Realtracs the latest MLS to threaten suspension of Zillow feed
The Tennessee-based MLS is the second to claim Zillow is violating its IDX rules, and it says the portal has until June 1 to comply — or lose listing access.
Key points:
- The move by Realtracs comes just a week after MRED, a large Chicago-area MLS, temporarily suspended Zillow’s feeds on account of the portal’s listing access standards.
- In partnership with Compass, Realtracs — like MRED — opened MLS access to agents nationwide last month. It also updated its IDX display rules.
- Zillow said Realtracs is following a “playbook” crafted by Compass, which the portal is currently battling in court.
One week after Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) temporarily suspended Zillow's access to the Chicagoland MLS's data feed, another multiple listing service is threatening to do the same.
Mounting pressure
On Wednesday, Tennessee-based Realtracs sent an email to broker members notifying them that Zillow is in violation of its IDX display rules. If Zillow does not comply with the rules by May 31, the email said, the search giant will lose access to Realtracs' data listing feed.
In conjunction with its move to open MLS membership to agents nationwide, Realtracs updated its IDX display rules on April 29 to stipulate that all listings "that match a consumer's search criteria" — including those previously marketed to a select group — "must be returned by Vendor's consumer search results," unless the seller has indicated they don't want their property to be included for public display, the email noted.
Zillow's listing access standards, which ban listings that have been selectively marketed, conflict with those new display rules.
Realtracs said in its email that all platforms that receive its data feed were notified of the rule change and its subsequent timeline, "and that noncompliance would result in suspension of their data access."
Singling out Zillow as a disrupter
As of Wednesday, Realtracs said Zillow is the only portal not currently in compliance, "and we do not expect that to change, given Zillow's own rule that prevents sellers from choosing how their properties are marketed and has resulted in dozens of banned Realtracs listings."
"We hope that Zillow will comply [with] our display rules by the May 31st deadline (and stop banning listings we include in the feed)," a spokesperson for Realtracs said in an email sent to Real Estate News. If Zillow does not comply, the MLS will suspend the portal's data feed, the spokesperson confirmed.
Realtracs noted that it pointed brokers to alternate options for getting their listings on Zillow via MLS Grid, should a seller specifically request that their home be listed on the home search site. Earlier this month, Zillow posted its own instructions for brokers to create a direct feed to the portal.
The MLS emphasized that the decision to suspend Zillow's data feed was about "seller choice" — a term frequently used by Compass.
"Realtracs' position is that no entity outside [the seller-broker] relationship should determine the seller's go-to-market strategy," the email said. The MLS also urged brokers to contact Zillow "and demand it remove the display ban."
Realtracs said it would update members on the portal's status by June 1.
Haven't we seen this before?
What is playing out now between Realtracs and Zillow appears to be a repeat of the MRED/Zillow feud currently moving through the courts.
MRED partnered with Compass International Holdings toward the end of April to take the MLS national, just a week before Realtracs did the same.
MRED previously threatened for months to cut off Zillow's listing data feed if it did not come into compliance with its IDX rules, and on May 12, Zillow sued MRED and Compass over their alleged "collusion" to hide listings from consumers.
Last week, after MRED made good on its threats to cut off Zillow's data feed, the portal succeeded in getting the court to temporarily reinstate its listing feed.
Zillow told Real Estate News in a statement that its listing access standards were put in place to "ensure buyers can trust what they see on our platform."
"This is the same playbook already documented in federal court: a coordinated campaign, initiated by Compass CEO Robert Reffkin, to pressure MLSs across the country into pulling sellers' listings off Zillow," a spokesperson said in response to the Realtracs announcement.
"Nashville sellers and buyers deserve access to a full, transparent market," Zillow added. "Zillow's listing access standards exist to protect that. We will not abandon them."
Compass declined to comment on the Realtracs' decision.