Homes.com CEO Andy Florance has blasted the announcement by Zillow (NASDAQ: Z, ZG) that it would not list homes that are not listed on the MLS within 24 hours of public marketing.
In a letter to real estate agents, Florance called Zillow’s action “an incredible move of audacity and a pure power play of epic proportion” that usurps industry standards set by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) with an “anti-consumer and anti-agent” policy.
“Delayed IDX syndication is allowed under NAR rules,” said Florance. “But Zillow is asserting that they, not NAR, not your brokerage, not you the listing agent—and not even the homeowner whose house it is and is paying the commission—should decide how a listing is marketed. This isn’t about protecting consumers. It’s about protecting Zillow’s ability to profit from your listings by selling your leads to competing agents.”
Florance added, “Whether or not you support the Clear Cooperation Policy, it is never acceptable for a real estate portal to threaten agents this way. Real estate portals must remain neutral. Whether you’re a buyer’s agent, a listing agent, or both, we support all agents and believe you deserve better. And we believe every real estate professional deserves to be treated with fairness and respect—never bullied by a tech platform looking to control an industry.”
Florance predicted consumers will ultimately force Zillow to reverse course.
“Even if just a few agents hold back from listing on Zillow, buyers will quickly follow suit—and stop searching there,” he said, encouraging real estate professionals to consider federal intervention in the matter. “If you feel that Zillow’s heavy-handed attempt to use their market power to force agents like you to list on Zillow within 24 hours is anticompetitive, you can let the DOJ know by clicking United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division.”
Homes.com is a division of CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP).
Its time for Zillow to disappear. Since inception their information was incorrect, misleading, and unsubstantiated. They were illegally misappropriating agents and MLS intellectual property and only joined the MLS after threat of legal action which they knew they could never win. All agents should demand their MLSs to not allow any information to be shared with Zillow. They will be gone in under 30 days.
Great suggestion
It’s Zillow’s latest move from service provider to competitor. They’re using the occasion of NAR’s “clear cooperation policy” as an excuse to ensure Zillow’s access to more inventory with which to maximize the fee revenue it generates from the information and work of property owners and agents. If NAR truly cares about its brokers/agents (and MLS), it should require businesses that broker information for their own profit (like Zillow) must share that revenue with the brokers, agents, seller and buyers they rely on for that revenue.
I don’t believe Zillow should be allowed to profit off NAR listing without compensating listing broker & agent. Is NAR compensated by Zillow for the information?
Me, my broker and other realtors from my office saw that from zillow this week and we don’t that is right from zillow, all they want is to make money on us realtors.
We are the ones who work hard, not zillow.
Zillow needs to fix this or something needs to be done to get zillow out of our business , because we are the ones doing the work, yes zillow benefits getting like 30 to 35% referral fee without doing nothing, besides they don’t carry any liability on their referrals, it al profit to them and now they came up with this? Not fair. Is it? let’s work together realtors.
Zillow, RedFin and Realtor.com all have their places out there in the real estate market and are intended to be real estate information gatherers and processors, read influencers as the new buzzword. Let them refer and receive fees as they will, even though I have a tough time thinking we do the digging and research and hands-on work, including intaking, interviewing, qualifying, showing and doing paperwork as licensees to get clients – buying or selling – through their escrow, while they sit in CyberLaLaLand and reap benefits from us.