Zillow And Realtor.com Forge Pre-market Pact To Counter Compass-Redfin

Zillow and Realtor.com have agreed to share pre-market listings, deepening the polarisation of the country's listings market into two rival camps. Under the deal, announced this week, Zillow Preview listings will appear on Realtor.com from this summer, branded as "Realtor.com Preview". The agreement lands roughly ten weeks after rival brokerage Compass struck its own pre-market alliance with Rocket-owned Redfin.

The collaboration covers every US market except New York City, where Zillow's StreetEasy is exploring a separate offering. Between them, the two portals reach roughly three-quarters of major portal visitors, according to March Comscore data cited in the announcement. Zillow Preview, which launched in March, now has more than 60 participating franchisors and brokerages, including Keller Williams, RE/MAX, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, HomeServices of America, Engel & Völkers, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World and Side.

Both portals will offer pre-market listings at no cost to sellers or to agents at enrolled brokerages. Listing agents get elevated placement in search results and saved-home alerts, free buyer enquiries when contacted directly, and a share of revenue when a Preview lead converts via a partner agent. Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman framed the deal as a turning point.

"With this collaboration we're not just expanding reach, we're creating true seller choice while setting a new industry standard for what transparency in real estate actually looks like for buyers, sellers and agents,"

Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales was more guarded, restating his preference for listings flowing through the MLS while acknowledging that pre-market inventory is increasingly sitting outside it.

"Where MLSs don't yet offer a Coming Soon status, or where brokers choose to syndicate their preview listings directly, we have a responsibility to display those listings as broadly as possible,"

Cooperation between the two is not unprecedented. In March 2024, Zillow became the exclusive provider of multifamily rental listings on Realtor.com, with rental communities of 25 units or more on Zillow appearing alongside those of its rival.

What is new is the alignment against Compass. The brokerage's three-year partnership with Rocket-Redfin, announced in February, syndicates Compass Coming Soon and Private Exclusive listings to Redfin without days on market or price-history data, with as many as 500,000 off-MLS listings potentially in scope.