Is anyone else seeing what I’m seeing? As a portal, there are only a few choices for data feeds. Direct from the MLS or from ListHub. The downside is that both have the ability to limit the feed.
The ListHub divorce of 2015 ended that relationships and Zillow went directly to the MLSs for feeds, often negotiating sold data too, which is the Holy Grail of data. They’ve been what’s likely millions to get that data from the MLSs which help to offset member dues in most cases.
So, what do they do?
They create a brokerage, put one broker and maybe one agent in the local markets and get full access to data at a fraction of the cost of vendor data…and no restrictions. And, because NAR no longer mandates that MLSs require NAR membership, Zillow is not subject to the Pre-List and Off-Market listing restrictions that NAR mandated for all Realtors in MLSs.
Something seems off to me.
Zillow is the Google of the real estate space. They are now threat #1 to MLSs because consumers are already going there to list their FSBOs, Coming Soons and Make me Move deals. Even agents enter their listings directly on the site.
Seriously, doesn’t anyone else see the writing on the wall? They are the future of a national MLS solution. All they have to do say is “we only accept directly listed property on Zillow”, shut of the MLS feeds and 80% of the agents in the US would still enter their data on the site through their own data feeds.
People — Realtors really matter! We need them. Think about why that institution even came about…because of scammers. Just ask Craigslist how that went or even AirBnB. Realtors are held accountable by their peers and the general public for upholding the Realtor Code of Ethics. The list of ethics isn’t mandated by the government, it’s all voluntary. I should probably leave that for another post.
For more info check out the article on Inman News.
One response
I’ve wondered the same thing myself. What about CoStar and their Homesnap acquisition too?