood and disease.
25 years as a Realtor and I brought Zillow up to our Association and MLS. In my opinion NAR could have stopped this, instead they sold Realtor.com which rapped Realtors by charging to put their information on the site. If NAR was really looking out for the Realtors they should have the best website and Zillow would never had made it. Where is all the money we pay to NAR? Paying big time executives who have scandals and now attorney fees for law suits.
Zillow steals the listing from the listing agent and their broker and then sells the leads to brokers or realtors who are willingt to buy clients. The nitwit (idiot/lazy) realtors and brokers that pay zillow should have a class action suit against them as well. At least 7 years of theft from zillow.
Zillow is a good source for homebuyers to find properties of interest and to research the area amenities and recent sales. However, if you don’t want a buyer’s agent, it is not easy to find the listing broker’s information or to find listings for sale by owner, unless you thoroughly research all filters check off appropriate fields. I recently tried to make an appointment to see a house and hit l “Connect with agent”, expecting the Seller’s representative to respond. I got a response that the agent (name) is connecting with Seller’s representative and will contact me with available times for viewing. At this time, I realized that I would be dealing with the buyer’s broker and tried to cancel it. It took me several hours and a trip to the property where the listing agent’s phone was displayed.
By the time I reached the agent, I was told that another offer was accepted a few minutes ego. I list an opportunity to compete for the property and the seller may not have received the best price.
If you are a real estate agent, why didn’t you simply go into your MLS and input the property address you were interested in? You could have had the listing agents information immediately versus driving the property! Being that you were on this thread, I’m assuming you’re an agent.
Exactly Tim Kuzma ! I have said the same over and over. Zillow steals our listings even when IDX is off and sells OUR Leads ! I have called Zillow telling them to take my Listings off. I have also told Zillow reps not to call me when they try to sell me back my leads. I told them that I will never pay for a lead. Does anyone know what attorneys are handling the call action suit. I have at lease 2 buyers who could join this suit, that told me they thought the listing Broker
but some agent that bought their information called them. They were angry because they wanted to speak with me.
40 years in the business and I have been robbed by Zillow the last 8. NAR should straighten this mess out.
Zillow has been doing this for years. Local buyer agents pay a large monthly fee to be in the rotation in your zip code. When you click on contact agent, you get one of these, not the listing agent. To be fair- they are connecting buyers with a buyer agent, not with the seller’s agent. However- as a builder- we want the buyers to contact us directly, not be brought to us by a third party. The flex agent idea must be new with Zillow keeping all but 1% of the commission, that I agree is not fair to anyone.
I have been a real estate instructor for over 30 years. I have seen the industry go from only representing the seller, mostly, to now representing buyers. When Zillow first started, I viewed it as a “For Sale by Owner” website. However, over the years they have secretly and deceitfully wormed their way into all real estate. Agents today feel like they MUST put their listings on Zillow to market their properties. However, Zillow seems to promote the idea that buyers should find single representation rather than go with the listing agent. This actually is the best thing for the buyer and the seller. However, it creates animosity and fear with real estate agents because they can’t represent both sides and get both sides of the commission. The fear is that they won’t make as much money! In my opinion, if dual/limited agency were banned in all states and sellers and buyers had their own agent that gave them full representation and loyalty, they would be much better off and disclosure would be so much easier! I know that this is not a popular idea with real estate agents, but until we stop doing it, lawsuits will continue to plague our industry.