Online real estate marketplace Zillow Inc. has expanded a pilot program where it receives listings directly from real estate brokerages in return for enhancing their visibility on the portal.
Thirty-three additional real estate brokerages from all over the country have joined the 5-month-old program Zillow Pro for Brokers, Zillow announced today. The program, in beta, featured 15 brokerages in July, and, with the new additions, now includes 48.
Under the program, data feeds provided by brokers via their multiple listing service will take priority over all other data sources the portal uses. In return for the direct listing feed, broker-affiliated listing agents receive more prominent placement of their listings on Zillow and gain access, along with the brokers, to Zillow’s contact management system.
"We look forward to welcoming many more partners in the weeks and months to come," said Greg Schwartz, chief revenue officer at Zillow, in a statement. "We work with these brokerages to increase visibility to their listing agents, improve listings accuracy and give them new options for contact management."
Coldwell Banker Honig-Bell (in Illinois) and Prudential Tropical Realty (in Florida) are the largest of the 33 new additions to the program. They join some of the nation’s largest brokerages from the program’s initial roster, including Long & Foster (in the Mid-Atlantic region), Alain Pinel (in California), Real Estate One (in Michigan), HomeSmart (in Arizona and California), Realty One Group (in Nevada, California and Arizona) and Pacific Union International (in California).
Listing agents affiliated with brokers participating in the Zillow Pro for Brokers program don’t have to create a Zillow profile in order to appear first on a list of buyer’s agents next to property listings. Listing agents provide only their photo along with the data feed sent to Zillow because their identity is verified through their broker.
Listing agents with other brokerages don’t appear on the buyer’s agent list at all, unless they have created a Zillow profile and "claimed" their listings. Instead, they appear at the bottom of a listing under the heading "Listing Provided By."
Agents with brokerages participating in the Zillow Pro for Brokers program will also receive automatic text and email alerts when consumers fill out lead forms, and follow-up phone reminders within eight hours if the agent hasn’t responded. Participating brokers decide whether to funnel leads to their customer relationship management system, the listing agent, or both.
The 33 brokerages joining the program are:
- Assist-2-Sell (Nevada)
- Award Realty (Arizona)
- Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty (New York)
- Better Homes and Gardens Gary Greene (Texas)
- California Homes Realty (California)
- CES Premier Real Estate (California)
- Coldwell Banker Honig-Bell (Illinois)
- Coldwell Banker Conroy, Marable & Holleman (Tennessee)
- Coldwell Banker Roth Wehrly Graber (Indiana)
- Daniel Ravenel Sotheby’s International Realty (South Carolina)
- DPR Realty (Arizona)
- Equestrian Sotheby’s International Realty (Florida)
- Executive Real Estate (Washington)
- First Team Real Estate (California)
- Homesville Real Estate (Texas)
- Kinlin Grover Real Estate (Massachusetts)
- Lori Blank & Associates (Arizona)
- Mel Foster Co. (Iowa)
- Prudential Locations (Hawaii)
- Prudential PenFed Realty (Tennessee)
- Prudential Tropical (Florida)
- Randall Realty Group (Massachusetts and Rhode Island)
- Re/Max Ability Plus (Indiana)
- Re/Max Diamond (Arizona)
- Re/Max Excalibur (Arizona)
- Re/Max Palos Verdes Execs (California)
- Re/Max Renaissance (Arizona)
- Red Oak Realty (California)
- Solutions Real Estate (Arizona)
- Tarbell Realty (California)
- Town and Shore Realty (Maine)
- Ultima Real Estate (Texas)
- Windermere Real Estate Northern Arizona (Arizona)
Zillow and other third-party listing sites are sometimes criticized by brokers and agents for publishing out-of-date listings, and for running lead forms for competing agents next to some listings on the sites. In May, Zillow launched a partnership platform, pledging to improve listing data accuracy.
Trulia has also retooled some of its marketing offerings for real estate professionals to focus on the interests of brokers, including improved data accuracy on its site and clear identification of listing agents and brokers.
