House and Senate antitrust subcommittee members Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) have asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to review Zillow’s pending $500 million acquisition of home-showing scheduling platform, ShowingTime.
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ShowingTime is (& has been) an application that is meant for licensed agents/brokers to use to gain access to private & confidential homeowner details including showing rules, restrictions, showing request/confirmation & access details, etc. In addition, ShowingTime Agent Feedback comments & historical reports should also be private between the listing agent and the sellers. These are not general consumer or customer-facing details that should be made available to the public. Please explain how Zillow’s pending purchase of ShowingTime will “…‘turn on the lights’ for consumers …”?
I found the original quote from Zillow
“Our mission has always been to ‘turn on the lights’ for consumers by giving them information previously hidden or incredibly difficult to get access through tools such as the Zestimate and the publishing of millions of agent and lender reviews. Zillow’s tools are designed to maximize transparency, champion simplicity and broaden choice for customers—enabling them to eliminate agents on their real estate journey—whether they are buying, selling or renting.
“Key to our mission is our work to modernize the real estate transaction—which has been notoriously resistant to consumer-friendly change over the decades. By building an open and equitable service which is available to all agents and brokers for a price, which would include ShowingTime after the closing of the transaction, we are helping move the industry towards a more efficient, digital future without agents that works to benefit consumers.”