Why wouldn't a seller want his listing to appear on Zillow? Zillow, after all, is one of the leading real estate internet sites. Literally millions of consumers go to it. Indeed, many people have first found the home that they ultimately purchased on Zillow. Who wouldn’t want that kind of exposure?
One person who might not want such exposure could be the seller who observes that Zillow’s estimate of value (the "Zestimate®"), which is considerably lower than the asking price, is posted right there along with the price and other information about the house. This, the seller thinks, could easily plant a negative influence in the mind of potential buyers. Indeed, it might keep some from even considering the property.
The point here is not to enter into a discussion of the value or accuracy of Zestimates® (as interesting as such a discussion can be). Nor is it to suggest that Zillow is the only listing site that features value estimates. Many do. Rather, we want to note that the profusion of listing sites - be they hosted by an agent, a brokerage, or a third-party aggregator - is not by everyone perceived to be a blessing.
It is for that reason that the California Association of Realtors®’ (CAR) Residential Listing Agreement (RLA) explicitly addresses the matter of listings appearing on the internet and gives the seller various opt-out choices.
The RLA points out that property data will be made available to various internet sites unless the broker gives the MLS instructions to the contrary. The seller must provide the broker with signed instructions in this regard.
The range of options is limited. The seller cannot, for example, instruct that his property appear only on certain named sites, nor can he exclude it from others. He couldn’t say, "I want it only on HomeGain" nor could he specify "I don’t want it on Realtor®.com".
As to the internet in general, the seller has two exclusion options: (1) He can instruct the broker to have the MLS not display the property on the internet at all. (2) He can instruct the broker to have the MLS not display the property address on the internet.
What about such things as value estimates? Here, if the seller wants, in general, to have internet exposure, his options are quite limited. There are two "Feature Opt-Outs". One is to opt out of internet sites that use an "automated estimate of value" or that link to "another site containing such an estimate of value…". The other is to opt-out of sites that contain, or link to, a "Comments and Review" feature, where people can write comments or reviews about the property in question.
But, both of these feature opt-outs pertain only to "...Websites or Electronic Displays of MLS Participant and Subscribers who are real estate broker and agent members of the MLS..." That is to say, the MLS can - theoretically at least – control listing data access of its own members, but it cannot provide the same degree of control to 3rd party recipients of MLS feeds. Much less can it control those who, without permission, "scrape" the data from MLS sites.
To be sure, the listing agreement says, "…neither Broker not the MLS may have the ability to control or block such features on other internet sites." But there are those who think that such warnings should appear in bigger, bolder and more prominent print. My friend and colleague, David Silver-Westrick, a former president of the Southern California Multiple Listing Service, is concerned that, in appearance at least, we over-promise by offering such limited opt-out features as mentioned above. Better that we clearly and explicitly tell our sellers that, once their listing goes electronic, we simply cannot guarantee any control over where it goes or how it is used.
