Zillow’s new listing policy: Punishment disguised as fairness

by | Apr 11, 2025 | Industry, News Feed

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Zillow has announced a controversial new policy that it claims supports the Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP) — but in reality, it punishes agents and sellers who choose to follow the very rules the National Association of Realtors just put in place.

Beginning in May, if a listing is entered into the MLS but the seller chooses to delay syndicating that listing to the IDX feed — a new fully authorized option under NAR’s latest policy — Zillow will permanently ban that listing from appearing on its platform.

Let that sink in: A homeowner who hires a licensed agent, lists their property in the MLS and simply chooses to delay public exposure on Zillow — a right now granted under NAR’s updated rules — will be penalized by Zillow. No second chances. No listing visibility. Ever.

While Zillow claims this is about fairness and equal access for buyers, the truth is this move directly undermines seller choice and agent autonomy. Let’s break down exactly what this means — and why it signals something much bigger than just a policy change.

“If you publicly market a listing — on social media, via an email blast, or even with a yard sign — but delay putting it on the IDX feed, your listing will never be allowed on Zillow. Not now, not later. Period.”

They say it’s about creating fairness and giving all buyers equal access. That’s their spin. But when you look at the facts, it starts to feel more like a power move than a policy rooted in consumer benefit.

But wait — isn’t delayed syndication allowed by NAR?

Yes. In fact, the National Association of Realtors recently introduced a new policy called Multiple Listing Options for Sellers. This rule allows homeowners to enter their listing into the MLS, but delay its appearance on public websites like Zillow, Realtor.com and others by temporarily withholding it from the IDX feed.

The intent? To give sellers more flexibility and control over how and when their home is marketed online.

But apparently, Zillow doesn’t like this rule

Instead of embracing this seller-first policy, Zillow has chosen to push back — hard. Their new stance is clear: If a listing is in the MLS, but the seller chooses to delay its appearance on the IDX feed, and the property is publicly marketed in any way, Zillow will permanently ban that listing from its site.

This isn’t just a technical enforcement. It feels like retaliation — not against sellers or even agents, but against the policy itself. Zillow is punishing those who follow the new rule as a way to signal their disapproval of NAR’s decision to allow delayed marketing.

Zillow isn’t leveling the playing field — they’re flipping the board

When a company becomes as dominant as Zillow, it seemingly starts to believe it can make the rules — even when those rules contradict the very systems (like the MLS) that have kept real estate transparent, competitive and fair for decades.

Let’s call this what it is: Zillow is attempting to control how agents market homes, how sellers exercise their rights and how buyers find properties.

They’re not doing it for the greater good. They’re doing it because they want to own the pipeline — and punish anyone who dares to step outside their system.

If listings can be marketed and sold without Zillow — even briefly —  it calls into question Zillow’s relevance. And that’s a threat. Especially to its lead-generation business model, which depends on agents believing Zillow is an essential tool.

The moment agents and sellers prove otherwise, the platform’s grip weakens. So Zillow is moving to prevent that from happening — not by improving its service, but by forcing compliance through exclusion.

The warning signs are clear

We’ve seen it before: Tech giants that climb to the top, start flexing their dominance — only to watch the cracks start to show.

Think of MySpace, once untouchable in the social media space, until its rigid platform and refusal to adapt opened the door for Facebook. Or Netflix, once the disruptor, which now faces a growing backlash and subscriber loss after trying to control content and pricing too aggressively. Even Amazon and Google have come under fire from regulators and industry groups for monopolistic practices and abusing their market positions.

The pattern is clear: When companies start acting like they’re untouchable, their downfall begins.

Zillow is entering that territory — pushing policies that serve their platform, not the people who use it. And whether they realize it or not, this may be the beginning of the end.

Zillow, I’m not your friend

Since the COVID era, I’ve been sounding the alarm: Zillow does not have the best interests of real estate professionals at heart. And this latest move only confirms what so many of us have felt all along.

Zillow has no intention of being our partner — its actions have shown time and again that it intends to be our replacement.

Need proof? Look no further than Zillow’s acquisition of ShowingTime, dotloop, its strategic purchases like mortgage companies, and its former pivot into iBuying with Zillow Offers — all moves designed to bring more of the transaction in-house, cutting agents further out of the process.

In 2021, Zillow even hired real estate agents directly to handle transactions in select markets, confirming their willingness to cross the line from partner to competitor.

But perhaps most telling is Zillow’s aggressive defense of its acquisitions. After purchasing ShowingTime, Zillow faced resistance from certain MLSs. Notably, the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) and Wisconsin’s Metro MLS developed their own scheduling tool, Aligned Showings, and decided to add that to the MLS system.

In response, Zillow filed a lawsuit in December 2023, alleging that these MLSs were unlawfully attempting to monopolize the market by sidelining ShowingTime in favor of their own product. The lawsuit was settled by June 2024, with the terms undisclosed, but the move underscored Zillow’s intent to dominate every facet of the real estate process — even if it means taking legal action against industry partners.

And don’t forget this little tidbit: Zillow’s co-executive chairman and former CEO Rich Barton is also the founder of Expedia — the very platform that helped decimate the travel agent industry by giving consumers the tools to book directly, bypassing professionals.

So what can we do?

As a real estate professional, it’s time to draw a line in the sand. Stand for your profession. Stand for your clients. And most importantly, stand for the future of real estate — a future that’s driven by people, not platforms.

That means:

  • Educating your clients on the value you bring
  • Resisting platforms that seek to marginalize or replace you
  • Choosing vendors who support your role — not undermine it
  • Uniting with fellow professionals to speak up in associations and push back when needed

This isn’t just about listings. It’s about leadership. And we need strong leadership now more than ever.

Darryl Davis is the CEO of Darryl Davis Seminars. Connect with him on Facebook or YouTube. 

This post was originally published on this site

How You Can Take Full Advantage of the Federal Rate Cut

by | Oct 2, 2024 | Investing, News Feed

A few months ago, slowing down the nation’s rate of inflation seemed insurmountable for the Federal Reserve Bank. Now that inflation is at 2.5% and the Fed announced a sizable half-point rate cut on Sept. 18, inflation has continued to slow to such an extent that another large rate cut is being discussed. 

For the real estate industry, such news, after two years of despair amid post-COVID rate hikes, is like having a birthday and holiday season arrive in quick succession. The question for many investors is how best to take full advantage of the rate cuts.

Mortgage rates have already dropped in the wake of the first Fed rate cut and are expected to keep their downward trajectory through 2025, should rate cuts continue. The movement is “reviving purchase and refinance demand for many consumers,” Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater said in a statement.

Fed chairman Jerome Powell told the National Association for Business Economics in prepared remarks on Sept. 30:

“Looking forward, if the economy evolves broadly as expected, policy will move over time toward a more neutral stance. But we are not on any preset course. The risks are two-sided, and we will continue to make our decisions meeting by meeting.”

Don’t Expect a Dramatic Change in Rates

Though welcome, don’t expect mortgage rates to fall dramatically beyond their current rate of around 6%. That’s because the Fed’s recent move was mostly baked into the current rate, so further cuts will be needed to continue moving the needle. In addition, mortgages tend to be influenced by, rather than move in tandem with, the Fed’s actions.

“Long-term mortgage rates will fall if economic data indicates a weakening economy,” said Melissa Cohn, regional vice president of William Raveis Mortgage, a mortgage lender in Shelton, Connecticut. “Employment numbers will be key.”

The Fed rate cut affects the rates that banks charge each other overnight. In turn, a host of different short-term rates are reflected in the prime rate, which ultimately filters down to real estate. Real estate is also affected by long-term bonds, particularly the 10-year Treasury yield.

Refinancing

For homeowners or investors forced to buy or refinance at high rates over the last couple of years, a refinance to almost two points lower will bring some much-needed relief. The decision to refinance now or wait differs from buyer to buyer, depending on your plans for your property. 

If you plan to stay or keep your property long enough to recover closing costs and other fees— about 2% to 3% of the loan amount—it might make sense to refinance now and benefit from lower monthly payments. When banks offer no- or low-cost refinances, it often results in higher rates, and the fees will be added to the loan cost.  

Ruth Bonapace, a senior mortgage loan officer at US Bank, told BiggerPockets that she offers this lending advice to borrowers who are unsure about refinancing:

“If you think there might be another rate drop in the near future and you want to lower your payment now but don’t want to risk paying closing costs twice, then you can often have the lender cover the costs in the form of a sizable lender credit. You won’t get the rock-bottom rate because the lender has to build in that cost. But it is a stepping stone, almost a no-brainer, to just lower your payment for as long as it takes until you can step down again.”

“In general, the larger your mortgage, the more likely this scenario makes sense. Why? Most closing costs are not tied to the loan amount.”

Bonapace illustrates a common scenario: 

“A borrower with a 7% rate wants to lower it to a new rate of 6% on a $200,000 mortgage with zero discount points. Did you know that if you wanted the lender to cover $2,000 of the $5,000 in closing costs, the rate would probably go up to 6.25% for that rebate, and the closing costs you pay would be $3,000? (The one point equal to a quarter-percent off the rate is meant for illustration purposes only and can vary, but it is typical for most 30-year fixed mortgages. Closing costs likewise vary.)

“Now, if your loan amount is $600,000, for the 6.25%, you get $6,000, covering all costs in this scenario. So you’ve effectively got a free refi, and if you do it again in a few months, you won’t have to incur costs twice. With a $1 million mortgage, the rate might only go from 6% to 6.125% because you might only need a half point to cover the costs.

Some banks and nonbank mortgage companies advertise “no-cost” refinances. It’s the same concept, and the ads make the phone ring. But just about any experienced loan officer will know how to do this and can explain it in more customized detail than we can here. It’s worth asking.

Bonapace stresses that closing costs on a refi are usually lower than on a purchase, as borrowers might not need to do an appraisal, title insurance will be less, and a refi can be closed with a title company rather than an attorney.

Use the BiggerPockets mortgage calculator to determine if a refinance makes sense.

New Investment Loans for Landlords

Rather than calculating the cost of refinancing, investors may want to calculate the cost of not borrowing money now. 

Factor in lost rental income, lost depreciation (both long-term and short), lost equity buydown, and lost equity on the purchase price. Then factor in the cost of a refinance in a 12-to-24-month time frame when rates have dropped further, and house prices have increased, and you’ll probably find buying now makes more sense than waiting.

Look at Your Financial Life Holistically

Real estate investing for landlords is all about cash flow. It’s a good idea to examine every aspect of your financial life to see where a rate cut can help you increase the amount of money you will have in your pocket at the end of the month—not just from rent. 

The more money you have, the more you can invest or use it to help secure your real estate business with repairs. A cash-out refinance to a lower rate could also help you pay off high interest rate debt elsewhere, such as credit cards and student loans.

Here are some key aspects to examine.

Your car loan

Car loans track with the yield on the five-year Treasury note, which is influenced by the Fed’s key rate. Assuming your credit history is good, and you are not buying a luxury vehicle and can put some money down, a lower interest rate will help decrease payments. Shop around because rates and prices for new cars can differ markedly. Shop for the car price (including all fees) first, as opposed to the monthly payment, and then work on the payment.

Credit cards

Many investors fund rehabs and even purchases using credit cards, so a lower rate could make a big difference. The interest rates you pay on any balances you carry should fall after the Fed has acted, though it may vary by carrier. Also, it may take two or three statement cycles before you start seeing a lower credit card rate.

Again, your credit score matters. If you are shopping for a credit card, the 25 biggest credit card issuers’ rates are generally 8 to 10 percentage points higher than smaller banks or credit unions. Zero-rate balance transfer cards that can buy you at least 12 to 18 months of interest-free payments can allow you to meaningfully pay down the principal you owe. The best credit card debt is the debt that has been paid off.

Student loans

Most student loans are not affected by interest rates, as the vast majority are from the federal government, which has its own interest rates on student loans that are not tied to the Fed. However, lower interest rates could still help you reduce your student loan payment. 

Cash flow from an income-producing property (financed with a lower rate) could pay down your educational debt. Alternatively, if you have a high student loan interest rate, borrowing at a lower interest rate to buy and flip a home or renovate and do a cash-out refinance to a lower rate could help you clear your debt in one fell swoop. Ditto for credit cards.

Final Thoughts

Rate cuts are at the beginning of their cycle. Many economists expect cuts to continue until 2026. Real estate investors wondering whether to hold tight and wait until the end of the cycle have to weigh where the market will be in 18 months. 

Continued cuts will stimulate construction and the actions of buyers and sellers, resulting in increased activity and likely an increase in house prices. So, if you’re thinking about buying and holding a rental property now, even if it doesn’t cash flow, by the time you refinance, it probably will once the Fed has finished cutting rates. In any case, it would have increased in equity.

House flippers will have the advantage of having more buyers able to qualify for loans when their projects are complete. Assuming a flip project takes six to eight months, values will likely have increased, too, adding profit to the flip. 

All this means is that lower interest rates are a reason to be cheerful about investing in the future.

This article is presented by Dominion Financial

dominion financial logo

Dominion Financial Services is a national private lender for real estate investors offering a full suite of residential real estate loan products, including Short-Term Bridge and Long-Term Rental. Since its founding in 2002, Dominion Financial Services has funded more than 13,000 projects nationwide, totaling more than $3.6 billion in originations.

Dominion Financial Services offers Long-Term Rental Loans with a DSCR Price-Beat Guarantee and Short-Term Bridge Loans with up to 100% LTC and no appraisal.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.

Tell us about the communication blunders you’re seeing: Pulse

by | Sep 10, 2024 | Industry, News Feed

Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.

Pulse is a recurring column where we ask for readers’ takes on varying topics in a weekly survey and report back with our findings.

For so many reasons, communicating just seems to be harder these days. Some of us got out of face-to-face communication practice during the pandemic and never regained that gift of gab. For others, the commission lawsuit settlement has left us tongue-tied and unsure about what we can say, should say or absolutely need to avoid saying. It’s making for some pretty bad communication moments.

via GIPHY

That’s why we wanted you to tell us about the big communication blunders you’re seeing now. Are agents stumbling over post-settlement talking points? Are they struggling with real-life versus online communication? Is everyone texting when a phone call would be better? Let us know below:

We’ll compile a list of the top responses and post them on Inman next Tuesday.

Bureau of Labor Statistics revises job growth downward by 818K

by | Aug 21, 2024 | Industry, News Feed

The numbers suggest that the labor market cooled off much faster than was previously thought and is not in as strong a position as believed. The Federal Reserve now also has a case to make a bigger cut in interest rates than initially anticipated come September.

Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.

As predicted by Wall Street analysts, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) significantly revised job growth figures downward on Wednesday in its preliminary benchmark revisions, which showed that from Spring 2023 to Spring 2024, 818,000 fewer jobs were created than initially estimated.

The numbers suggest that the labor market cooled off much faster than was previously believed, and is not in as strong a current position. The Federal Reserve now also has a case for making a bigger cut in interest rates than initially anticipated come September.

TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX SURVEY FOR AUGUST

Previously, the U.S. reported the creation of 2.9 million jobs from Spring 2023 to Spring 2024. That figure was revised downward by about 30 percent to about 2.08 million, or roughly 173,500 jobs per month.

The -0.5 percent revision of total payrolls is the largest seen since 2009.

Still, the revision is not as severe as some analysts had anticipated — economists on Wall Street estimated a reduction of anywhere from 360,000 to 1 million jobs.

The largest downward revision was in professional and business services, where job growth was 358,000 less than previously reported. Leisure and hospitality saw a decline of 150,000, manufacturing a decline of 115,000, and trade, transportation and utilities a decline of 104,000.

Some sectors actually saw upward revisions, including private education and health services (87,000), transportation and warehousing (56,400) and other services (21,000).

In some years, the BLS’s revisions have shown movement in the opposite direction of what economists predicted.

The revisions are calculated from a survey conducted four times per year that polls all U.S. companies that participate in the state-federal system for providing unemployment benefits to those workers who lose their jobs. Those companies must provide staff numbers for tax purposes, which also helps the Bureau of Labor Statistics more accurately measure how many jobs are being created.

Results of the first three quarters of the survey suggested that job growth was overestimated by about 735,000, or roughly 82,000 jobs per month during the 12 months that ended March 2024.

In addition to its quarterly survey of businesses, the government takes into account additional factors that can sometimes throw off Wall Street estimates.

One such factor includes the number of new businesses that are created each year versus those that shut down.

“If new firms are being created faster or slower or if existing firms are closing faster or slower than the BLS assumes, then the true employment picture can differ from the monthly estimates,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist of Santander Capital Markets, told Market Watch.

Immigration is another factor that can impact job growth figures. The surge in immigrants coming into the U.S. in recent years has been huge, but that labor force is often difficult for the government to precisely measure.

Therefore, predicting which way revisions will go isn’t always as clear as it may seem. During the 12 months that ended in March 2021, for instance, economists predicted that employment gains would be lowered by 270,000 during the government’s benchmarking process. However, job gains were actually raised by 374,000 during that period.

The revisions announced on Wednesday will not be made official until early 2025.

Email Lillian Dickerson

Investors bullish on Blend on Q2 earnings and revenue beat

by | Aug 9, 2024 | Industry, News Feed

Cloud banking software provider maintains steady growth in consumer banking revenue, while reversing the decline in its main line of business of providing services to mortgage lenders.

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Cloud banking software provider Blend Labs Inc. managed to grow both its mortgage and consumer banking businesses during the second quarter, trimming its net loss by 53 percent from a year ago to $19.4 million.

While not a dramatic improvement from the company’s $20.7 million Q1 net loss, Blend now has a longer runway to become profitable, having secured a $150 million cash injection in April from Austin, Texas-based private equity firm Haveli Investments. Blend used the money to pay off the debt it took on to get into the title insurance business by acquiring Title365 in 2021.

Blend’s second quarter results exceeded analysts’ earnings and revenue expectations, and shares in Blend gained 23 percent Friday to close at $3.30. Shares in Blend, which in the last year have changed hands for as little as $1.03 and as much as $4.14, hit an all-time low of 53 cents on May 5, 2023.

“The second quarter marked another strong quarter for Blend, as we signed several important deals with new customers across mortgage and consumer banking,” Blend CEO Nima Ghamsari said in a statement. “Despite continued pressures on the mortgage industry, we’re excited about the new investments we made in the Blend Platform and the success we achieved in expanding our relationships with key customers through their increased adoption of our add-on products.”

At $40.5 million, Q2 revenue was down 5 percent from a year ago but up 16 percent from $34.9 million in Q1. Blend said it expects Q3 revenue of $39.5 million to $43.5 million.

Ghamsari said that guidance doesn’t take into consideration the fact that mortgage rates have fallen dramatically and could continue to do so.

“Mortgage rates hit their lowest level since April 2023 earlier this week, and we’re already starting to see this show up in our business through application activity levels,” Ghamsari said on a call with investment analysts. “While I’d say it’s too early for us to tell how this is going to convert into fundings or revenue … it’s an encouraging signal as we look into the second half of the year.”

Growth in consumer banking and mortgage suites

Source: Blend investor presentation.

During the second quarter, Blend maintained the steady growth in revenue it’s realized from consumer banking, which was up 37 percent from a year ago to $8 million. At the same time, it was able to reverse the decline in revenue in its main line of business — providing services to mortgage lenders.

After helping lenders handle 1.8 million mortgage transactions in 2021, Blend saw mortgage transaction volume plummet by 32 percent in 2022, to 1.23 million, and by another 35 percent in 2023, to 805,000.

Blend’s mortgage suite generated $18.5 million in Q2 revenue, up 22 from Q1 but down 17 percent from a year ago. Blend’s title segment generated another $11.8 million in Q2 revenue.

Blend attributed the quarterly growth in mortgage revenue to the addition of “several new mortgage customers,” including Horizon Bank, and to existing customers signing up to use a broader set of services.

More revenue from each mortgage handled

Blend offers a suite of products that lenders can pick and choose from to support the loan origination process, including data collection, verification checks, product selection, pricing, pre-approvals, disclosures delivery and signing closing documents.

As its mortgage clients take advantage of more of these add-on products, the “economic value” of each mortgage loan that Blend helps process has grown by more than 40 percent in the last 2 1/2 years — from $69 at the beginning of 2022, to $97 in Q2 2024.

“Customers are recognizing the benefit of applying our technology throughout the home buying process, and we’re delivering more value as adoption and utilization of our attached products continue to rise,” Ghamsari said, noting that Blend’s remote online notarization solution is “a particular area of strength that I’m excited about.”

“Customers are already completing hundreds of these high-value closings each month,” Ghamsari said. “This may not seem like a lot, given the scale of our business and the scale of the mortgage industry. But we’re just getting started, and we expect these volumes to ramp up as the solution gets rolled to more elbow-eligible loans and more customers.”

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Email Matt Carter