Private Listings Crackdown Heats Up Portal Wars

The fight over private listings is dividing some of the biggest names in residential real estate.

Days after Zillow announced it would ban private listings after a certain amount of time from its platform, as part of a standards rollout reinforcing the National Association of Realtors’ Clear Cooperation Policy, fellow listing platform (and advertising partner thanks to a five-year, $100 million deal) Redfin fell in line.

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said the company wouldn’t publish any listings that didn’t start on the MLS and called for a “coming soon designation” that would hide a home’s time spent for sale and historical pricing.

Coming soon listings offer still too narrow access, Kelman said, and violate NAR’s 2008 settlement that established its Participation Rule “that all brokerage customers should be able to see all MLS listings, online or via an agent.”

“That principle exists for a reason: once brokers give our clients control over how their listing appears online, every client will want that listing to appear everywhere,” Kelman said.

But Zillow earned a vocal opponent in a relatively new residential competitor that’s been snapping at its heels.

CoStar CEO Andy Florance hit back at Zillow, saying the private listing ban was exclusively about protecting its “ability to profit” and took issue with the portal’s place in the debate at all.

“Zillow is asserting that they, not NAR, not your brokerage, not you the listing agent—and not even the homeowner whose house it is and is paying the commission—should decide how a listing is marketed,” Florance wrote in a note to agents also posted on LinkedIn.

“Whether or not you support the Clear Cooperation Policy, it is never acceptable for a real estate portal to threaten agents this way,” Florance wrote. “Real estate portals must remain neutral.”

Zillow has long been in CoStar’s crosshairs, but the tension between the top portals has heated up in recent years.

CoStar turned its attention to the residential scene with a string of sizable deals starting in 2014, when it picked up Apartments.com for $585 million. The firm became the market leader for rental listings the following year after adding other online marketplaces to its portfolio, and its investment passed the $2 billion mark with a 2020 deal for Homesnap and 2021 deal for Homes.com.

Homes.com and Apartments.com surpassed Redfin and Realtor.com in 2022 before CoStar ramped up its push with a $1 billion advertising campaign in early 2023. Now, Zillow still leads the pack by a considerable margin, but CoStar is in its third year as a top contender among platforms.

With this backdrop, Florance issued fresh criticism at the competitor, echoing warnings he made in the wake of the National Association of Realtors’ antitrust settlement limiting the portals to MLS data feeds without buyer-broker compensation fields.

“Zillow has overplayed its hand,” Florance said in the post. “I believe they panicked at the thought that agents might have real choice in how they market their listings. And when agents have a choice, many won’t rush to publish listings on a site that siphons off their leads.”

The executive hinted at the growing alternatives for listings, warning, “Zillow’s lead diversion business model is coming under threat.” (Douglas Elliman and Corcoran unveiled private listing platforms in recent weeks.)

“Even if just a few agents hold back from listing on Zillow, buyers will quickly follow suit—and stop searching there,” Florance said.

Sheridan Wall contributed reporting.