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This month, Zillow and Redfin rocked the industry by banning listings that aren’t added to the multiple listing service within 24 hours of public marketing.
The similar portal policies, which came two weeks after the National Association of Realtors announced a new Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings option for its Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP), have led to mounting questions from agents and brokers over the legality of and logistics behind the ban.
Here are answers to the most frequent questions about Zillow and Redfin’s rules:
What is Zillow Group’s policy?
On April 10, Zillow Group announced its new listing access standard for Zillow and Trulia, which bans listings that aren’t added to the MLS within 24 hours of being publicly marketed. Zillow said public marketing includes yard signs, social media posts and brokerage private listing networks (PLN) where consumers must log into a site to see listings.
The ban, which goes into effect in May, is based on NAR’s CCP, which states listings must be entered into the MLS within one business day of public marketing. Zillow said “coming soon,” office exclusives, and Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings are A-OK within its listing access standard, as long as listing brokers are adhering to NAR’s guidance for each listing status. Zillow later clarified that for sale by owner (FSBO) listings, rental listings and new construction listings sold by the builder are also permitted.
The Coming Soon status is for sellers and brokers who’ve signed a listing agreement and need time to prepare a home for sale. The broker will put the home in the MLS under a Coming Soon status, which may allow a broker to share the listing on social media or create a yard sign with a Coming Soon rider. However, MLS regulations prohibit sellers and their brokers from showing the home to prospective buyers or accepting offers from brokers until the home becomes active.
Individual MLSs have different rules for how long a listing can be labeled as coming soon, with some MLSs giving sellers and listing brokers up to 30 days and others giving as little as 10 days. MLSs also handle the distribution of coming soon listings through an Internet Data Exchange (IDX) feed differently, with some MLSs allowing coming soon listings to appear on sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and Homes.com, and others only distributing listings once they’ve gone active.
Meanwhile, office exclusives are listings where the seller has stated they don’t want their home to be publicly marketed or shared through the MLS. In this case, listing brokers will file the listing as an office exclusive with the MLS, which will make sure the listing isn’t shared with other MLS participants and subscribers.
Lastly, Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings are an option where the seller has asked their broker to delay the public marketing of their listing through an IDX feed. As with office exclusives, brokers will still file delayed marketing listings with the MLS and do not stop brokers from marketing the listing in other manners the seller has requested. MLSs have until Sept. 30 to implement the terms of Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings under NAR’s Multiple Listing Options for Sellers (MLOS) policy.
With office exclusives and delayed marketing, sellers must sign an exempt listing disclosure that outlines the relationship between the seller and broker and clearly outlines what they’re agreeing to alongside the potential downsides.
“Our standards say it’s okay to share office exclusives among agents within the same brokerage, or to have delayed marketing or coming soon listings that are entered into the MLS and available to all MLS participants,” Zillow Group’s listing standard reads. “And, of course, it’s okay to maintain a seller’s privacy when necessary by keeping a listing off the internet entirely. But when it’s time to market to buyers, that means all buyers.”
How does Zillow’s policy specifically impact Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings?
A main point of confusion with Zillow Group’s policy is how it might impact Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings.
Zillow Group said the ban does not apply to listings in this category; as long as they’re submitted to an MLS within one day of public marketing, they can be published on Zillow, Trulia and other sites that receive listing feeds.
What does Zillow Group mean when it says the ban applies to ‘the life of the listing?’
The “life of the listing” refers to the time a home is being sold by a broker who is not following Zillow Group’s listing access standard, resulting in that listing being banned from Zillow and Trulia’s sites.
However, if the seller terminates the listing agreement with that broker and signs a new agreement with a broker who follows the listing access standard, Zillow and Trulia will lift the ban and display the listing.
What is Redfin’s policy?
On April 14, Redfin joined Zillow Group and created a policy that bans listings if they aren’t added to the multiple listing service (MLS) within 24 hours of being publicly marketed.
Also like Zillow, Redfin said its ban won’t impact Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings.
The Seattle-based firm told Inman in an email that these listings are safe: “If they’re shared in the MLS and disseminated to sites like Redfin through a Virtual Office Website (VOW), where buyers can access them, those listings can be included on Redfin.”
Unlike Internet Data Exchange (IDX) sites, where visitors can view listings without a login, VOWs require visitors to create an account to view listings. NAR’s FAQ on Multiple Listing Options for Sellers (MLOS) notes that Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings can be displayed on VOWs as the sites are “not for advertisement but rather to help with the provision of brokerage services to consumers with whom there is an established broker-consumer relationship.” NAR also states that MLSs cannot exclude Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings from appearing on VOW feeds.
Alongside the listing ban, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman called on MLSs to create a new Coming Soon designation that bans portals from displaying how long a home has been for sale and at what prices.
Redfin hasn’t said when it would implement the new policy, and leaders are still working on the technical logistics of the ban.
Do Zillow Group and Redfin have the right to ban listings?
Although some industry members have argued that Zillow doesn’t have the right to ban listings as an IDX-displaying broker, current NAR and MLS rules are on the portal’s side.
In a previous Inman article, California Regional MLS VP and General Counsel Ed Zorn said Zillow Group —and now Redfin — is within its rights to ban listings on Zillow and Trulia that don’t follow its listing access standard.
“There seems to be a misunderstanding that if you take an [Internet Data Exchange] data feed, that you are required to display all the listings,” he said. “And in fact, NAR’s [Handbook on Multiple Listing Policy] Statement 7.58 states the exact opposite principle.”
“What it says is participants may select the IDX listings they choose to display based on only objective criteria, including but not limited to factors such as geography or location, list price, type of property, or type of listing,” he added. “So type of listing is even included as one of the few types of objective examples that NAR provides.”
Will the DOJ get involved?
Industry members on both sides of the spectrum have called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the opposing side.
CoStar Group CEO Andy Florance urged agents to report Zillow Group to the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, while two consumer watchdogs said the department should be stopping the industry’s largest brokerages from creating expansive PLNs.
It’s unclear whether the DOJ will answer either side’s clarion call, as the law enforcement agency has signaled that it’s less interested in the CCP now that NAR has scrapped the Participation Rule, which previously mandated that listing brokers include an offer of compensation as small as $1 to buyer brokers participating in a transaction.
The DOJ signaled in a March 18 Nosalek vs MLS PIN court filing that Clear Cooperation — on its own — is not anticompetitive. However, in situations where non-NAR-governed MLSs, like MLS PIN, enforce CCP while still allowing cooperative compensation, the DOJ might look at CCP with more scrutiny.
Consumer Policy Center senior fellow Stephen Brobeck said the DOJ isn’t fond of giving a heads-up on investigations, so the industry will just have to wait.
“I don’t have evidence they’re looking at it, but I’m sure they are,” he told Inman in a previous article. “… But, you know, the DOJ doesn’t tell anybody what they’re thinking or what they’re going to do until they actually do it.”
Are Realtor.com and Homes.com banning listings as well?
CoStar Group founder and CEO Andy Florance said Homes.com won’t ban listings that aren’t added to the MLS within 24 hours of being publicly marketed.
Florance characterized Zillow Group’s move as “anti-competitive” and “a pure power play of epic proportion” to quash consumer choice amid private listing networks’ growing prominence.
Realtor.com hasn’t revealed any plans for a ban, with a company spokesperson only revealing that the portal is giving “thoughtful consideration” on how to handle DMEL.
Hey, my question wasn’t listed. What gives?
With 167 days until the MLS deadline for implementing NAR’s MLOS policy, there’s still much more to understand about how MLSs will handle delayed marketing, which brokers will latch onto private listing networks or eschew them, and how portals will put their policies into action.
Keep an eye on Inman’s coverage as we continue to dig into what the next chapter of the CCP debate means for you and your clients, and let us know your questions in the comments below.
