Glenn Kelman, the CEO of full-service real estate brokerage Redfin has criticized the practice of letting buyers' agents advertise on other brokers' listings as a "fundamental misdirection."
During a workshop on competition in real estate convened by the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, Kelman said the practice is a cash cow for listings portals but is confusing to consumers.
“There’s now a multi-billion[-dollar] industry based on misdirection,” Kelman said. “Redfin makes money from this, Zillow makes money from this, almost every website makes money from this.”
The comments come amid fierce debate, in New York, and across the country, about the ethical and legal implications of such agent advertising, particularly by Zillow Group and StreetEasy.
Kelman brought up the Boston and San Francisco markets, where agents have been known to keep listings from the local MLS as they are fear the distribution of their listings to third-party websites which do not feature the agents' names prominently.
“This is not picking on one website or another, it’s our website, too,” he stated. “We want [multiple listing services] to modernize the attribution system so the listing agent has an incentive to post listings immediately to every website. I don’t know that FTC or DOJ has a role in this.”
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