Minutes before a high-stakes trial was about to begin, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that Zillow has agreed to “unwind” its $100 million partnership with Redfin in the rental listing market, after it accused Zillow of an unlawful buy-out to decrease competition for rental listings. Redfin will be required to re-start its rental business…
Editor’s note: after this story published, Zillow and Redfin struck an agreement with the FTC to avoid trial, amending or unwinding significant portions of their partnership. Read the full story here. At 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday, August 24, portal rivals Zillow and Redfin will face a judge in Virginia federal court, and defend…
The private listing debate quickly got messy within the industry. Real estate rivals suddenly couldn’t agree even on the definition of “private,” and the disputes have often become technical and insular—seller choice versus transparency, monopolies and conspiracies, the Wall Street boogeyman and the out-of-touch incumbents. But as brokerage and MLS leaders updated policies and focused…
Zillow Group reported an 18% increase in second-quarter revenue Wednesday, topping its high-end forecast even as the online real estate giant posted a narrow net loss over the quarter, just one day after announcing 500 layoffs companywide. The results outpaced the overall 6% growth in the U.S. real estate industry over the same period a…
Tennessee-based MLS Realtracs, two months after threatening to join Chicago-based MRED in cutting Zillow off from its listing feed, has entered into a new licensing agreement with the portal, which “ensures uninterrupted listing distribution” while ensuring Realtracs members continue to have access to Zillow tools. In a statement, Realtracs President and CEO Stuart White said…
Editor’s note: The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate. Zillow class-action claims dismissed (for now) Judge James Robart of the federal Western District of Washington wrote in a 32-page order last week that a lawsuit filed by homebuyers against Zillow failed to…
A judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit against Zillow and a real estate brokerage, saying that lawyers representing homebuyers who used Zillow’s mortgage services or were referred to agents through the portal’s lead-selling service did not meet the legal standard to move forward. Plaintiffs had alleged that Zillow’s practices were deceptive, violating RESPA, racketeering and consumer…
A transaction starts with a seller, and ends with a buyer. Everything in between is theoretically flexible—though for many years, not much has changed, as sellers have relied on agents to list properties directly on local MLSs, which subsequently syndicate properties to consumer portals that have the most reach with buyers. Today, the industry faces…
The majority of listings in the Chicago area disappeared from Zillow this morning, around eight hours after a midnight deadline set by local MLS Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), marking a dramatic escalation in a bitter, high-stakes dispute over restrictions on “private listings” that is playing out nationwide. A sharply-worded announcement from MRED that went…
Above, left to right: Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman, MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen and Compass International Holdings CEO Robert Reffkin Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) has announced that it will suspend property listing data feeds to Zillow Group websites, including Zillow.com and Trulia.com, unless Zillow cures its violation of its license agreements and MRED’s rules by…
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