To all the agents in the house,
Zillow is going in several directions at once, so let's review what matters most to you.
*Premier Agent.
The venerable program where agents pay a monthly fee to have their names pop up when someone is browsing listings on Zillow, Premier Agent is why the company remains profitable despite hemorrhaging money on iBuying (more on that in a sec).
However, as Coldwell Banker CEO Ryan Gorman said during the recent Houses In Motion podcast, the National Association of Realtors may do a de facto crackdown on the agent advertising program.
Under a measure currently in NAR committee, no longer will a consumer be drawn to a Premier Agent necessarily when they click on the property, because, "The listing agent's contact information will be as prominent as any lead form or any other agents' information," Gorman said.
That way, "Consumers can make the choice. You can contact the listings agent, or if you want to contact a buyer's agent, you can do that as well," Gorman added.
If adopted, the measure would seem to make Premier Agent a less tantalizing lead-generation tool.
*ShowingTime.
Zillow announced this week that its $500 million acquisition of the home viewing scheduling platform closed, even amid reporting from The Information and Inman News that the Federal Trade Commission conducted a lengthy deal review.
Here again, Zillow and NAR may be at odds. Many Multiple Listings Services adopted ShowingTime. But NAR wants MLSs to use the trade group's SentriLock as an alternative.
Agents, have you seen SentriLock gain any traction?
*The othering of agents.
For this one, NAR and Zillow are joined at the hip, perhaps to Zillow's detriment.
Ever since Zillow started getting its listing information from MLS Internet data exchange feeds, it has put the available homes under the "agent listings" tab. Homes not marketed on the MLS are still on Zillow, but are in the, ahem, "other listings" tab.
Real estate brokerage REX responded to the change by filing a lawsuit against both Zillow and the NAR, and the legal challenge has at least survived a motion to dismiss. The case has also seen intervention from the U.S. The Justice Department, which A) houses the Trade Commission and B) is broadly investigating NAR.
In other words, Zillow's classification method may be something of a mistake. It bears watching if the company quietly tries to change the listing/other distinction to quell this lawsuit.
*Ibuying.
Offerpad, a company that has actually had a profitable quarter buying homes for cash and then reselling them, has now gone public, and iBuying seems a three-way race between Zillow, Opendoor and Offerpad.
Zillow has the most resources to become the dominant market player, but when/if will they start making money?
*Zillow wants you.
During the HousingWire Annual convention this week in suburban Dallas, I spoke with a handful of agents who say that Zillow has been reaching out to them. Agents, is Zillow contacting you about Premier Agent or even joining as an agent with their fledgling brokerage?
Okay, that's a lot! Agents, please let me know if anything stands out, and your thoughts about whether Zillow is helping or harming your business. Email me anonymously at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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