Zillow Loses Listing Feeds
Zillow Loses Listing Feeds
In April 2015 a big change is coming to Zillow, Trulia and other home listing syndicators. Rupert Murdoch recently purchased ListHub, a relatively obscure business owned by MOVE, Inc. MOVE also owns REALTOR.COM – more on that later. Murdoch announced he will not renew Listhub’s contract with Zillow when it expires in April. The result: Zillow Loses Listing Feeds from most major Multiple Listing Services in the United States. For my market, FMLS and GAMLS listing feeds will no longer be on ZILLOW. The public will not have access to home listings from GAMLS and FMLS on ZILLOW. That is a game changer for Atlanta real estate.
Here is how all this works.
Home owners sign a listing agreement with a Broker. Most Brokers are members of Multiple Listing Services where they have agreed to jointly market homes on a listing database shared among MLS members. Brokers cooperate (ie CO-OP) with each other in the sale of these listings.
Multiple Listing Services have agreements with SYNDICATORS to share the information about specific listings so the public will have access to the info Most MLS’s have an agreement with a LISTHUB as their syndicator. LISTHUB is owned by the same company (MOVE, INC) that owns REALTOR.COM. Originally, these companies were under the control of the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). NAR agreed to the sale of parent company MOVE (Move owns Realtor.com and LISTHUB) to Rupert Murdoch.
REALTOR.COM and ZILLOW compete on the INTERNET. Each company displays home listings including photos and detailed information. Each company sells advertising to real estate agents and other industry related companies. Rupert Murdoch is not known for being a friendly competitor. He decided the would cutoff listings to ZILLOW when the contract with LISTHUB expires in April 2015.
What will Zillow do. They will no longer have fresh and accurate information about homes for sale. Sure – they will have for sale by owner info and will continue to show rather spotty foreclosure info – but thy will lose their meat and potato information. Zillow loses listing feeds from Listhub in April.
ZILLOW is scrambling to work out agreements with individual MLSs around the country. From my dealings with FMLS, I am guessing they WILL NOT SHARE info either. SO where will you go for accurate and up to date info about homes on the market.
[Update on Feb 25, 2015: Just learned GAMLS has brokered a deal to send listings direct to Zillow. Not sure if they are going through Listhub or going direct from GAMLS. This is a solid move on the part of GAMLS and we applaud the participation. BUT we are hoping the deal brokered between GAMLS and Zillow gives consideration to the Broker who holds the listing]
REALTOR.COM will continue to have up to date info. Remember – Realtor.com and ListHub are owned by the same parent company.
BROKER websites will continue to have listing info direct from their MLS members. SO if you are a member of FMLS you will have FMLS listings to display on your website through IDX agreements. Go to my website, englishteam.com, to see how this works. You can search all the listings in that particular MLS and see detailed info about the listing.
I advertise on Zillow because I want people searching for homes to have easy access to my contact information. After April 2015 I am going to have to re-think that strategy. Thank goodness I have a website that is capable to supplying detailed info about ATLANTA GEORGIA homes for sale. It will definitely be an advantage for buyers and sellers in my marketplace.
