Above, Andy Florance
When Zillow announced last week that starting in May, any property marketed to consumers must be entered into a Multiple Listing Service (MLS)—and published on sites that receive MLS feeds—within 24 hours or risk not appearing on Zillow for the life of the listing, the reaction across the industry was swift and strong.
Both eXp Realty and NextHome were quickly on board, putting their full support behind Zillow’s new “listing access standards,” which fly in the face of the National Association of REALTORS®’ (NAR) recent “exempt” listing designation. In March, NAR ruled on the hotly contested future of the Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP), leaving the policy in place, but allowing an exemption for listings to be withheld from the IDX while marketed on brokerage websites, through social media or on the MLS for an unspecified period of time. According to Zillow’s new standards, however, a listing publicly marketed to any buyer anywhere must be in the MLS and published on Zillow as well as other sites that receive MLS feeds.
This past weekend, CoStar/Homes.com CEO Andy Florance added his voice to the mix. In an April 12 letter to agents across the industry, Florance stridently took exception to the new policy, claiming that “Zillow’s lead-diversion model is anti-consumer and anti-agent.”
The full text of the letter reads as follows:
“This week Zillow Executive Errol Samuelson announced that homes not listed on the MLS within 24 hours of public marketing—won’t be published on Zillow “for the life of the listing.” Simply put, if your listing is not on Zillow within 24 hours, Zillow will retaliate against you and your homeowner by turning off your ability to list on Zillow. It is an incredible move of audacity and a pure power play of epic proportion.
Delayed IDX syndication is allowed under NAR rules. 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.
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.
Zillow’s lead-diversion model is anti-consumer and anti-agent. Just last week, I listened to focus groups with homesellers who believed that when a buyer clicks the “Contact Agent” button on their listings in Zillow, they’re contacting their listing agent. When they found out that wasn’t true—and that their home was being used as bait to funnel buyers to competing agents—they were outraged. One seller exclaimed, “Holy hell!” Another said, “What the…?”
Zillow’s lead diversion model hijacks your hard-earned listings to generate commission splits for them and grow their brand at your expense. As the listing agent you deserve clear, undisputed credit for your listings. When a buyer believes they are contacting the listing agent, that’s exactly who they should reach.
Homes.com is agent-friendly. We always show the listing agent—and only the listing agent—on listings. We follow the principle of Your Listing, Your Lead. That means we only display your name, your photo, your brokerage and connect potential buyers only to you. We never take a commission split or sell leads to competing agents. Instead, we earn revenue by promoting your listing to thousands of additional buyers across the internet.
Zillow’s lame claim that “Your Listing, Your Lead” creates dual agency issues is a red herring. If having the listing agent’s name on a listing truly caused dual agency, then Zillow should also be the only name on your open houses, your yard signs and your marketing materials—which is obviously absurd.
Zillow has overplayed its hand. I believe they panicked at the thought that agents might have real choice in how they market their listings. And when agents have a choice, many won’t rush to publish listings on a site that siphons off their leads.
Even if just a few agents hold back from listing on Zillow, buyers will quickly follow suit—and stop searching there. Zillow’s lead diversion business model is coming under threat.
Meanwhile, Homes.com has invested billions of dollars into marketing to successfully attract over 110 million average monthly unique visitors to the Homes.com network. This past year the Homes.com network drew one billion visits. With our “Your Listing, Your Lead” approach, agents finally have a better way to market their listings online.
Homes.com and the other major portals (Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com) together reach over 418 million monthly visitors. Zillow accounts for less than half of that audience—and many buyers use multiple sites when searching for homes. Rest assured, if Zillow does block your listing it will still be seen on Homes.com and the other sites.
If you are making a listing presentation and a homeowner asks if you will list on Zillow, let them know that Zillow makes it harder to sell a home by diverting the potential buyers away from you, the listing agent, who knows the home the best and is the most motivated to sell that home.
These are your hard-earned listings. You deserve control. You deserve respect. You deserve a platform that helps you sell the home—not one that hijacks your leads for profit.”
Editor’s note: Florance closed his letter with a link to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, inviting agents to contact the DOJ if they believe Zillow’s new listing standards are anticompetitive.
