Zillow to start posting Canadian homes
Online real estate giant to use direct listing feed from Century 21 Canada
U.S. online real estate giant Zillow has announced it will post Canadian homes on its site through a direct listing feed from Century 21 Canada.
That means Canadian real estate listings will be exposed to millions of consumers who visit Zillow every month, the company said in a Wednesday release.
The Seattle-based company announced last year that it planned to feature Canadian property listings early this year. The most recent news release says that it now expects to post Canadian listings, including those from Century 21 Canada, later this year.
“We know U.S. buyers are interested in purchasing Canadian real estate so we’re excited to offer the millions of buyers already coming to Zillow for their home search an easy way to see homes for sale in Canada and connect with an agent to help navigate the sale,” Errol Samuelson, Zillow’s Vancouver-based industry development officer, said in the release.
The agreement is the same as the relationship Zillow has with Century 21 in the U.S., said the Century 21 Canada chief technology officer Jack Miller.
A report last year in a real estate industry magazine quoted Samuelson as saying 170 million people use Zillow.com and the other major online real estate site in the U.S., Trulia.com.
Zillow’s listings offer complete sales histories, including the selling price of homes, information that the Toronto Real Estate Board controversially considers private.
The board is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to appeal the latest legal decision that ruled selling prices could be released on some password-protected
brokerage sites.
It’s not clear what a greater role for Zillow would mean in the Canadian real estate market.
A Zillow spokesperson told the Toronto Star last fall that the company has no plans to build a Canadian website.
The company maintains that it doesn’t compete with the role of real estate agents.
It sells ads, not houses, on its websites and mobile apps, one
Zillow executive told the Star in 2016.
But a trademarked Zillow Instant Offers feature provides a forum where homeowners in some markets can receive offers from buyers, said Wednesday’s release.
“When Zillow buys a home, it will make necessary updates and list the home for resale on the open market,” said the company.