You say tomato, I say tomahto. Let’s call the whole thing off! ~George & Ira Gershwin
Now, before Zillow’s David Gibbons comes by to argue semantics again, I have always opined that allowing folks other than the homeowner or listing agent to “note” a home for sale on Zillow.com was the same as “advertising” it for sale– a violation of most MLS rules and, more important to me, a violation of the homeowner’s right to control the marketing and advertising of their home. (some folks don’t want a For Sale sign on their lawn, real or virtual). See Owners in Zillowland, We Want Out.. and accompanying commentary.
Well, Zillow has finally removed the feature and now ONLY the homeowner or their listing agent, may post a home for sale on Zillow.com. Hooray for homeowner rights.
On Zillow Blog, Spencer Rascoff explained it this way:
…we included a feature to “tell us it’s for sale” – figuring that many conversations start around homes on the market, and if the home isn’t listed on Zillow then the community might want to notate that it’s for sale. Some brokers who didn’t like the feature argued that it allowed someone other than the listing agent to “advertise” the listing, which is a no-no. Our position was always that it is a conversation piece about that home, the type of thing that someone in the community would say to someone else – “hey did you see that the house down the street is for sale for $500,000?”
As I mentioned in a comment, there is a big difference between a coffee house remark about a neighbor’s home for sale and putting it on the internet to have a conversation. It’s just not done by regular Janes. The reality is agents do it to get buyers. Some Realtors were openly advocating this “peeing on trees” strategy and Zillow never spoke out against it– “Hey, fellas, that’s an advertising “no-no”, don’t do it.”
I refuse to believe the brains behind Zillow didn’t think pros would “mark” other folks listings as bait to get clients. Just look at the language they chose– they used terms like “mark” “note” “tell us” a house is for sale– carefully avoiding words like list, post, advertise— this went past a lawyer’s desk. In any event, the feature is dead and real estate professionals will no longer get to pee on your home.
The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Grease
I had a conversation with David Gibbons on the subject and he told me the reasons for the features demise were twofold:
First and foremost, it was not being used– only about 4,300 homes were marked for sale by folks other than the owner or listing agent ( less than .1% of Zillow’s inventory– a mere bag of shells). I suspect all 4,300 listings were put up by real estate agents and mortgage brokers looking to get a call and get a client.
Secondly, and this is the part that intrigued me, a vocal minority of agents had made the same objections as I had– that the feature was advertising, plain and simple.
I asked David if he knew of any objections filed with local MLS against non-listing agents using the feature and he recalled only 2– in one the agent removed himself from the listing, in the other, it stayed. It was never challenged in court.
I salute Zillow for removing the feature. I only hope Zillow will listen to another vocal group— homeowners —and give them the right to opt-out of the zestimate & disable Q&A, especially when they claim and list their home for sale on Zillow– it might be an incentive for folks to claim their homes and list them on Zillow. But I don’t think they have the vision, or the chavollies.
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