Homes.com Vows to Offer Free Promotion for Listings Banned on Zillow

Homes.com is set to start 'boosting' residential real estate listings that won't be shown by rival portal Zillow.

The CoStar-owned portal will make its Boost product, a new vendor-paid advertising service recently trialled in California, available for brokers and homeowners whose listings are barred from appearing on Zillow under its new Listings Access Standards policy.

The Boost product is ordinarily priced at $260, a one-time fee that will promote the listing on the first page of a homebuyer’s search results and prominently feature in emailed neighbourhood, community and school content, and listing alerts.

But any broker or homeowner whose listings have been banned by Zillow will be able to use the Boost product for free until the property is delisted.

The move is a major counterattack by CoStar, which has been outspoken about Zillow's recent decision to blacklist any property listing that isn't uploaded to the MLS within 24 hours of being publicly marketed.

According to Inman, "after completing the Boost registration, listing brokers and homeowners will have access to a dashboard that enables them to track total listing views, retargeted ad views, leads, and other key metrics."

CoStar boss Andy Florance said:

"Homes.com is going to support any agent who gets blackballed or blacklisted on Zillow, and boost their listing. We don’t think it’s right to ban people’s listings for your economic interest.

“Listing agents and homeowners can begin boosting their listings now.

"I think it’ll make it tougher for Zillow to ban. If agents [say] 'I don’t have to be over there, I can be over here and my name is on my listing, my photograph’s on my listing and I’m getting the leads, it’s very appealing. When my listing is on Zillow, some other agents get the leads for my listing. Some other agents get in the credit for my listing.'

"Agents like our business model that doesn’t divert the leads better. This is something that provides a really solid, better alternative."

According to Homes.com's landing page for the Boost product, listings are 25% more likely to go under contract within the first 10 days; reach an average of 14,000 home buyers; and are viewed an average of 32 times by buyers before being delisted. Homes in selected markets will also qualify for a 24/7 open house, Matterport 3D virtual tour and floorplan.

The page goes onto say:

Homes.com Boost is a digital marketing package designed to help you sell your home faster and for more, offered as a one-time payment for a single property. You don’t have to be a digital marketing expert to sell your home faster — we do all the hard work for you and our benefits stay active until your home is sold.

Homes.com Boost is a flexible solution designed to increase exposure for a single property. It is available for any customer — whether you are the home seller, listing agent, or co-agent. Homes.com Membership is an always on, 24/7 membership designed for full-time real estate agents. Membership is a full-scale marketing solution that will help agents sell homes faster, win more business, and promote their personal brand - all at the same time.

CoStar recently announced strong results in its Q1 2025 financial filings, registering the Group's 56th consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth. Meanwhile, the Group has confirmed its buyout offer for Australian challenger portal Domain has entered the due diligence phase after majority shareholder Nine Entertainment approved a $1.92Bn takeover bid.