CLARIFICATION: This article has been updated to clarify that CTMLS uses a third-party syndicator, ListHub, to assist brokers who want to send listings to sites other than Zillow, Realtor.com and Trulia.
Connecticut’s statewide multiple listing service will send participating brokers’ listings directly to real estate information portal Zillow, the companies said.
Listings provided to Zillow by Connecticut Multiple Listing Service Inc. (CTMLS) on a member opt-in basis will take priority over listings from other data sources such as third-party syndicators, the companies said. Brokers can still opt to provide their own listings to Zillow in a direct feed.
CTMLS, which has about 11,000 members in 169 cities and towns throughout the state who represent more than 25,000 homes for sale, already syndicates listings directly to Realtor.com and Trulia.
CEO Cameron Paine said CTMLS uses a third-party syndicator, ListHub, to assist brokers who want to send listings to sites other than Zillow, Realtor.com and Trulia.
To ensure the accuracy of listings data, CTMLS will update listings it provides to Zillow "multiple times each day." Zillow will also make available CTMLS listing data available on Yahoo Real Estate and on Zillow mobile apps, but nowhere else.
Greg Schwartz, Zillow chief revenue officer, said in a statement that CTMLS will provide "a definitive set of pristine data on Zillow" with the assurance that "listings will be seen by hundreds of thousands of local home shoppers, within a legal framework which protects the interests of the MLS, brokers, agents and home sellers."
Zillow and other listing portals have rankled some brokers by running advertisements and lead forms for other companies’ agents next to the listings they receive from brokers, MLSs and companies that syndicate listing data.
A few brokers have decided to stop providing listings to third-party sites not affiliated with an MLS or Realtor association, including Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia. After Zillow acquired Internet Data Exchange (IDX) vendor Diverse Solutions in November, two MLSs dropped the company as an approved provider of member services.
Zillow also operates syndication platform Postlets, which it acquired last year.
Last month Zillow announced it had hired Bob Bemis, the top executive at Arizona Multiple Listing Service Inc., to help the company improve its relations with brokers and MLSs.
Although real estate brokers and agents sometimes complain about the accuracy of listings data on third-party websites, some industry observers say ads and lead forms from competing brokerages are the larger concern.
Thanks to its ties to the National Association of Realtors, Realtor.com already receives listings directly from nearly all of the nation’s more than 900 MLSs, which helps ensure that listings are accurate and up to date.
Last month, Pittsburgh-based Howard Hanna Real Estate Services announced separate agreements in which it will pay Realtor.com and Zillow more than $1 million to promote its listings on the sites — unaccompanied by ads or lead forms for competing brokerages. Howard Hanna — the nation’s fourth-largest broker — will provide listings directly to Zillow.com.
Last week, Lisle, Ill.-based Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) said it would provide listings to Trulia when member brokers opt in to a new syndication service. Trulia has similar agreements with CTMLS, the Houston Association of Realtors, Northern Ohio Regional MLS, and San Jose, Calif.-based MLS Listings.
