Letter from Andy Florance:
“This week Zillow Govt Errol Samuelson introduced that properties not listed on the MLS inside 24 hours of public advertising and marketing — received’t be printed on Zillow “for the lifetime of the itemizing.” Merely put, in case your itemizing isn’t on Zillow inside 24 hours, Zillow will retaliate in opposition to you and your home-owner by turning off your means to record on Zillow. It’s an unbelievable transfer of audacity and a pure energy play of epic proportion.
Delayed IDX syndication is allowed below NAR guidelines. However Zillow is asserting that they — not NAR, not your brokerage, not you the itemizing agent — and never even the home-owner whose home it’s and is paying the fee — ought to determine how a list is marketed. This isn’t about defending shoppers. It’s about defending Zillow’s means to revenue out of your listings by promoting your results in competing brokers.
Whether or not or not you assist the Clear Cooperation Coverage, it’s by no means acceptable for an actual property portal to threaten brokers this manner. Actual property portals should stay impartial. Whether or not you’re a purchaser’s agent, a list agent, or each, we assist all brokers and imagine you deserve higher. And we imagine each actual property skilled deserves to be handled with equity and respect—by no means bullied by a tech platform trying to management an trade.
Zillow’s lead-diversion mannequin is anti-consumer and anti-agent. Simply final week, I listened to focus teams with dwelling sellers who believed that when a purchaser clicks the “Contact Agent” button on their listings in Zillow, they’re contacting their itemizing agent. After they came upon that wasn’t true—and that their dwelling was getting used as bait to funnel consumers to competing brokers—they had been outraged. One vendor exclaimed, “Holy hell!” One other mentioned, “What the…?”
Zillow’s lead diversion mannequin hijacks your hard-earned listings to generate fee splits for them and develop their model at your expense. Because the itemizing agent you deserve clear, undisputed credit score to your listings. When a purchaser believes they’re contacting the itemizing agent, that’s precisely who they need to attain.
Properties.com is agent-friendly. We at all times present the itemizing agent—and solely the itemizing agent—on listings. We comply with the precept of Your Itemizing, Your Lead. Which means we solely show your title, your photograph, your brokerage, and join potential consumers solely to you. We by no means take a fee break up or promote results in competing brokers. As a substitute, we earn income by selling your itemizing to hundreds of further consumers throughout the web.
Zillow’s lame declare that “Your Itemizing, Your Lead” creates twin company points is a purple herring. If having the itemizing agent’s title on a list really brought about twin company, then Zillow must also be the one title in your open homes, your yard indicators, and your advertising and marketing supplies—which is clearly absurd.
Zillow has overplayed its hand. I imagine they panicked on the thought that brokers may need actual selection in how they market their listings. And when brokers have a selection, many received’t rush to publish listings on a website that siphons off their leads.
Even when just some brokers maintain again from itemizing on Zillow, consumers will rapidly comply with go well with—and cease looking there. Zillow’s lead diversion enterprise mannequin is coming below risk.
In the meantime, Properties.com has invested billions of {dollars} into advertising and marketing to efficiently appeal to over 110 million common month-to-month distinctive guests to the Properties.com community. This previous yr the Properties.com community drew one billion visits. With our “Your Itemizing, Your Lead” method, brokers lastly have a greater method to market their listings on-line.
Properties.com and the opposite main portals (Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com) collectively attain over 418 million month-to-month guests.
Zillow accounts for lower than half of that viewers—and plenty of consumers use a number of websites when trying to find properties. Relaxation assured, if Zillow does block your itemizing it can nonetheless be seen on Properties.com and the opposite websites.
If you’re making a list presentation and a home-owner asks if you’ll record on Zillow, allow them to know that Zillow makes it more durable to promote a house by diverting the potential consumers away from you, the itemizing agent, who is aware of the house the very best and is essentially the most motivated to promote that dwelling.
These are your hard-earned listings. You deserve management. You deserve respect. You deserve a platform that helps you promote the house—not one which hijacks your leads for revenue.”
Sincerely,Andy FloranceCEO, Properties.com