It was April of 2025 that portal behemoth Zillow announced its “listing access standards,” taking a hard stance against so-called “selective access” to listings. As some brokerages—most notably Compass—pushed for “private exclusive” marketing plans, Zillow argued that properties for sale should be listed everywhere.
Just under a year later, the company has joined what has become a sprawling fight for “premarket” listings, today announcing a partnership with Keller Williams, HomeServices of America, United Real Estate, REMAX and Side to put exclusive listings on Zillow’s platforms as the entire real estate industry reorganizes over exclusive inventory.
“For 20 years, Zillow has been guided by a simple idea: Real estate works best when information is open and accessible,” said Zillow Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Wacksman.
In an announcement today, Zillow billed the new program, called Zillow Preview, as a way of bringing premarket listings “into the open market.” The company said its preview listings are expected to be live on their partner sites beginning next month.
Zillow is also updating its “listing access standards” in order to “simplify” restrictions on what types of properties can appear on Zillow platforms, with a spokesperson telling RISMedia that the company is responding to a shifting market and demand by sellers for these premarketing options.
That will allow listings that previously would have been banned by the company to appear on its platforms, with the spokesperson saying that the standards are now focused on restricting marketing that forces buyers to sign up with one company or utilize a single brokerage’s services to access listings.
“At a time when some real estate brokerages are harming consumers by hiding listings in private networks, Zillow Preview allows brokerages to broadly share listings before they hit the active market so consumers can access them,” the company wrote.
Zillow Preview pre-market listings will be exclusively available on Zillow, Trulia and their own listing brokerage and agent sites, in a manner similar to Compass’s deal with Zillow’s rival, Redfin, including access to leads and boosted visibility on Zillow.
In a statement shared with RISMedia, Compass CEO Robert Reffkin offered support for Zillow’s decision to update the standards, after fiercely criticizing (and suing) the portal over the original rules.
“A sincere thank you to Zillow for offering homeowners more choice. Sellers deserve the choice to decide when, where and how they market their homes,” Reffkin said.
Notably, Zillow is committing to “working within the MLS framework,” something Compass has explicitly declined to do. Though the company did not initially offer any further details on what that means, MLS rules vary widely in what they allow for premarketing.
The Zillow spokesperson did not say whether the company had spoken to MLSs about the Zillow Preview program ahead of launch, but said the company is always in close contact with the MLS industry and continues to see MLSs as a critical part of the industry.
Reffkin has previously claimed that the majority of MLSs in the country no longer enforce the Clear Cooperation policy.
In its release, Zillow claims that “in a growing number of markets, the public cannot see pre-market homes.”
“Zillow Preview makes them publicly visible instead of confined to closed systems, while working within MLS frameworks and supporting brokers and agents in complying with local rules,” the company wrote.
The updated “listing access standards,” which previously would have banned listings that were marketed on some public platforms but not others, now say that agents must “make the listing broadly accessible to the general public in a manner that provides open access, which may include displaying it on a public-facing website, mobile app, or internet real estate portal, or placing it in a Multiple Listing Service…for distribution and display on MLS participants’ sites.”
The Zillow spokesperson said that initially, the standards went further than other industry rules, and that the company has recognized how marketing strategies have evolved. The updated standards have the same “core,” the spokesperson said, aiming to ensure that individual brokerages can’t keep inventory for themselves.
The spokesperson also reiterated the company’s commitment to open access of listings and transparency, which company executives have long espoused, pointing out that the largest audience of buyers is nearly always the best way to market a property.
But the update seemingly will allow—and even facilitate—scenarios where listings will appear on some public platforms but not others, at least during a premarket phase, contributing to the kind of market fragmentation that many MLS proponents and consumer advocates have worried about.
Also notable, metrics for days on market, price drops and other property information will be tracked by default on Zillow Preview listings, according to a Zillow spokesperson, but the listing agent and seller can turn these off if they choose.
The leaders of brokerages partnering with Zillow for the premarket listings all focused on these same principles, with HomeServices CEO Chris Kelly calling the program “an ideal mechanism” for visibility and awareness while still maintaining “transparency,” and Keller Williams executive chairman and co-founder Gary Keller saying it provides the company with “meaningful choice” for the brokerage’s agents.
“Zillow continues to press the point of fair competition for the benefit of the buying and selling public, brokers and agents,” added Dan Duffy, CEO of United Real Estate. “Bringing more inventory to market faster will have a positive impact on the U.S. residential housing market at a time where access to listing inventory is needed.”
This is a developing story. Stay turned to RISMedia for updates.
Editor’s note: this story was updated with additional information from a Zillow spokesperson at 9:16 a.m. eastern time.
Editor’s note: this story was updated with a comment from Robert Reffkin at 10:49 a.m. eastern time.
