Zillow Throws Hat into Pre-Market Ring with 'Preview' Launch

Zillow has flexed its muscles by introducing a pre-market offering for agents looking to create large-scale public demand for properties not currently listed on the MLS.

The property market in the United States has faced the prospect of increased fragmentation since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) rolled back its guidance on how soon a broker or agent is obligated to upload the property to the MLS after getting a mandate in 2025.

Several high-profile businesses, such as Compass, are keen to increase the proportion of properties available off-market and pre-market, so they can sell the property before consumers get a chance to view it on Zillow and get sucked into its behemoth ecosystem.

Zillow benefits heavily from an inflexible MLS that sees properties uploaded to the MLS within 24 hours of being marketed for the first time. A flexible MLS, where agents in different states or territories get autonomy on marketing the property away from Zillow for even 48 or 72 hours before they upload the property to Zillow, significantly reduces the portal's access to stock and therefore revenue.

Such is the angst around new-look market conditions, lawsuits have been launched, including Compass suing Zillow for alleged abuse of monopoly when Zillow announced that it would ban listings that aren't uploaded to the MLS promptly.

It has been a year of back-and-forth in the press and the courtroom, but Zillow appears to have now taken a "if you can't beat them, join them" approach by introducing a pre-market offering for brokers and agents in the US. The portal has signed a number of high-profile partners for the launch, including Keller Williams, REMAX, and HomeServices of America.

The new 'Preview' offering allows agents and brokers to bring their pre-market listings to the largest online real estate audience in the US. "Don’t hide the home. Launch it," says Zillow's website.

Zillow Preview is a public way to bring pre-market listings into the open and get them in front of the largest real estate audience online. Turn early visibility into better outcomes.

Zillow Preview helps your agents offer sellers something powerful and simple: early, public visibility on Zillow and Trulia. If a qualified Zillow Preview connection closes through one of Zillow's Preferred agent partners the listing agent may receive a share of the revenue Zillow earns, paid through their brokerage. Consumers choose how they want to connect. When they reach out to the listing agent through Zillow, those leads are free.

Preview is available only through brokerages that have partnered with Zillow for this program, appearing on Zillow and Trulia, as well as the participating brokerage and agent’s own websites. Agents will have flexibility on adjusting a property's price during the pre-market stage, as well as the duration of the Preview stage itself.

According to a press release:

Zillow Preview is a new way to bring pre-market listings to the broad market by making them publicly visible rather than limited to closed systems or hidden in private networks where public access is gated by the listing brokerage or buyers have to obligate themselves to an agent from a specific brokerage just to know the full breadth of inventory available. 

In a growing number of markets, the public cannot see pre-market homes, including those known as “coming soon” listings. Now, agents at participating brokerages can market these listings widely and publicly on Zillow and Trulia, where millions of buyers start their search, in addition to their own websites.

Jeremy Wacksman, CEO at Zillow, commented that, “Home buyers shouldn’t be forced to hire an agent from a specific brokerage just to see the full breadth of what’s for sale, bringing pre-market listings out of the shadows" for the public instead of the limited network of a private brokerage.