Real Estate Rights for Consumers
Zillow has been working to transform the real estate experience since 2006.
There is more to do – and we need your help.
How Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) Can Help Consumers
Having a free and fair marketplace is critical to the real estate ecosystem in our country. Multiple listing services (MLSs) can facilitate this openness and transparency, by providing buyers and their agents equitable access to all listings and allowing sellers and their agents to understand the market and reach the broadest audience of buyers. The U.S. residential real estate market is one of the most transparent in the world, in large part because MLSs provide data to all their participants. We want to support the MLS system by driving improvements that modernize antiquated industry rules and benefit consumers and the agents MLSs serve.
For example, Zillow supports:
Removal of the ‘no-commingling’ rule, which prevents home shoppers from viewing all available listings in one seamless search experience online. The current rule, which comes from the National Association of Realtors and is adopted by most MLSs, requires that any listing not entered into the MLS first (I.e.: new construction, auction, for sale by owner (FSBO) and rental listings) be separated from all other MLS listings in a market, making it cumbersome for consumers and putting these listings at a disadvantage.
The prohibition of exclusive private listing networks and office exclusive listings, which are anti-consumer because they hide access to a subset of the listings in a given market from broad consumer audiences.
The real estate industry is a critical, dynamic part of the U.S. economy, which is why it’s so important that it keep evolving. We believe MLSs can provide value because they help make the market work and we want to partner with them to ensure consumer needs remain the top priority.