Redfin and Zillow Agree to Terms for Syndicating Listings in Four Markets
Real estate makes strange bedfellows. First there was a referral agreement between Redfin and rival RE/MAX, which was dissolved a week after it was struck. Now, Redfin has announced a partnership of sorts with another rival–Zillow.
Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman made this declaration in a blog post:
“For the first time in our 14-year history of vying with one another to build the best listing search site, Redfin and Zillow have come to terms, with Redfin sending our listings to Zillow.com in markets where the Multiple Listing Service doesn’t syndicate that data for us.”
Those markets are Charlotte, Des Moines, Nashville and Seattle. According to Kelman, Redfin did not previously allow syndication by Zillow.com because of a delay in loading the link that made it difficult for Redfin to be identified as the original source.
A recent redesign of Zillow’s site eliminated the problem, said Kelman, who credited the National Association of Realtors and MLS partners with helping to “build a consensus among brokers and portals that a broker’s listing should be widely shared but with clear attribution on every real estate site to that broker, so consumers can find their way to the broker’s site.”
Kelman noted that negotiating the deal directly with Zillow was time-consuming, and that he would have preferred that MLSs negotiate such deals. The MLSs that already have a deal with real estate portals should ensure links to the source are included in the data syndicated to real estate portals, he added.