Chicago-area agents and brokers were thrust into the middle of the escalating fight between MRED and Zillow on Wednesday, as thousands of listings disappeared from the nation’s leading home search portal before some began reappearing later in the day.
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Zillow showed nearly 5,000 active Chicago listings early Wednesday morning, according to Inman’s review of the site. By late morning, that number had fallen below 700 before rebounding within minutes to roughly 2,000, where it remained as of Wednesday afternoon. It was unclear whether the partial rebound reflected a resolution or the development of alternate listing sources, including direct feed agreements with brokerages.
For agents and brokers, the disruption moved a broader fight over pre-marketed listings, portal access and MLS rules into more practical territory, raising questions about how to advise buyers and sellers when a major consumer search portal may no longer show the full market.
MRED said Wednesday that it had suspended Zillow’s access to its listing data and asked the portal to remove listings it no longer had a license to display. Zillow, which has sued MRED and Compass in federal court, said Chicago-area homebuyers and sellers now have “far worse access to the housing market” because of the MLS’s move.
But agents interviewed by Inman on Wednesday were less focused on the legal arguments than the immediate, client-facing fallout.
‘I work for my seller’
Matt Laricy, managing broker of The Laricy Team at Americorp Real Estate, said he believes the MLS should remain the industry’s central source of listing data and that he is skeptical of private-listing strategies that keep homes away from the broader market.
Laricy also said the Zillow cutoff puts agents and brokers in a difficult position, particularly when sellers expect their homes to appear on major consumer search portals.
“The consumer is not winning here, because they just lost an avenue that they like to search on. A lot of my sellers want to be on Zillow. I work for my seller, ultimately,” Laricy told Inman.
Laricy said he reached out to hundreds of active buyers this week to warn them that Zillow might no longer have a direct MLS feed and may not display every available listing in the Chicago market. Most buyers, Laricy said, are less interested in the mechanics of the dispute than in knowing where they should search next.
“The consumer, which is who we work for, doesn’t really care about what we’re fighting about,” Laricy said. “They want to be able to see a property and buy the property. And in my opinion, most sellers want to get their property in front of as many people as possible, sell the property for the most money they can and make it an easy process.”
The dispute also creates a practical dilemma for independent brokerages, Laricy said, because they may support MRED’s role as the central marketplace, while also facing pressure from sellers who want maximum exposure. Laricy added that the issue creates complications for sellers who routinely scrutinize their listings on consumer portals and expect errors to be corrected immediately.
“If there’s a decimal misplaced or a picture out of order on Zillow or Redfin or Realtor.com, we get a call. It’s like a fire drill,” Laricy said. “Now we’re just like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re not going to go on there anymore.’”
Laricy said it may not be a coincidence that one of the industry’s biggest listing-distribution fights is playing out in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city and the home of the National Association of Realtors.
“We’re the third-largest market in the country. We don’t have as many crazy, old-school tactics as New York or as much over-the-top technology as San Francisco. We’re kind of like your third coast,” Laricy said.
Agents split on how much it matters
Other agents were more skeptical that Zillow’s temporary loss of MLS-sourced listings would meaningfully alter the day-to-day work of buying and selling homes.
Danielle Dowell of The DoWell Group at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago said she does not see a Zillow disruption as a market-shaking event for most consumers, particularly if listings remain available through other search platforms and brokerage sites.
“Zillow, to me, is just a site like Realtor.com, like Homes.com,” Dowell said. “Do I think because your home is not on Zillow that there’s any consequence of that? I really don’t.”
Dowell said agents who pay Zillow for leads could be affected, but she questioned whether consumers would feel a major impact if listings remained available through other search platforms and brokerage sites.
“I don’t believe that there’s any other impact to the consumer,” she said. “I don’t think because your house is on Zillow that it’s going to sell more than it going on to these other platforms that it already goes on to. People will just look at other platforms.”
Andrea Geller, a Chicago-area Compass agent, similarly argued that consumers are not being left without options, saying agents and brokerages should already be connecting clients to MLS-fed search tools, brokerage platforms and other listing portals.
“If you’re showing your value as a real estate broker, part of that is having them connected through search that’s interactive,” Geller said.
Geller said many buyers working with agents are already receiving listings through MLS-connected tools such as Zenlist or brokerage search platforms. In Compass’ case, she said, clients are increasingly using the company’s Compass One platform. Geller also argued that Zillow’s value to consumers could diminish if it no longer carries the full range of listings in a market.
Rafael Murillo, another Chicago Compass agent, offered a view closely aligned with arguments frequently made by top Compass executives, including Robert Reffkin and Rory Golod, framing the dispute as a question of seller choice and whether Zillow should be able to influence how listings are marketed.
“Zillow is ultimately a third-party advertising platform — not the marketplace itself. The MLS is the marketplace,” Murillo told Inman.
Murillo said he tells sellers that his focus is on helping them choose the marketing strategy that best fits their goals, including immediate public exposure or a phased approach that begins with private networks and agent relationships. Murillo said he supports MRED’s position, arguing that MLSs, agents and brokerages supply the inventory that powers Zillow’s business.
“At the end of the day, Zillow should not be dictating how agents and sellers market properties,” Murillo said. “Without agents, brokerages and MLS systems like MRED supplying inventory, Zillow has no business.”
