Anyone who was wondering what the future of Zillow (Z) and Trulia was going to look like needn’t wonder any longer, thanks to an announcement from the newly formed Zillow Group.
It looks like the sharing of rental data between Zillow and Trulia is indeed a harbinger of the future of the Zillow Group. The Zillow Group announced Monday that Realogy (RLGY), Keller Williams and 18 multiple listing services, including the California Regional MLS, signed agreements with the Zillow Group to provide listing data to both Zillow and Trulia.
Under the agreements, the 18 MLSs, Realogy and Keller Williams will establish direct feeds that will push listing data to both sites.
The future of the Zillow Group is here and it’s shared listing data between the sites.
The need to establish direct relationships with brokerages and MLSs is critically important for Zillow and Trulia since any listing provided by ListHub will disappear from the sites on April 7.
Move-owned ListHub and the Zillow Group have been at war over listing data provided to Zillow and Trulia for months. It began in January, when Zillow announced its decision to cancel its listing agreement with ListHub, which is owned Move, which is owned by News Corp (NWS) and operates Realtor.com for the National Association of Realtors.
After ListHub tried to terminate its listing agreement with Trulia, the companies went to court over the continued flow of listings from ListHub to Trulia.
But on March 12, the two parties met in court where the judge ruled to lift the temporary restraining order but not grant the permanent injunction. Zillow Group and Move then agreed ListHub would continue to provide listing data to Trulia until April 7.
With the ListHub data now weeks from disappearing from Zillow and Trulia, the Zillow Group has been hard at work signing listing agreements to mitigate any potential loss of listing data.
But this most recent announcement is the most significant series of agreements the Zillow Group has secured thus far.
With the agreements in place, Zillow and Trulia will now receive direct feeds from the Realogy family of brokerages, which includes Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Century 21 Real Estate, Coldwell Banker, ERA, Sotheby’s International Realty and ZipRealty – plus Keller Williams, which boasts 110,000 associates and “nearly 700 market centers” across the globe.
The 18 new MLSs that signed on with Zillow Group will boost the sites’ listings significantly as well, especially the California Regional MLS, which is the country’s largest MLS.
"It's great to see so many of our MLS partners appreciate the value in building a relationship with Zillow and Trulia," said Greg Schwartz, Zillow Group chief revenue officer. "We've already been able to create a total of more than 20 new direct agreements with MLSs, which means they are guaranteed uninterrupted service to two of the most trafficked real estate websites and suites of mobile apps just as home shopping season is getting underway."
Additionally, the Zillow Group signed listing agreements with:
- Alaska MLS – Anchorage, Alaska
- Golden Isles Association of Realtors – Brunswick, Georgia
- Greater Lansing Association of Realtors – Greater Lansing, Michigan
- Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors – Las Vegas, Nevada
- Gulf Coast MLS – Mobile, Alabama
- MIBOR Service Corporation – Indianapolis, Indiana
- Middle Georgia MLS – Macon, Georgia
- North Central Mississippi Realtors – Oxford, Mississippi
- North Carolina Mountains MLS – Fletcher, North Carolina
- Northern New England Real Estate Network– Concord, New Hampshire
- Northwest Mississippi Association of Realtors – Nesbit, Mississippi
- Russellville BOR – Russellville, Arkansas
- Santa Fe Association of Realtors – Santa Fe, New Mexico
- South Central Board of Realtors – Rolla, Missouri
- Tillamook County MLS – Tillamook, Oregon
- Western Arizona Realtors Data Exchange – Lake Havasu City, Arizona
- West Central Association of Realtors MN – Willmar, Minnesota
Despite the loss of the ListHub data, the Zillow Group said it is not concerned with how many listings are actually going to disappear from Zillow and Trulia, especially given this announcement.
“We are working hard to ensure home sellers and their agents can easily continue to market homes on Trulia, which attracts one of the largest audiences of homebuyers in the country, and we are having tremendous success signing contracts for direct MLS feeds,” Zillow Group Spokeswoman Katie Curnutte said last week.
“Trulia already receives a majority of their listings directly from brokers and MLSs, and many others are taking steps to create direct relationship with Trulia if they haven’t already,” Curnutte added. “By the time ListHub stops sending listings to Trulia on April 7, we expect a small percentage of Trulia’s overall listing count to be affected.”
