“I can see that MLSs would see this as an attack at the front gate,” said Gregg Larson, CEO of the real estate consulting firm Clareity Consulting. ![]() Some, including Galen Ward, CEO of brokerage and referral site Estately, think Zillow’s move will undermine the MLS system. They might question why they’re paying MLS dues, Hanna said. Hanna said he could see that premarketing on portals like Zillow that get soon-to-be listings out in front of consumers could be a challenge to the value brokers and agents see in an MLS. “Someday we may look to participate,” he added. ![]() “We’re curious to see how the customer responds.” by transaction sides in 2013, sends all of its listings to Zillow in a direct feed. Zillow approached Howard Hanna to participate in a beta version of its “coming soon” feature and the firm declined because it’s concerned about possible industry pushback, Hanna said.īut the brokerage is watching, Hanna said. Howard Hanna, the fourth-largest brokerage in the U.S. It’s also open to consumers who sign up and have an account through Howard Hanna’s website, he said.īy monitoring the Zillow “coming soon” feature and how consumers respond, the industry has a window into how consumers respond to them and what they want, Hanna said. That inventory is not just available to Howard Hanna agents and brokers, Hanna said. For instance, large Chicago-based brokerage released an app last year that facilitates communication among its agents about coming-soon properties.Īt Howard Hanna, agents enter “coming soon” listings into Hanna’s back end before they must hit the MLS, typically 24 to 72 hours after a listing agreement is signed. The brokerage calls them “Hot Leads.” Hanna pointed out that brokerages have been doing a version of coming soons for themselves for years. Howard “Hoby” Hanna, president of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services’ Midwest region, said he doesn’t see Zillow as an intermediary trying to dislodge the value proposition of brokers and agents, but a marketing partner “that isn’t handcuffed by our industry and its traditional practices.” Zillow’s new feature brings premarketing into the light of day and “I tip my hat to them,” he added. With Zillow innovating, “we simply have to work harder to convince people that we’re the best place to list properties for sale,” Charron said. “MLSs have had a corner on the market,” Charron said. The new feature might spur the industry forward, which can get stuck in a mire of its own rules and regulations, he said. Zillow, with its massive consumer reach of more than 45 million unique visitors per month, is a good laboratory for the industry to see how consumers take to seeing premarketed homes, Charron said. “If we stand still and hope it will pass, we’re going to be left in the dust,” Charron said. MLSs will have to embrace more of the creativity exhibited by Zillow as they evolve, he said. ![]() “I see (Zillow’s new feature) as an opportunity to engage a group of people to do it within the MLS,” Charron said. “I believe ‘coming soon’ will become another status in the MLS, just another form of advertising,” said David Charron, president and CEO of Metropolitan Regional Information Services (MRIS), an MLS serving over 40,000 members in Washington, D.C., and four nearby states. Some MLSs have been toying with the idea of adding “coming soon” fields to their databases for the last two years. Zillow’s “coming soon” feature, which allows the premarketing of homes for up to 30 days on , is restricted to agents who advertise with the portal and the brokerages and MLSs who provide Zillow their listings in a direct feed. Premarketing of listings has become a fairly common practice as tight inventories in many markets spur intense interest in any hint of a “coming soon” property. Zillow is leveraging a practice that was already taking place in the industry within brokerages, Facebook groups, and on its own site and those of some of its rivals. Will it undermine the MLS? What regulatory or legal implications might it have for brokers, agents and consumers? Is it a good or bad thing for the industry? Zillow’s new “coming soon” feature, which allows certain agents, multiple listing services and brokerages to market homes on its website before listing them for sale, has kicked up a host of questions for the real estate industry.
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