For consumers, portals like Zillow are practically synonymous with the real estate search experience. For the real estate industry at large, however, portal controversies and conflicts provide a never-ending source of delightful schadenfreude.
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Last week, three major real estate portals faced an assortment of legal and operational challenges, seemingly from all sides. From inter-portal strife to creator controversies, it’s time to catch up on all of the struggles the portals are navigating.
Zillow removes Matterport 3D home tours from its by Marian McPherson
In an email obtained by Inman, StreetEasy and Zillow stated that CoStar had declined to renew its Matterport application programming interface (API) agreement with the portal.
“Due to this decision, StreetEasy and Zillow have removed Matterport 3D virtual tours from listings on our sites,” the email read. “You are receiving this email because you have one or more listings that were impacted.”
READ MORE: Zillow’s ChatGPT integration sets off alarm bells for industry
Realtor.com sued for copyright over attempt to capitalize on Taylor Swift engagement by Taylor Anderson
Kansas City photographer Brynn Burns sued the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com’s parent company for publishing her copyrighted photos of Travis Kelce’s estate without her permission.
To capitalize on the hype around the engagement, Realtor.com published “impossible to find” photos inside Kelce’s home, Burns wrote in a lawsuit filed last Monday in Western Missouri’s U.S. District Court.
CoStar reaches agreement with CRMLS, keeping access to by Taylor Anderson
Two days after the California Regional Multiple Listing Service, one of the nation’s largest, threatened to cut off Homes.com’s access to listing data over an alleged breach of contract, the MLS reversed course, saying in a statement that it had reached an agreement to keep the data flowing.
READ MORE: Homes.com hit with lawsuit over monetization of CRMLS data
Whether you pay big bucks to advertise on one of the portals or rely on them for listing visibility, it’s important to keep up with the drama. Here’s what agents need to know to stay ahead.
What Zillow’s Matterport fallout means for agents like you
While Zillow and CoStar are fighting (again), broker Holly Brink writes, agents still have to market their listings. Here’s what this move means and what you should do now to protect your business.
Realtor.com CMO says the future of search is
In an exclusive interview with Inman, Mickey Neuberger shares early insights from the portal’s new natural language search feature and AI’s part in Realtor.com’s tech blueprint.
NAR weighs in on Zillow’s new ChatGPT
Without specifying whether or not the integration violated any IDX license agreements with MLSs, the National Association of Realtors said that each individual MLS should assess its own agreement with Zillow to ensure compliance.
The Download is a column in which Inman’s Christy Murdock takes a deeper look at the top-read stories of the past week to give you what you’ll need to meet Monday head-on.
