Another Zillow Lawsuit (RE agent, contract, Realtor, listing)
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This one is interesting. A broker is suing Zillow because they are advertising other agents next to their listings. There will be quite a bit of nuances playing out here. I think that a compelling case can be made by both sides, but I expect Zillow wins and looks like the good guys, while the brokers come out looking like greedy agents in the court of public opinion.
I don't see what the beef is. When I was looking for house leads on Zillow, Trulia, etc, I had no trouble picking out and contacting the listing agent every time.
I don't see what the beef is. When I was looking for house leads on Zillow, Trulia, etc, I had no trouble picking out and contacting the listing agent every time.
You're not the average buyer. I get calls from buyer agents that look up the property and think I'm the listing agent because they saw my name next to the property on Zillow and plenty of calls from the public thinking the same. While I personally feel it is fairly marked, some buyers may not understand the denotation of "listing agent" that signifies who the sellers rep is. Lot's of buyers are confused that I have never been in the home and can't answer specific questions off hand.
The article does a nice job of outlining the complaints and I understand them. I still don't think the broker will win but I understand both sides. Now, if the suit was brought as a class action by home sellers claiming harm, they may get farther with it but that's unlikely to happen.
OMG, a real estate sale is all about the market and competition yet they want to cuff them & zillow. LOL
Because it is about competition. Zillow requires pay to play for brokerages, so if a broker won't pay them they generates leads using the brokers info and sell the leads to others brokers that will pay. We as agents aren't compensated by Zillow for the information they get from us. Maybe some MLS' have negotiated something where they are paid, but it doesn't get back into the hands of the agents. This is an attempt by a broker to level the playing field by removing the 3rd party pay to play middle man.
Some people hate having to pay a middle man. For that reason, some people are anti-agent simply because the agent is a middle man between a buyer and a seller. Zillow is a middle man between the agent and the buyer/seller.
If Zillow went away there are agents and teams whose entire lead generation mechanism would evaporate. There are entire offices in my area that exist almost entirely on Zillow leads. As the price to play goes up those unwilling or unable to to pay five figures a month are effectively shut off from the biggest source of leads. Jungle law at work.
Because it is about competition. Zillow requires pay to play for brokerages, so if a broker won't pay them they generates leads using the brokers info and sell the leads to others brokers that will pay. We as agents aren't compensated by Zillow for the information they get from us. Maybe some MLS' have negotiated something where they are paid, but it doesn't get back into the hands of the agents. This is an attempt by a broker to level the playing field by removing the 3rd party pay to play middle man.
Some people hate having to pay a middle man. For that reason, some people are anti-agent simply because the agent is a middle man between a buyer and a seller. Zillow is a middle man between the agent and the buyer/seller.
I see the issue better now. Zillow is an aggregator/compiler of listings? I was told listings usually start with the MLS. I had zero luck with Zillow when house and apartment hunting along with the site just dragging my computer to a halt. I guess Zillow should put advertising completely away from the listing as to not confuse the shopper or make the listing agent more prominent.
Some of the worst, inexperienced, unprofessional agents I have ever encountered..referred by Zillow. I do like the search features of the site, but there is obviously no validation of some of the data..seems like it would be easy enough for the listing agent to go in and correct things that were imported wrong from MLS. Some agents even refuse to mark a property as pending, even on a cash deal with a close in a week.
I see the issue better now. Zillow is an aggregator/compiler of listings? ....
Yes, they pull data from mls that agents enter (description, photos, home info, school zones, lot size, etc) as well as info from other sources like tax records to attract the consumer. Then when a consumer requests info or a showing they sell the consumers name and contact info to an agent as a lead.
The broker is suing because he doesn't feel zillow should be able advertise his listings to attract consumers and sell the leads generated on his listings to his competition (other agents).
Does it open the door for other such suits? Maybe, and at the very least I'm sure Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, and all the other sites are already scrambling to check the language for loopholes they need to close or troublesome clauses they need to amend or clarify. Probably in the future it will have specific language regarding what they can do with leads if the contract doesn't already have it in there. Most of those sites operate in a similar fashion.
Would I be happy if MLS' stopped syndicating to 3rd parties that sell the leads generated? Yes. Consumers could still get the info from agent and brokerage sites of their choice and not have their lead sold to umpteen number of agents that start harassing them.
I talk about it in this video that gives tips about shopping for homes online.
Last edited by Brandon Hoffman; 12-05-2019 at 10:53 AM..
Reason: added link
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