Zillow is no longer accepting a direct listing feed from Realogy, Inman has learned. The feed had previously allowed the Realogy Franchise Group’s approximately 5,900 brokerage offices to instantly send its listings to the nation’s most visited real estate listing portal.
Instead, Zillow will continue to pick up those same listings via local multiple listing services, a trend the company has leaned on more in recent years, which could result in data being uploaded to the platform more swiftly.
“For many years, Realogy has provided a number of partners, including Zillow Group, with our listing content in real time via our syndicated listing API, which enables our franchisees’ high-fidelity listings to be presented on hundreds of real estate websites across the globe,” a Realogy spokesperson told Inman in a statement.
“Even though we continue to provide Zillow Group with access to our franchisor feed, they have notified some of our franchise owners that Zillow Group has decided to no longer access it, choosing instead to rely only on MLS listing syndications.”
Data flows to Zillow in multiple ways: through a free direct feed from brokerages with 200 listings or more — as a result of a direct agreement between Zillow and the brokerage — or through a direct feed from multiple listing services (MLS).
Realogy’s franchise group operates approximately 5,900 brokerage offices in the U.S. with approximately 188,900 agents operating in the U.S. It includes franchise brands such as Century 21, Coldwell Banker and Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, among others.
Zillow typically doesn’t accept listings from large franchise networks — many of the franchisee brokerages at Realogy wouldn’t hit that 200-listing threshold — so it’s clear the two companies had worked out an agreement, but a Zillow spokesperson couldn’t confirm exactly when it ended.
“We get virtually all of our for sale listings through MLS agreements these days,” a spokesperson for Zillow told Inman. “Direct MLS feeds offer complete and up-to-date data on listings, which means a better experience for consumers and gives agents strong marketing opportunities.”
“We are actively working with brokers who were impacted so that their listings can be sent to us via the MLS.”
The company also specifically does not accept individual listings from real estate agents. And smaller brokerages aren’t the only entities that rely on the MLS to get their listings syndicated to Zillow. Redfin, for example, doesn’t send listings directly to Zillow, but its agent listings end up on the site, through agreements with local MLSs.
At the same time, not every multiple listing service chooses to send its listings directly to Zillow. Northwest Multiple Listing Service has never syndicated its listings directly to Zillow.
The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors briefly stunned the real estate industry in late 2018 when it announced it would no longer automatically syndicate listings to Zillow and ListHub — before abruptly reversing course two weeks later amidst intense backlash.
And for the MLSs that do syndicate directly to Zillow, brokerages have the option to turn that syndication off on their own end, if they don’t want their agents’ listings to flow directly to the real estate portal.
Traffic to Zillow’s mobile apps and websites — which also include Trulia, StreetEasy and HotPads — reached 192.5 million average monthly unique users in the first quarter of 2020.
Realogy also recently launched a consumer-facing website refresh for its company brands, including franchisees, like many other top companies in the industry.
