By Samantha Delouya, CNN
(CNN) — On Wednesday, hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of home listings in the Midwest were slated to begin disappearing from Zillow amid a mounting legal fight between some of the biggest players in the real estate industry.
Midwest Real Estate Data, or MRED, said it would cut off Zillow’s access to its regional home-listing database serving Chicago and its surrounding areas at midnight Central Time.
The move by MRED, which has accused Zillow of violating its licensing rules, marks an escalation in the fight over so-called private listings — homes marketed to select buyers before appearing on public home-search websites. Now, the messy dispute is directly affecting what homes buyers and sellers can see online.
Why is this happening?
Last year, Zillow announced a new rule for agents and brokerages: A home listing marketed to any consumers must be published on Zillow within one day, or the listing would be banned. The company said the rules were in the interest of transparency and fairness as private listing networks grow.
MRED handles roughly 250,000 listings annually, primarily across Illinois and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa and Indiana, and recently announced a partnership with Compass, the world’s largest real estate brokerage, to create a nationwide private-listing network. MRED has argued that Zillow’s private listing ban breaks its rules because it disproportionately targets one brokerage: Compass.
Last week, Zillow sued MRED and Compass in federal court, accusing them of conspiring to cut off Zillow’s access to MRED’s listings.
Zillow has argued that MRED is effectively controlled by Compass, noting that the brokerage holds three seats on MRED’s board (there are 17 total board seats). Zillow claimed MRED is acting on Compass’s behalf to expand private listings and undermine Zillow’s rules.
“Let’s be clear about what’s actually happening: By threatening Zillow users’ access to every listing in Chicagoland, MRED is using its monopoly over Chicago as a weapon to control how Zillow handles listings in places like California and Florida — markets thousands of miles outside Chicago that MRED has never operated in — all to give the largest brokerage in the country a leg up,” a Zillow spokesperson said.
What’s the deal with private listings?
Compass and its CEO Robert Reffkin have long been vocal supporters of private listings.
Traditional listings typically show a home’s price history and how long it has been on the market — information pulled from the multiple listing service (MLS) databases like MRED that real estate agents use to share properties for sale.
Reffkin has called that information a “killer of value,” arguing that private listings are in the best interest of sellers, who should be able to choose how they market their homes.
Critics say the system could unfairly push home sellers to make deals with buyers represented by other Compass agents, resulting in the brokerage collecting commission from both sides of the transaction. Compass denies that claim.
In January, Compass acquired Anywhere Real Estate, creating the nation’s largest real estate brokerage and cementing Reffkin as one of the industry’s most influential players. Since then, more brokerages have embraced private and “coming soon” listings that keep a home’s pricing history and days on market hidden from the public.
Last year, Compass sued Zillow after it announced its rule curbing private listings, accusing the company of engaging in an anticompetitive conspiracy to maintain its dominance over digital home listings. However, Compass dropped the lawsuit earlier this year.
“Restricting listing visibility and penalizing agents for exercising lawful and strategic marketing options undermines consumer choice,” a Compass spokesperson said this week about Compass’ legal fight with Zillow. “Buyers in Chicago should not be deprived of access to listings because a platform disagrees with how a homeowner chooses to market their property.”
How long will Zillow lose access to Midwest home listings?
This week, Zillow asked a federal court in Illinois to prevent MRED from cutting its listing feed, but the judge has not yet issued a decision.
MRED has said that it will keep its home listings feed cut off as long as Zillow continues to ban home listings that were first privately marketed.
“The rules of this MLS exist to protect every participating broker and every consumer who relies on a complete and accurate picture of the market,” said Rebecca Jensen, the CEO of MRED, in a statement. “Those rules apply equally to every participant, regardless of the size of their audience or the reach of their platform.”
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