Trulia has signed a data license with the U.S.’s sixth-largest multiple listing service, Arizona Regional MLS, giving the MLS’ member brokers the ability to send their listings directly to the portal through the MLS platform.
The ability to send listings to Trulia through an MLS is helpful to smaller brokerages who may lack the tech infrastructure to syndicate their feeds to the portal themselves, Trulia spokesman Matt Flegal told Inman News.
Brokers can also syndicate listings to third-party portals like Zillow and Trulia through “syndicators” like ListHub and Point2. The deal Trulia has reached with ARMLS and others eliminates the need for such middlemen. ListHub is owned by realtor.com operator Move Inc., a competitor of Zillow and Trulia.
ARMLS and its 30,000 subscribers join more than 60 MLSs that partner with Trulia, including a handful who provide complete, direct feeds to the portal.
MLSs providing direct feeds to Trulia include the Houston Association of Realtors, Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED), Boston-area MLS Property Information Service Inc., Bay Area Real Estate Information Services Inc. in the San Francisco Bay Area, Connecticut MLS and the North Carolina Mountains MLS.
Brokers can also send listings directly to Trulia through the Trulia Broker Program or through syndication platforms like ListHub and Point2. In October, Trulia established a data program, “Data Connect,” that gives MLSs and their member brokerages incentives like increased branding in exchange for direct MLS feeds.
“As a leading technology partner to the industry, Trulia has worked hard to structure collaborative arrangements with hundreds of MLSs, franchises and brokers to optimize visibility for their sellers’ listings and promote their brands,” said Alon Chaver, vice president industry services for Trulia, in a statement.
Trulia, like its competitor Zillow, is on the hunt for MLS partnerships to help clean up its data, which can be inaccurate or stale in markets where it gets listings from a variety of sources.
Last week, Trulia hired ListHub vet John Whitney to help grow its MLS partnerships.
It remains to be seen how successful third-party portals will be in their attempts to forge stronger ties to MLSs, but Trulia’s deal with ARMLS and similar agreements inked by Zillow could be an indication that the tide is turning.
On Monday, Zillow announced a deal to acquire listings directly from NY State MLS, a multiple listing service with more than 10,000 members that covers all 62 counties of New York state.
Zillow already gets direct data feeds from MLSs that have signed on to the Zillow Partnership Platform, which the portal launched in 2012. Those MLSs include Bay Area Real Estate Information Services Inc. (BAREIS), a 7,500-member MLS in the San Francisco Bay Area; the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR); Connecticut Multiple Listing Service (CTMLS); Shrewsbury, Mass.-based MLS Property Information Network Inc. (MLSPIN); and the Corpus Christi Association of Realtors (CCAR).
Bob Bemis — the former ARMLS CEO hired by Zillow in 2012 to build relationships with MLSs — left Zillow last summer, citing doubts that MLSs could be persuaded to feed listings to the portal anytime soon.
Despite the success of its broker direct-feed program Zillow Pro for Brokers, which now has more than 200 members, Bemis was able to secure only three MLS feeds for Zillow during his time with the company.
“I was frustrated with the lack of inroads we made in the MLS community,” Bemis said of his departure.
