A class action lawsuit asserts that the home buying platform Zillow Inc. redirects users away from the real listing agent for properties and instead directs them to premier agents who pay a premium to Zillow to be listed as such.
Real estate salesperson/broker Max Brizer says he has been a listing agent for multiple properties that have been featured on Zillow’s website.
He claims that he was financially injured by Zillow’s practice of prompting customers to contact Zillow’s premier agents as opposed to a listing agent.Â
The Zillow listing agent class action lawsuit explains that Zillow gives real estate agents the option to pay monthly fees to be featured as premier agents on the site. Allegedly, these premier agents are featured more prominently on Zillow’s website than those agents who do not pay Zillow monthly fees to be featured.
One of the ways in which Zillow reportedly favors premier agents is by advertising them next to properties to which they have no connection. According to Brizer, the premier agents are featured next to the property, along with their picture and contact information in red. In contrast, the listing agent’s information is reportedly presented in grey, with no picture associated.Â
Additionally, the premier agent’s contact information is allegedly presented at the top of the page, while the listing agent’s information is presented much lower down — often so low on the page that site users have to scroll far down to find the listing agent’s contact information.
The Zillow class action lawsuit goes on to say that the website prominently prompts a customer to contact an agent but encourages customers to contact a premier agent instead of a listing agent – going so far as to redirect inquiries away from listing agents to premier agents.
Brizer says once a customer is put in contact with a premier agent, that agent has little to no interest in helping a customer purchase the property in which they were interested — instead, the premier agent steers customers towards purchasing properties that are more financially beneficial for the agent.
According to Brizer, Zillow does not inform site users that premier agents are not associated with the properties in which a user is interested. Allegedly, the set-up of the website leads consumers into thinking that the premier agent is connected to the property.
The Zillow listing class action lawsuit says that Zillow harms agents who do not pay to be premier agents by actively leading customers away from contacting listing agents, and making their contact information difficult to find and highly unappealing.
Earlier this month, Trulia faced similar claims in a realtor class action lawsuit.
Have you used Zillow during your home buying process? Let us know in the comment section below.
Brizer is represented by Spencer Sheehan of Sheehan & Associates PC, by Michael R. Reese of Reese LLP, and by James Chung.
The Zillow Premier Agent Class Action Lawsuit is Max Brizer v. Zillow Inc., Case No. 7:19-cv-11521, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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23 thoughts onZillow Class Action Alleges Injury To Listing Realtors
As a forsale by owner on Zillow I am listed at tge bottom while premire agents are lissted anove.
I havecheck numerous times during the first 30 days to tell them mynviews are being manipilated no response.
For example i take screen shots of my listing throuout the day I noticed that the views would be dialed back.
Also the last listing Agent who sold me the property alledgelly caused my property to have error messages. I have had over 16k views and Zillow continues to reduce them everyday. 2591 Lee road,clevland heights ohio
Zillow and trulia posted that a property I own was sold for $15k!
This is untrue and I have notified them by email and phone and it still has not been changed.
I recently listed my home with an agent but your posting of my listing stated it was foreclosure and showed the value as much less than our asking and the value of our home. It has been correct now with the correct value range but I know of at lease one interested party that almost did not contact us because of your false statements. No telling how many others passed us over. The market for housing is moving at a very fast pace and to have false statement out there on such a prominent website can be very damaging to the sale of a home.
I have spoken to other agents that have told me of similar instances regarding false statements regarding their listings.
Great my house is listed now on Zillow
I have been using Zillow for a few years and would like to be added please
Please add me
Add me. I currently uses Zillow.
Where can we sign up?
“The owner has left to California and never answers any requests. You cannot buy nor visit this real estate property” that is though listed for sale…
I have heard this exact sentence so many times in the mouth of Florida realtors that you might want to give it a thought. What’s wrong with California??? why always saying that “the owner left for California” unless it is a fake leitmotiv?! The corrupted middleman does not even try to be creative, the interference into the real estate market is that prevalent and lies are that easy.
Note that the middleman Zillow has a major conflict of interest as a real estate listing and valuation website: Zillow’s competing flipping business is trying to buy and flip, not trying to let other buyers and sellers meet like pretend Zillow and Trulia websites!
Many customers including my-self report that Zillow misrepresents active listings with obsolete pictures that are not in the active listing, incorrect active MLS numbers and, as stated in the complaint above, incorrect listing agent to contact!!! In the meanwhile buyers are told that the “owner in California doesn’t want to sell” … the property, listed for sale on the MLS by a licensed realtor though…
Not surprisingly, such slander seems to be targeting the properties that might be of interest for the big and growing flipping business of Zillow, for example my condo on the beach in a fully renovated building with no assessments, low maintenance and covered parking.
Any potential buyer of a property that Zillow could flip is literally redirected away by Zillow by any means, until the seller is so desperate that it is sold for pennies to the flipper. I have seen that over and over in Florida.
As a former auditor, I would like to know exactly how the online platforms controlled by Zillow interfere online when buyers contact not only Zillow but also other online real estate platforms. Corrupted powerful innovative real estate agents already took our american real estate market to the grave once, we may want to consider controlling better this time the creative real estate tech!
Based on my recent observation of the online real estate activity of Zillow and Trulia, I doubt that buyers and sellers have the ability to reach each other FREELY using the online MLS listings.
Buyers and sellers in the so called FREE real estate market are misled by the middleman now, real estate isn’t a FREE market any longer and this is unlawful.
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This issue is not new, but an issue thats needed to be addressed since Zillow’s inception.