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Compass wants control. Zillow wants access. MLSs are picking sides. Agents and buyers are left holding the bag.
As the back-and-forth between Compass, MLSs and Zillow continues in the press and in the courtroom, it’s tough to know who will ultimately be counted among the winners and who will lose out. What we do know, however, is that agents and their clients are having to navigate a listing landscape where the rules can change on a dime, and it’s tough to know how to implement a winning plan.
This week, one of Zillow’s own wrote an opinion piece seeking to dismantle a previous opinion piece from team Compass.
In a widely-read op-ed this week, Zillow Group Chief Economist Mischa Fisher pushed back on an article by Compass’ Greg Hague that argued that homes should be marketed like Ferraris, with an emphasis on exclusivity, scarcity and urgency. Amid the worst housing affordability crisis in a generation, Fisher rebutted that argument, writing:
The Ferrari pitch sounds clever until you remember that a house isn’t a luxury car. Housing is necessary, not a luxury, and it’s the largest purchase most Americans will ever make.
Fisher further argued that private listing networks lean on information asymmetry, where “one party to a transaction has more information than the other, [so] outcomes systematically favor the informed party and the less-informed party pays more than they should.”
In this case, the sense of urgency and resulting price premium PLNs generate comes “directly out of buyers who have been kept in the dark,” Fisher writes.
When the dust settles, agents will still need to serve clients, no matter what the marketplace looks like. The portal that sends you leads, the MLS you rely on for cooperation and the brokerage implementing the rules may all look different. What’s your plan if the industry’s infrastructure shifts under you?
As always, Inman contributors are here to help, with the latest real-world insights you need to understand the market and create your own plan of attack.
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