ListHub isn’t happy that Zillow is still using its data.
The Move Inc.-owned company issued a letter to its customers on Wednesday, warning them that Zillow is using listing information from ListHub despite the fact that a contract between the two companies expired on April 7.
“We are compelled to notify our customers so that you’re aware of Zillow’s apparent disregard for the accuracy of its data and the interests of brokers, agents and consumers,” the letter reads.
However, in a statement to GeekWire, Zillow maintains that it is not breaching the contract.
“We are abiding by the terms of our contract, which requires affected listings to be removed from Zillow one day after it terminated on April 7,” said Zillow spokeswomen Katie Curnutte.
Move Inc., meanwhile, thinks otherwise.
“We disagree with their position,” the company said in a statement. “The ListHub content should have come down end of business April 7.”
In its letter, which you can read below, ListHub tells customers that “your intellectual property could be being used by a third party without license, and is not being updated to maintain accuracy.”
Zillow has been scrambling to collect as much data as possible as the ListHub partnership ends, hoping that it will be able to provide visitors to its website and mobile apps the freshest information. In the past two weeks, Zillow has added direct feeds from 83 multiple listing services, and noted that its listing information will actually be stronger than before the ListHub arrangement.
There are about 900 multiple listing services across the country, most of which operate as non-profits owned and operated by a consortium of brokerages.
Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff noted a few weeks ago that the end of ListHub deal was actually a liberating experience, since they no longer had to rely on a competitor “whose incentive was to continue to send Zillow inferior listings in order to advertise that their own Web site had higher quality listings.”
This scuffle began in mid-February, after Zillow acquired Trulia and ListHub then announced that it would be removing listing data from Trulia on February 26.
Meanwhile, Zillow Chief Industry Development Officer Errol Samuelson is back at the company after the former Move Inc. executive was sidelined by his former employer over allegations that he improperly used information from his time at Move to benefit Zillow.
Here’s the ListHub letter in full:
It’s now clear that following the end of its supply agreement with ListHub, Zillow Group is still allowing the widespread presentation of outdated listing data that should have been removed from its website and mobile apps on April 7. What this means is that your intellectual property could be being used by a third party without license, and is not being updated to maintain accuracy. We’ve informed Zillow of this fact, but it has thus far been unresponsive.
Inaccurate listings not only undermine the efforts of brokers and agents, they’re also a major cause of friction in the real estate lifecycle and they mislead consumers. Allowing listing content to become stale and inaccurate is out of step with the values that we share as an industry. We are compelled to notify our customers so that you’re aware of Zillow’s apparent disregard for the accuracy of its data and the interests of brokers, agents and consumers.
If you do not have a license with Zillow that allows perpetual display of your content, you may wish to voice your request for removal directly to Zillow. We also stand ready to help you with any further information you might need about this, or any other matter. Thank you for your attention to this important issue.
Editor’s note: Statement from Move Inc. was added to this story.
