Idaho’s largest multiple listing service, Intermountain MLS, will soon feed its 14,000 listings directly to Zillow and Trulia, the two most highly trafficked real estate portals on the Web.
IMLS has separate direct feed agreements with Trulia and Zillow, according to Intermountain MLS CEO Greg Manship. Both deals were signed before Zillow declared its intention to acquire Trulia, its biggest rival, for $3.5 billion in stock.
Zillow and Trulia have said they plan to continue operating both search portals as separate brands.
“I didn’t have any idea” that the merger was in the works, Manship said. “If anything changes going forward as a result of the merger. we will address it at that time.”
Boise-based IMLS has 4,400 members belonging to nine Realtor associations in eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. IMLS is currently sending its listings to Zillow and Trulia through Move Inc.-owned listing syndicator ListHub. Both portals will begin receiving direct feeds from IMLS in a few weeks, Manship said.
At first, only the listings of brokers that have opted in to send listings to Zillow and Trulia via ListHub will be included in the direct feeds, Manship said. He estimates that includes 90 to 95 percent of IMLS’ broker members, he said.
Those who want to opt-in or opt-out after that will be able to, Manship added.
Both Zillow and Trulia have partnership programs in place to receive receive direct feeds from MLSs. More than 60 MLSs have joined Trulia’s “Data Connect” program, including, most recently, NY State MLS. Zillow declined to say how many MLSs have joined the Zillow Partnership Platform. California’s third-largest MLS, MLSListings Inc., signed up in June.
As part of the Zillow deal, listing agents will be prominently displayed as such on all of their listings, receive leads directly from Zillow, and have access to daily listing traffic reports. Participating brokerages will also receive attribution, branding and a link back to their website, Zillow said.
IMLS’ active listing data will be sent to Zillow as often as every 15 minutes so that listings are up-to-date, correct and match MLS data, the company said.
“We believe this partnership is in the best interest of our members, as agents and brokers can assure their clients their listings are accurate while getting the broadest possible marketing exposure to the largest audience of home shoppers,” Manship said in a statement.
As part of the Zillow deal, IMLS’ listings will appear on the Yahoo-Zillow Real Estate Network, the largest on the Web with 53.8 million unique visitors in June, according to comScore. Consumers will be able to see IMLS listings on Zillow.com, Zillow’s mobile apps, Yahoo Homes, HotPads, AOL Real Estate, MSN Real Estate and HGTV’s FrontDoor.
Brokers that participate in Trulia’s program receive increased branding on Trulia.com, in lead emails to consumers and in Trulia’s agent directory. Their listings are updated as frequently as every eight minutes with a direct feed. When relayed through listing syndicators like ListHub and Point2, listings on Trulia take from six to 12 hours to refresh, Trulia spokesman Matt Flegal has previously said.
Trulia’s real estate network received 31.6 million unique visitors in June, according to comScore.