Homes.com’s Andy Florance hits Zillow back
Letter from Andy Florance:
“This week Zillow Executive Errol Samuelson announced that houses will not be mentioned on the MLS within 24 hours of public marketing – will not be published on Zillow “for the lifetime of the list”. Simply put, if your mention is not on Zillow within 24 hours, Zillow will take revenge on you and your homeowner by switching off your ability to mention Zillow. It is an incredible move of courage and a pure power play of epic proportion.
Delayed IDX syndication is permitted according to Nar -Rules. But Zillow claims that – not dar, not your brokerage, not you the listing agent – and even the homeowner whose house it is and the committee pays – decide how a list is sold. This is not about protecting consumers. The point is to protect Zillow’s ability to take advantage of your offers by selling your leads to competing agents.
Whether you support the clear cooperation policy, it is never acceptable for a real estate portal to threaten agents in this way. Real estate portals must remain neutral. Whether you are the agent of a buyer, a listing agent or both, we support all agents and believe that you earn better. And we believe that every real estate professional deserves to be treated with honesty and respect – not bullied by a technical platform that wants to control an industry.
The lead-diversion model of Zillow is anti-consumers and anti-agents. Last week I listened to focus groups with home sellers who believed that when a buyer clicks on the “Contactagent” button on his entries in Zillow, they contact their listing agent. When they found out that was not true – and that their house was used as bait to lead buyers to competing agents – they were furious. A seller exclaimed: “Holy Hell!” Another said, “What the …?”
The main reduction model of Zillow hijacks your hard -earned offers to generate commission splits for them and to grow their brand on your costs. If the frame agent you deserve, you clearly indicate, undisputed credit for your offers. When a buyer believes that he contacts the listing agent, that is exactly who they should reach.
Homes.com is agent -friendly. We always show that the listing agent – and only the listing agent – on entries. We follow the principle of Your list, your lead. That means that we only display your name, your photo, your brokerage and only connect potential buyers to you. We never take a split or sell from the committee that leads to competing agents. Instead, we earn income by promoting your list at thousands of extra buyers on the internet.
Zillow’s crippled statement that “your offer, your protagonist” creates problems with double agency is a red herring. If having the name of the listing agent on an offer really caused a double agency, then Zillow must also be the only name on your open houses, your garden boards and your marketing material – which is clearly absurd.
Zillow has overplayed his hand. I believe they panicked in the thought that agents might have a real choice in how they market their entries. And when agents have a choice, many do not hurry to publish lists on a site that lives their leads.
Even if only a few agents stop to mention Zillow, buyers will follow quickly – and stop them there to no longer search. The main model of Zillow’s leading diversion is threatened.
In the meantime, Homes.com has invested billions of dollars in marketing to successfully attract 110 million average monthly unique visitors To the homes.com network. The homes.com -network was drawn in the past year visit a billion. With our “your offer, your head” approach, agents finally have a better way to put their entries online on the market.
Homes.com and the other large portals (Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com) reach over 418 million monthly visitors.
Zillow is good for less than half of that audience – and many buyers use multiple sites when searching for houses. Rest assured, if Zillow blocks your entry, it will still be seen on Homes.com and the other sites.
If you make a listing presentation and ask a homeowner if you mention on Zillow, let them know that Zillow makes it more difficult to sell a house by distracting the potential buyers from you, the listing agent, who knows the house best and is the most motivated to sell that house.
These are your hard -earned lists. You earn control. You deserve respect. You deserve a platform that helps you sell the house – none that hijack your leads for profit. “
Honestly,
Andy Florance
CEO, Homes.com
