Zillow, Realtor.com joining forces on ‘Preview’ listings
Less than two months after the portals launched competing pre-market listings programs, the search giants have now agreed to collaborate on listing display.
The top two home search portals are teaming up on pre-market listings.
In a joint May 5 announcement, Zillow and Realtor.com unveiled plans for Zillow Preview listings to be displayed on Realtor.com — a partnership that sets "a new standard for pre-market transparency in residential real estate," according to a news release.
Expanding pre-market listings exposure: In mid-March, Zillow launched "Preview," a new program allowing participating brokerages to display pre-market listings exclusively on Zillow and Trulia before they go active in the MLS. The initial launch partners were Keller Williams, HomeServices of America, REMAX, Side and United Real Estate, with more than two dozen others joining soon after. That number now exceeds 60, Zillow said.
The same week, eXp announced a non-exclusive partnership with Realtor.com and Homes.com to display its brokerage listings on the two search portals.
With this latest collaboration, Zillow will syndicate its Preview listings to Realtor.com with "no brokerage relationship required," the companies noted.
Access for all, and 'true seller choice': Zillow leaders have long promoted a message of listings transparency and open access — and CEO Jeremy Wacksman says this partnership aligns with that "core belief."
"The real estate market works best when every buyer has access to the same information — nothing hidden, nothing reserved for a select few," Wacksman said in the announcement. "With this collaboration," he added, "we're not just expanding reach, we're creating true seller choice while setting a new industry standard for what transparency in real estate actually looks like for buyers, sellers and agents."
The MLS is central — but 'pre-market inventory exists': While Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales recently expressed some criticism of his company's new partner, it appears this latest move reflects his desire to find a balanced approach to pre-market listings.
"I look at Zillow and Rocket/Redfin and they're increasingly closing their ecosystem to become that one-stop shop, to take the benefit of the MLS and then direct all of the business, all of the value chain through that single company," Eales told an audience of real estate executives last month.
In a blog post published today in conjunction with the Zillow Preview announcement, Eales reiterated his belief that "MLSs should remain at the center" of the real estate ecosystem and warned that "pre-market inventory is growing, and too much of it is flowing into narrower and more fragmented channels" — something he described as "a dangerous direction for the industry."
But he also acknowledged that "pre-market inventory exists now," and "we have a responsibility to support" brokers who choose to syndicate listings directly to portals.
The Zillow collaboration, he noted, "ensures these listings reach the widest possible audience — countering the private networks that fragment the market, cut out the MLS, and leave buyers and sellers worse off."
A broad reach: The two leading search portals together reach three-quarters of home shoppers, the companies said. "This collaboration unlocks more visibility for more people, supporting a healthier housing marketplace," they added, suggesting that buyers benefit by getting access to more listings while sellers gain more pre-market exposure.
As for agents, they "can use Zillow Preview and Realtor.com Preview to build demand across both platforms simultaneously, turning the lead-up to listing day into a genuine marketing runway," the announcement touted.
Preview listings are expected to roll out on Realtor.com this summer.