If you haven’t been paying attention to the news, major real estate turf wars are breaking out across the industry. There are huge implications for buyers and sellers.
Real Estate Turf Wars
At least one brokerage has announced their intent to market their listings to their private network first. This is before placing them out to portals like Homes.com. Realtor.com, Zillow, and Redfin. The brokerage argues that they can sell the home at a higher price or faster than placing it for the public to see. Several studies suggest otherwise. We’ve also seen a few studies that suggest if done properly this could be true in some cases.
The brokerage intends to use this as a selling proposition, and they have been accused of attempting to profit for their own gain versus what is best for their clients. After a period of time, if the property does not sell, they reserve the right to place it on the portals and market publicly.
Portal Response
Zillow and Redfin have responded that if a listing isn’t listed for public display on their portal from Day 1 of the listing, that listing will be banned from display on the portal for the lifetime of the listing. This means that many listings will not be displayed on Zillow or Redfin. Homes.com has said they will display the listings, and we have not heard yet from Realtor.com
This is a double power play. One by the brokerage that wants to market on their own first and second by the portals who want to punish the brokerage and the seller by never displaying that listing when it fails to sell privately.
What’s at Stake?
Portals like Zillow and Realtor.com advertise homes in the MLS. When buyer clicks on a listing they sell the lead to agents who do not have the home listed and know nothing about the home. If a portal loses home inventory, they lose the chance to sell the lead to agents. By playing hard ball, they are trying to convince the brokerage it’s a bad idea to mess with them. The brokerage and your seller will get hurt. If their seller gets hurt, they may want a different real estate agent to market their home because their home will be shutout on some of the portals.
Homes.com
Homes.com doesn’t sell the lead. When a buyer clicks on a property, the inquiry goes directly to the listing agent. You know, the agent with actual knowledge of the home and the motivation to sell that home. I read about a survey from buyers that had no idea they were being directed to agents other than the listing agent on Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com, and they weren’t happy about it. Additionally, sellers are surprised to learn that Zillow diverts potential home buyers away from the listing agent and over to other agents paying for leads.
One brokerage CEO wrote in an email “Zillow is not designed to sell your listings, it is designed to use your listings to generate buyer leads for it’s pay-to-play agents.”
Brokerage Real Estate Turf Wars
Brokerages will have to decide if they are going to utilize the public marketing from day 1 or attempt private marketing. The brokerage wanting to use this is attempting to gain market share. Will it work? Will they lose market share in the process? What will sellers decide?
Will the portals gamble pay off, or will they forever lose listings never to be seen on their portal? Kind of defeats the purpose of attracting buyers to their website. This is all one high stake game, and buyers and sellers stand to lose.
There is a way to get your home listed on all the major portals without being banned. We can also get your listing to the Top of the one that assigns leads to the listing agent. If you have more questions about this, give Brett Ellis or Sande Ellis with Keller Williams Realty a call 239-310-6500
We can answer your questions, and together we’ll help you win while these other companies fight it out online.
Good luck, and Happy Selling!
See Also Zillow Vs Realtor.com Vs Homes.com
10 Reasons Sellers Become Frustrated With Their Listing Agent
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