Zillow really has “no skin in the commission game”

2012: Spencer Rascoff explained that Zillow really has “no skin in the commission game” when it comes to what real estate professionals get paid.

2018: Zillow is a broker that requires a commission kickback when agents close a transaction with a connection they’ve received from the Zillow Flex Program. The kickback is set at 35% and “specific to each market in order to account for local pricing trends.”

2021: Zillow Flex Program is a broker-to-broker collusion scheme, where all real estate agents agree to pay massive kickbacks to receive your information. As a consumer, you will always overpay for broker commissions subject to hidden kickbacks and pay-to-play steering promoted in their referral scheme. United States federal antitrust laws prohibit consumer allocation and blanket referral agreements between real estate companies. Do not allow your information to be “sold as a lead” between brokers in exchange for massive commission kickbacks paid from your future home sale, or your future home purchase.

1890: Sherman Antitrust Act, the first antitrust law, is passed, where, among other things, outlaws conspiracies that restrain free trade, as a consequence, making consumer allocation agreements between brokers a felony.

The Sherman Antitrust Act remains one of the most violated laws online. The following (20) schemes, in one form or another, violate the the Sherman Antitrust Act by either tying services, price fixing services outside their firm, or allocating consumers via the Internet. Zillow is not alone. There are a number of other platforms that transmit collusion for profit.

(1) Amazon Marketplace MFN agreements
(2) Amazon Home Services MFN and price-fixing agreements
(3) Uber Technologies price-fixing agreements
(4) Lyft Platform price-fixing agreements
(5) Apple Pay and App Store product tying practice
(6) Booking.com MFN agreements
(7) Grubhub (Seamless), DoorDash, Postmates by Uber, Uber Eats MFN and price-fixing agreements
(8) Apple iOS and Google Search product tying agreement
(9) Redfin Partner Program consumer allocation and price-fixing agreements
(10) Realtor.com ReadyConnect Concierge (Opcity) consumer allocation and price-fixing agreements
(11) UpNest consumer allocation agreements
(12) Xome Concierge consumer allocation and price-fixing agreements
(13) Blend Realty consumer allocation and price-fixing agreements
(14) Opendoor Brokerage and Open Listings consumer allocation and price-fixing agreements
(15) Rocket Homes (Rocket Companies) consumer allocation agreements
(16) mellohome (loanDepot) consumer allocation agreements
(17) HomeLight consumer allocation agreements
(18) Handy HQ (Angie) price-fixing agreements
(19) Better.com consumer allocation and price-fixing agreements
(20) OJO Labs (Movoto.com) consumer allocation agreements

#realestate #antitrust #realtors #gigeconomy

Author: Litesand

Antitrust, real estate, e-commerce, fintech, proptech, bigtech View all posts by Litesand