The feud between Robert Reffkin, Zillow rages on

There are still three more weeks before Zillow’s new listing standards policy goes into effect, but Compass CEO Robert Reffkin is not wasting time pushing back against the policy.

In a LinkedIn post on Monday, Reffkin claimed that Zillow no longer displays all MLS listings to prospective homebuyers. 

“Contact your agent regardless of their firm to get access to all of the MLS listings,” he wrote. 

He highlighted Homes.com, Realtor.com, Redfin.com and Compass.com as websites to visit in order to see all available housing inventory. Redfin has announced a listing standards policy similar to that of Zillow’s, but the firm will not start blocking noncompliant listings until September.

Reffkin’s post comes three weeks before Zillow’s listing standards go into effect. Under the policy, Zillow will not allow publicly marketed private listings that are not entered into the MLS within 24 hours of public marketing to appear on the site. 

“Publicly marketed listings should be entered in the MLS within one business day and published on Zillow as well as other sites that receive MLS feeds so it is viewable to all buyers and participants in the market,” a blog post from Zillow explained.

“Listings that don’t align with these standards won’t be published on Zillow or Trulia for the life of the listing agreement between that listing broker and seller.”

Zillow is doing a phased rollout of the policy starting in large U.S. markets before expanding nationwide over the summer. During the rollout, which began in late May, agents with listings who do not meet the standard will receive notifications about their listing.

Starting June 30, once an agent reaches three noncompliant listings, all subsequent noncompliant listings will be blocked from Zillow and Trulia for the life of the listing agreement between the listing broker and the seller.

Agents are being notified of noncompliant listings via phone and email. 

As a staunch supporter of the National Association of Realtors‘ Clear Cooperation Policy and listing transparency, Zillow and its executives believe this policy has the best interests of consumers in mind.

“This is about what is best for consumers — what is best for buyers and what is best for sellers. If that becomes our North Star, the industry will thrive,” Errol Samuelson, Zillow’s chief industry relations officer, said during a panel discussion at HousingWire’s The Gathering.

“What makes the U.S. industry work so well is that cooperation. All agents in the market should get a crack at bringing a buyer to a listing, and that is only possible if there is equitable access.” 

In contrast, Compass has been pushing its private listings network and three-phase marketing plan. During the first phase of this plan, a listing would be withheld from the MLS and appear only on Compass’s private network.