Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt
by JKCalhoun on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @03:31PM
(#29086324)
I think MLS would like to give you that impression. They seem to function as a cartel of some sort. (At least I have never understood their purpose.)
Re:Zillow seeks to sell 7k homes for $2.8B after flipping halt
by rgbrgb on Tuesday November 02, 2021 @04:27PM
(#29086933)
There are over 900 MLS organizations in the US. Their purpose is aggregating the RE listings in a region. This was super important 100 years ago, still pretty important 25 years ago, and now has little utility for consumers now that listings are aggregated online and searchable without an agent across regions with better-than-mls-portal consumer-grade shopping tools.
Today they essentially function as data brokers and unofficial labor organizers, collecting membership dues from agents in exchange for ensuring that the agent's name is on their listing wherever it's shown online and (along with NAR) pushing agents to keep "standard" commissions on their listings (5-6%).
There are similar private requirements for the cartel known as NAR. What this means in practice is that pocket listings actually make to to the MLS for one day before apparently being sold "in 1 day".
Zillow as property owner is not part of NAR. Zillow as broker is also not part of NAR, although if they were, they'd do exactly as individuals using pocket listings do. Arrange a sale privately with an institution, place the listing on MLS, then sell it "on the open market" in 1 day.