[Robbb]

I am seeing more and more homes listed on the VLS, NOT being visable on Zillow, historically most were. Anyone know the reason for the change? In fact Zillow has NO infomation on these homes, which seems odd to me because in the past, while they were not being sold on Zillow, they were visiable on Zillow.

[Pairadocs]

Originally Posted by Robbb

I am seeing more and more homes listed on the VLS, NOT being visable on Zillow, historically most were. Anyone know the reason for the change? In fact Zillow has NO infomation on these homes, which seems odd to me because in the past, while they were not being sold on Zillow, they were visiable on Zillow.

First of all, yes, I have noticed. Not being a realtor, I have nothing to base this on, but.. one possibility is the historically long "coolness" (I'll call it that) between the villages real-estate department and all the other established nation wide names we all know. It has always been a bit unusual since in most areas we've lived, no matter what "brand" an agent works for, they worked very well between and among the others. It's always been a bit "prickly" here, had relatives who got caught in an ugly situation trying to buy a home here some years ago. So, just a guess, but maybe Zillow has had some interactions with the Villages R.E. division ? One thing I definitely noticed, when we built here it was made very clear there were NO HMO fees. But I noticed that on Zillow they always list our "amenity" fee as an HMO fee, and also up front with additional "bond" expenses, so perhaps, they (T.V's and Zillow) have clashed over clarity of how things are advertised ? That's all I can think of. In truth, it may just be some software issue ?

[Boomer]

There are lots of TV homes listed on Zillow, realtor.com, and Redfin -- and probably other such sites that I have not heard of yet.

It looks like they simply harvest MLS listings from everywhere. Easy enough to do, I guess and good advertising for realtors. But the VLS is different and not listed in the MLS, so maybe that's it.

Zillow, and those like it, would not exist without the MLS, so it is a symbiotic relationship.

But I don't see how Zillow and the others would really need the VLS, so I wonder how it got there in the first place. Maybe there is a separate kind of agreement necessary to deal with sellers outside the MLS and maybe it has not worked out for the VLS......

But I really have no idea.

Boomer