Consumer watchdog group BBB backed Move Inc.’s claims that its residential listing platform, Realtor.com, was the “top website trusted by real estate professionals”, according to a press release published by BBB’s National Advertising Division on Friday.
The platform’s competitor CoStar Group, the parent company of Homes.com, had challenged Realtor.com’s self-promotion, as the two firms continue to battle each other both in and outside the courts.
“Trust is not just a tagline — it drives our business,” a spokesperson for Realtor.com wrote in a statement. “Our ads influence where customers invest their hard-earned marketing dollars, and we don’t take that responsibility lightly.”
The bureau’s decision marks a win for Move, which suffered a blow last week when a federal judge dismissed two of its claims against CoStar in a California-based lawsuit. A spokesperson for Move said the company planned to refile its claims against CoStar “after making minor adjustments.”
Move sued CoStar in July over allegations that a former employee who left for Homes.com stole trade secrets. Move urged the judge to issue an injunction against CoStar but was shot down in September for failing to prove the alleged theft of proprietary information resulted in “irreparable harm.”
“Realtor.com is losing the battle with Homes.com and its attempt to change the story doesn’t change that reality,” CoStar’s general counsel Gene Boxer told Inman. “We look forward to prevailing in court.”
Move and CoStar are also duking it out over who has the most traffic behind the leading platform, Zillow. In the lawsuit, Move takes aim at CoStar’s reported traffic numbers and its reliance on Google Analytics, which Move argues isn’t as reliable as third-party companies like Comscore and Similar Web. According to Move, metrics from those sites rank Realtor.com as the No. 2 most visited.
CoStar’s CEO Andy Florance defended its use of Google Analytics during the company’s second quarter earnings call, comparing the data platform to “an election result, whereas a tool like SEMRush or comScore is more like an election poll.” He also claimed Homes.com had “solidly lapped” Realtor.com and Redfin.
Though Move isn’t gaining ground in the courts so far, the company has fared better in complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau this summer. Move’s CEO Damian Eales reported some of Homes.com’s claims to the organization, calling them “deceptive and misleading” in an interview with Inman.
Eales questioned Homes.com’s assertion that it had reached 156 million monthly unique visitors and had doubled Realtor.com’s traffic. CoStar agreed to change its advertising campaigns after the BBB’s advertising division recommended it discontinue the use of those claims.
In turn, CoStar pushed back against Realtor.com, raising concerns over its claim to be the “#1 site real estate professionals trust.” But the BBB sided with Move, pointing to its disclosure that the statement was based on a survey of real estate professionals conducted last August.
The organization said the double-blind survey of more than 1,000 professionals was sufficient to back up its claim but cautioned that the firm should update the survey if it plans to continue using the statement in advertising.
The disclosure on Realtor.com’s website now says the claim is based on a survey conducted in August 2024.
A CoStar spokesperson took aim at Realtor.com’s lead diversion model.
“We know agents hate lead diversion and love Homes.com’s ‘Your Listing, Your Lead’ business model,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We continue to believe that Realtor.com’s approach of selling off leads is bad for agents and bad for consumers. Homes.com’s climbing Net Promoter Score (NPS), a measure used to gauge customer loyalty, satisfaction, and enthusiasm with a company, now surpasses Realtor.com’s and shows consumers agree.”