Toronto Re/Max brokerage joins U.S.-based giant Zillow
Ultimate Realty is fourth Canadian company to sign on with real estate site
A Toronto Re/Max brokerage owned by the former president of the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) has become the fourth Canadian company to sign a listing deal with Seattle-based Zillow.com.
Tim Syrianos of Re/Max Ultimate Realty said the Zillow agreement will boost the exposure of listings from his 235 brokers and their customers.
“We’ve always had a reputation to embrace technology and different platforms that could benefit not just realtors but ultimately our consumers. If this is another opportunity to help them market their properties in a way that could help them achieve their goals, then we’ll definitely embrace it,” he said.
Syrianos wouldn’t comment on how many listings his brokerage will feed Zil- low. He said he doesn’t expect Zillow will undermine Canadian sites such as Realtor.ca.
“This is just another marketing tool,” he said. “If they do here what they did in
the U.S., it’s just another benefit to have the listings available for people to see,” Syrianos said.
Zillow, which says it has commitments from four Canadian companies representing more than 30,000 listings, hasn’t revealed when it will launch its Canadian real-estate listings, but it will be by the end of the year, said Errol Samuelson, the company’s Vancouver-based chief industry development officer.
Zillow.com uses property listings to sell ads to real-estate agents.
The listing agent’s name, contact information and a link to their brokerage are posted for free.
But buyers’ agents have to pay to have their name appear on listings.
Samuelson said the company, which uses listings from 650 U.S. Multiple Listings Service (MLS) feeds, is talking to Canadian real-estate boards, including TREB, about directly accessing their listings. In the meantime, it is forging agreements with individual companies and brokerages.
“It’s really about getting an agreement in place with Canadian boards,” he said. “In the meantime, if individual brokers wish to send us a data feed on its own that’s perfectly OK.”
Zillow has reached a similar deal with Exit Realty to display its Canadian listings.
There are three Exit brokerages listed in the Toronto area. The president of Exit’s Canadian operations did not return an email to the Star on Wednesday.
Last week, Right at Home Realty announced it had an agreement to feed its listings to Zillow.
In June, Century 21 Canada was the first company north of the border to promise Zillow direct access to its listings.
Zillow says its 100 million visits from non-U.S. users each year are mainly from Canada, Britain, Germany, Mexico and China.