Each week on The Download, Inman’s Christy Murdock takes a deeper look at the top-read stories of the week to give you what you’ll need to meet Monday head-on. This week: Zillow’s answer to the rising tide of private listing networks has been met with both praise and pushback from industry leaders.
What started as a debate over pocket listings has become a full-blown policy shakeup. From its inception, the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Clear Cooperation Policy, designed to protect fair housing and level the playing field for buyers and brokerages alike, sparked controversy among agents who leaned on pre-MLS marketing to build buzz.
For the past several months, the policy has been ground zero in an ongoing back-and-forth debate among industry leaders — some of whom think it works and some of whom want to bulldoze it to make way for private listing networks.
READ: The industry’s biggest names are weighing in on CCP: The
The ripples reached farther when NAR’s new Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings policy clarified what agents can (and can’t) do when a seller wants privacy or needs time to prep. Perhaps more surprising is Zillow’s latest move: Effective in May, the portal will not carry listings that don’t conform to the original terms of CCP, and some brokerages are hopping on board.
Zillow to prohibit listings that are privately marketed starting in by Lillian Dickerson
Beginning next month, listings that are not listed on the MLS within 24 hours of the start of public marketing will not be published on Zillow “for the life of the listing.”
This policy follows NAR’s decision last month to amend its Clear Cooperation Policy to allow Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings and allow MLSs to decide how long listings can be seen by other MLS members without being publicly listed.
“A listing marketed to any buyer must be available to every buyer,” Zillow said in its announcement on Thursday. The new standards will go into effect on both Zillow and Trulia and are designed to support and protect “a more open and competitive housing market,” the portal said.
Zillow specified that social media blasts, emails and yard signs would all constitute public marketing and prompt the need to list on the MLS within 24 hours under the new paradigm.
Zillow’s announcement was met with mixed reactions, ranging from those who see it as a courageous salvo in the fight against private listing networks to those who see it as unwarranted interference in the way Realtors work. Almost immediately, industry voices were raised in response and published in the digital pages of Inman. Notably, eXp Realty was the first brokerage to commit to the new policy.
America’s real estate advantage is under siege: Leo
CEO of eXp Leo Pareja calls for courage, clarity and collaborative leadership in meeting threats to market transparency head-on.
Zillow’s new listing policy: Punishment disguised as fairness
Coach Darryl Davis outlines the way Zillow’s actions and policies are designed for its own benefit, not for the benefit of sellers or real estate professionals.
Windermere exec: Private listings herald ‘demise’ of real
Windermere Co-President OB Jacobi told Inman that private listing networks benefit brokerages, not consumers, and said his firm isn’t jumping on the bandwagon.
Christy Murdock is a writer, coach and consultant and the owner of Writing Real Estate. Connect with Writing Real Estate on Instagram and subscribe to the weekly roundup, The Ketchup.
