Zillow on Monday announced its expanded partnership with Realty Executives International, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based brokerage that will now feature listings from its Canadian franchises on Zillow.com and on its mobile app.
Under the new agreement, listings from Realty Executives International’s 70 Canadian offices will soon appear on Zillow. The brokerage boasts more than 500 offices and 8,000 agents in the United States, Canada, France, Greece, Indonesia and South Africa, according to a spokesperson for Zillow.
“In the U.S., our industry partners have seen Zillow become a key part of driving maximum exposure for their listings,” said Errol Samuelson, Zillow Group’s chief industry development officer, in a prepared statement. “It’s exciting to us that Realty Executives International will be able to extend this benefit to their Canadian teams.”
The move is part of a larger plan to allow users to search for and buy Canadian homes, which the company first announced in November and has recently amped up with more partnerships. The Seattle-based real estate behemoth has yet to announce when these for-sale listings will be available for browsing on its website, only saying they will “soon be live on Zillow.”
By striking deals with brokerages like Toronto-based Right at Home Realty and Alberta-based Greater Property Group, Zillow has brought the total number of partners that will supply it with Canadian listings to eight.
In Zillow’s latest earnings call, CEO Spencer Rascoff said that the company is currently building partnerships with Canadian multiple listing services, and that the Canadian residential market was about 12 percent the size of the U.S., even though the median home price is higher. It is currently committed to providing over 30,000 Canadian listings for perusal — each one will include the usual property description, photos, agent photo and contact information along with a link to the brokerage website.
“Realty Executives has always valued providing an optimal real estate search experience on our proprietary sites; therefore, partnering with Zillow, who shares the same consumer-centric perspective, was a natural fit,” said David Tedesco, CEO of Realty Executives International, in a statement. “Our partnership with Zillow will change the way consumers search for properties in Canada, making it easier for Canadian consumers to search for homes in the U.S. and Canada, as well as U.S. buyers to search for properties in Canada.”
