Yes, Zillow, Inc. has real estate brokerage licenses in several states, including Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. As of February 2020, Zillow was also licensed in Florida and pursuing licenses in about 25 other states.
Let's call it what it is: Zillow is no longer just a user-friendly real estate platform. It’s a brokerage in disguise that has been quietly setting the stage for years, and now, it’s ready to take over the entire real estate transaction process. If you think this is just another business move, think again. This is a calculated power grab, and it’s time we acknowledge it for what it truly is—a monopoly in the making.
Zillow has portrayed itself as a neutral player for years, claiming it's not a brokerage while steadily acquiring broker licenses across multiple states. It’s like watching a magician perform a trick right before your eyes, and yet the industry has been content to play the fool, willingly feeding the beast that now threatens to devour us.
Zillow’s empire was built on real estate agents' hard work and resources—agents who tirelessly gather listings, invest in professional photography, craft compelling descriptions, and upload everything to the MLS. And what does Zillow do? It takes that content, wraps it in a slick user interface, and presents it to consumers as if it were their creation. Worse still, they turn around and sell those leads—leads that rightfully belong to us—back to us at a premium.
By positioning itself as the go-to platform for everything from home listings to mortgages, Zillow is maneuvering to control the entire transaction process, cutting out traditional agents and squeezing out competitors. And let’s be clear—this isn’t just about getting a bigger slice of the pie. This is about owning the whole bakery.
We can’t afford to dismiss this as “just business.” The same mentality allowed Amazon to crush small retailers, and now Zillow is setting its sights on doing the same to real estate.
And let’s not even talk about the MLS. How did they not see this coming? I was laughed out of an MLS meeting when I told the group that what is happening now would happen in ten year or less I missed it by a few years.
Zillow’s entire business model is built on agents' content—far from “free.” Yet, we’ve allowed Zillow to set up shop upstream, use our bait to catch the same leads, and then sell those leads back to us. We didn’t just let it happen; we practically gift-wrapped it for them. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) should have created a powerful, tech-savvy, consumer-facing national MLS years ago. Instead, they left the door open for Zillow to walk in and fill the void.
So, what do we do now? Do we sit back and let Zillow’s so-called “Super App” dictate the future of real estate? Or do we finally wake up, band together, and push back against this looming monopoly? The time for complacency is over. It’s time to take a stand before Zillow tightens its grip.
Zillow wants to dominate the market. It’s not just about selling houses—it’s about controlling the entire process from start to finish. If we don’t act now, we’ll find ourselves on the outside looking in, wondering how we let it all slip away.
This is a battle for the soul of our industry. If we don’t fight back, we risk losing everything.
—End of Rant.
Coming Soon: How Can an Agent Stop Zillow?
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