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Zillow fires back at Compass by banning private listings
Zillow just banned home listings from appearing on Zillow if they were first listed for sale in private networks more than 24 hours before first appearing on the MLS.
Lance Lambert
April 10, 2025
On Thursday, Zillow announced a new policy that bans home listings from appearing on Zillow if they were first listed for sale in private networks more than 24 hours before first appearing on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
“If a listing is online, it should be online everywhere… If a listing is marketed to any home shoppers, it should be marketed to all home shoppers,” wrote Zillow on Thursday.
While Zillow’s concern for home shoppers may very well be sincere, it’s pretty obvious that Zillow’s pocketbook is talking, too.
Some brokerages, most infamously Compass, are pushing for more "private exclusives"—a strategy that allows sellers to market their properties privately within the brokerages’ network before or instead of listing them on public platforms like the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). There’s also Amanda Orson’s startup Galleon, a private listings site where homeowners can “name their number.”
My guess?
Zillow likely fears that the private listing market could soon gain increased momentum, so it is using its massive influence—and the fact that it’s the go-to source for so many high-intent buyers—to try and throw cold water on private listings before they absorb too large of a market share.
What is Orson’s take?
“It’s a classic incumbent defense move: raise the switching costs before consumers even realize they have alternatives. Zillow is using its current dominance—especially on the buy side—to discourage sellers from testing private networks, hoping to lock in supply before momentum shifts. But this kind of maneuver is also a strategic signal. It says, ‘We still control what gets seen.’ That’s not a flex—it’s a tell. When incumbents start playing defense this early, it often accelerates the shift they’re trying to prevent. Sellers start to ask questions. Trust erodes. And once defection begins—especially if sellers realize they can get better economics and more control elsewhere—it becomes a version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma. One seller leaving has limited impact. But many sellers making the same calculation at once? That’s how the bundle unravels. Which is why I said, we've seen this movie before—in cable, in music, in travel. The more aggressive the platform gets in trying to preserve the old model, the more inevitable the new one becomes.”
Note… There’s also at least one loophole to Zillow’s ban: if the home seller fires their agent.
"A seller who parts ways with their agent after using a private listing service, and subsequently re-lists with a new agent or broker would be eligible again to have their property on Zillow” a Zillow spokesperson told RISMedia today.