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Zillow, the country’s largest real estate search portal, will move to permanently prohibit listings that fail to be added to the MLS within 24 hours of being publicly marketed, a defiant new standard that could immediately impact future listings as brokerages rush to launch their own private networks.
The new standard takes effect in May, Zillow executives told Inman, and comes on the heels of a decision last month by the National Association of Realtors to amend its divisive Clear Cooperation rule with the addition of a new Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings option for homesellers. That option will allow multiple listing services to determine how long listings can be seen by other MLS participants without being publicly listed.
“A listing marketed to any buyer must be available to every buyer,” Zillow said in an announcement on Thursday, reflecting its commitment to Clear Cooperation. The new standards will go into effect on both Zillow and Trulia.
“The idea is buyers and sellers benefit when they have unfettered access to all the information about the market,” Zillow Chief Industry Development Officer Errol Samuelson told Inman. “You’re going to need to make a choice in how you want to market a listing.”
Zillow executives said listings that do not meet its standards — those that aren’t listed on the MLS within 24 hours of public marketing — won’t be published on Zillow “for the life of the listing.” The standards are intended to ensure consumers and agents have equal and timely access to listing information by “supporting and protecting a more open and competitive housing market.” The company further specified that social media blasts, emails and yard signs are all things that Zillow would consider public marketing, and prompt the need to list on the MLS within 24 hours.
Samuelson clarified that it doesn’t matter how a listing has been categorized — be it an office exclusive, private listing, or a Delayed Marketing Exempt Listing. If it has been publicly marketed to a select group instead of the entire population via the MLS, Zillow will not publish the listing at all. However, if a private listing truly remains private and is not publicly marketed at all and then subsequently posted to the MLS, Zillow will publish such listings.
“The fact of the matter is this policy applies to any status,” Samuelson said. “It could be a ‘coming soon.’ It could be ‘delayed marketing [exempt listing].’ It could be an active listing.”
“If that delayed marketing listing is available, therefore, to Zillow and other portals, that’s fine,” he added. “It’s the selective marketing of the property to a subset of the market, a handful of buyers, which then disadvantages all the other buyers in the market. That’s the part we’re focused on.”
EXp Realty, which has long advocated for industry transparency, has vowed to support Zillow commitment to Clear Cooperation, which stipulates listings must be placed on the MLS within 24 hours of being publicly marketed. Through the partnership, the companies will “ensure that eXp listings are on Zillow and available to the largest possible audience of buyers,” according to a statement.
“EXp will always take a position that protects consumers first, that’s non-negotiable,” eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja said in a statement. “We’re deeply committed to giving our clients the most transparent, comprehensive access to property listings in the market. Our new agreement with Zillow ensures that every eXp Realty listing has maximum visibility, creating a more efficient, trustworthy, and open marketplace.”
Samuelson clarified that “a very small number of listings” will be impacted by the change.
“We happen to think that over time — with sellers having to make the choice and being better informed about what it means to be off MLS — we think ultimately we’ll probably end up with more listings because more sellers will realize they are advantaged by having broad exposure to their listings.”
He added that Zillow has been thinking about the move for some time and developed technology that will allow the portal to track listings that are only marketed to a select group, instead of publicly via the MLS, which is how they will identify listings that do not make the cut to be published on Zillow.
Immediately after NAR announced its determination to retain its Clear Cooperation Policy in March, Samuelson released a statement saying the ruling reinforced Zillow’s own stance on listing transparency.
On Thursday, Samuelson elaborated on Zillow’s position.
“It’s simple: sellers want exposure, and buyers deserve access,” he told Inman. “When all buyers don’t have the same access to home listings — and are forced to navigate barriers, possible bias and incomplete inventory — it undermines consumer trust and weakens the market. From day one, Zillow has focused on unlocking real estate information for all.”
If a growing number of brokerages decide to shift toward more private listings, Zillow potentially stands to face a negative financial impact. Recently, Douglas Elliman and Corcoran Group teased new private networks while others are likely on the way.
More than 70 percent of Zillow’s revenue in 2024, or approximately $1.6 billion, came from its referral programs and other services for real estate professionals, according to financial reporting. That figure was up approximately 10 percent from 2023 due to an increase in revenue per visit and the number of visits to the site, Business Insider reported.
According to a limited study Bright MLS recently conducted within its own Mid-Atlantic market, office exclusives still make up a very small minority of listings, and show no clear advantage when it comes to selling quickly or at the highest price. Still, the number of office exclusives is growing.
It’s unclear just how much Zillow’s move to limit listings on the portal to only those that are publicly available to all homebuyers may impact their traffic. But a look at Compass, which has gone all-in on private exclusives might provide a preliminary clue.
Nearly 10,000 Compass listings are in premarketing now, being advertised as “coming soon” or as a “private exclusive,” Business Insider reported. And as of last year, the 10 largest real estate brands held about 60 percent of U.S. home sales volume, according to consulting firm T3 Sixty. If some of those firms decided to hop on the bandwagon and shift to largely private listings, it could have a significant impact on the industry and Zillow specifically.
