As the deadline for compliance to its new Listing Access Standards approaches, Zillow has started to execute its strategy to stop the proliferation of exclusive inventory.
Why it matters: The opening moves in the battle over exclusive inventory will affect the nation’s largest brokerages, thousands of listings (and thousands of homesellers), and shape the industry’s power dynamics for the next decade.
First up: Zillow has clarified its definition of public marketing to include any buyer-oriented marketing that private listings exist.
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This is broad treatment: it’s not just a specific listing being marketed publicly (yard sign, social media post, email) that is in violation, but the mere existence of a private listing.
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So, in the case of Compass, simply advertising that there are private listings on its search results page means all of those listings are in violation and subject to a potential Zillow ban.
