Last year, Zillow announced the launch of its own brokerage: Zillow Homes. Due to this, starting this year, rental listings syndicated through the MLS are no longer feeding directly to Zillow. Agents and brokers who would like their rental listing on Zillow, must now do so through Zillow’s Rental Manager, a contract-based service that starts at $9.99 weekly, per listing.
A new study from Rental Beast suggests that this change could have an annual economic impact in the “tens of millions of dollars collectively.”
Ishay Grinberg, founder and CEO of Rental Beast, said, “Rental Beast estimates the new costs to a small MLS and its subscribers could be over $100,000 a year. For a large MLS, the new costs could be north of $6.5 million per year. There are some 600 MLSs nationwide, and if just the largest ones adopt this new pricing scheme, the total economic impact on the real estate industry will run in the tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.”
According to a past RISMedia survey, shortly following Zillow’s announcement, 87 percent of respondents said they perceived Zillow’s brokerage move as a “negative” for the industry. The move could also impact Zillow’s subscriber base—of those surveyed who were currently using Zillow’s advertising platform, 62 percent said they would be pulling their advertising with the company in the future. Additionally, of the 68 percent respondents not currently Premier Agents, 95 percent said they would not consider advertising with the company in the future.
Rental agents, how do you feel about the news? Let us know in the comments.
I stay as far away from Zillow as I possibly can. Regardless of whether it’s a rental or a Buyer. I tell All of my whatever you do, Don’t use ZILLOW! I’ve attached an IDX home search to ALL of my email and social media platforms and highly promote Military by Owner here in Northern Va area.
Alisa Bettius
ABR/SRS/MPR®️
I’ve had lots of problems with Zillow and their customer service is garbage and now they want $9.99/week per listing ? They are insane. Don’t need them anyway to fill vacancies. The “pipeline” is flowing quite well without them.
I manage rental real estate and will not be using Zillow Rental Manager. I’ve had potential tenants come through various portals, including Realtor.com, so I am hopeful they will find my listings without Zillow. I already pay Board and brokerage fees as well as MLS fees, so I have no intention of paying Zillow. Very disappointed in them, but not surprised.
It seems Zillow wants all the pie not just a piece of it. I vote to completely boycott them.
This cat was let out of the bag years ago when we sacrificed our occupation to their “Premier Agent” advertising. Too late now to lament.
Look I have been doing property management since the year 2000! I understand business is all about making $ in the end. I get it. Zillow is now large enough and strong enough to ask for these kind of prices from us…BUT why so much?? I mean have special introduction pricing to obtain even more rental agents than you do now! Don’t just start out at a whopping high dollar weekly amount, per listing! Make it Special and Inviting for us! That’s all. Thank you.
I will not advertise nor promote Zillow. I am against them becoming a brokerage when they used the individual agent’s listings around the world to profit. I find this was a greed move and I hope MLS and other brokerages will stop cooperating with them.
To the best of my knowledge Zillow has yet to make a profit. Sooner or later the NYC hedge fund people will stop pouring money down the dry hole.
I will not support Zillow in any fashion.
I rent about 100 transaction sides per year. I will not pay ten bucks per week for my listings to appear on Zillow. No Way. Most of the leads from their site are time wasters. People with lousy credit or three pitbulls. Plus, with Zillow now a Brokerage, aren’t they my competition?
How do they get away with charging me to be on their site when they are getting my listings from MLS for free? I hope it sinks their rental business
We have all know for many years that zillow wants to be the amazon or realestate. Our MLS has given away our listings to them and in turn created this monster.
I have asked every broker I have ever worked with ” Why do we give them our inventory for free then they charge us to advertise”. If we pulled our home listings from them TODAY they would be finished. The longer we wait the more powerful Zillow becomes. They will rule the entire industry soon. They may offer us 1% or maybe a flat fee of $200 or $300 for compensation on a transaction. We have to drop or replace the MLS that has sold us out.
Zillow claims they are all about helping Realtors and the consumer. With this move, they are doing a disservice to both. There is no reason for property managers to use Zillow’s rental platform when we already use great platforms like Buildium. Zillow makes so much money off of Realtors it’s obscene that they have stepped into charging for rental listings actually per day not per week. Now many rental listings won’t be on Zillow which just made it harder for consumers to find rental listings. That’s ok, consumers will figure it out. There are many platforms and idx dats feeds that have all of the rental listings. This move by Zillow really takes the cake. What’s next?
Zillow is like a Medusa …or invasive crab grass.
A weed that ultimately destroys the garden. Ultimately, your choice : the ax/hoe or weed killer?