Aloha MLS Participants and Subscribers,
Happy New Year! I hope this letter finds you well as can be with a sound sense of optimism for our future.
The purpose of this letter is to inform you of the transition of Zillow from (a) its current third-party Listings Content License Agreement of March 26, 2015, which has provided a national-level platform for the advertising and showing of your listings to (b) its new role as a broker Participant in HiCentral MLS and particularly in the Internet Data Exchange (IDX) effective as of January 12, 2021.
As you may already know, Zillow joined the Honolulu Board of REALTORS® as a Realtor® Member and became a broker Participant in HiCentral MLS late last year.
As of January 12, 2021, Zillow has become a Participant in the HiCentral MLS IDX system. Kathleen Martusheff serves as the Principal Broker in Hawaii for Zillow.
During this transition process, we have learned that in November, Zillow began contacting some of our members about their change to start charging for the display of rental listings on Zillow.com and their other sites.
Zillow has made a business decision to institute these charges despite HBR & HiCentral MLS efforts to otherwise affect a change. While not directly addressed in the HiCentral MLS Rules and Regulations, for more than ten (10) years, our participants and property managers have traditionally shared rental listings amongst and between one-another – albeit under slightly modified rules in a spirit of mutual benefit and cooperation.
HiCentral MLS continues to evaluate whether Zillow’s rental programs for a fee, utilizing HiCentral MLS rental listings data, is in compliance with MLS policies, rules, and regulations. This evaluation is ongoing. In the meantime, we have suspended feeding any rental listings to Zillow until we are assured that compliance is properly achieved.
We understand that this course of action, particularly for property management Participants, may cause some disruption in terms of advertising your rental listings with Zillow. Please know that your rental listings entered into HiCentral MLS continue to be displayed on HiCentral.com – the trusted, local site for rentals, as well as other sites such as Apartments.com and Realtor.com.
As you know, the regulatory landscape concerning technology, intellectual property rights, advertising, privacy, NAR MLS and IDX policies, fair housing, and many other facets is changing at an accelerating rate. In this regard, we have been undergoing for some time an evaluation of further changes to our MLS and IDX services and products to better serve our collective Participants and Subscribers. We will have more for you on these changes in the weeks and months ahead.
Should you have any questions or comments in this regard, please feel free to contact Michael Fry, Director of MLS, or me.
Sincerely,
Suzanne Young
Chief Executive Officer
HiCentral MLS |
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