The news that Google is now displaying property listings in mobile search results for homes in certain markets, powered by a partnership with HouseCanary subsidiary ComeHome, has perhaps unsurprisingly sparked a bit of a debate online.
As with Zillow’s announcement of its app integration with ChatGPT in October, the crux of the issue for many is the belief that by enabling the display of MLS listings through an IDX feed on Google, HouseCanary and ComeHome are breaching their IDX data licensing permit and breaking National Association of Realtors (NAR) and MLS policies.
In a post echoing many of his claims about Zillow and ChatGPT, Victor Lund, the managing partner of WAV Group, wrote that this partnership between Google and HouseCanary “cuts directly into one of the most regulated areas of real estate brokerage: advertising authority and consent.”
The line between displaying and advertising a listing
According to Lund, under MLS and NAR policies, a broker may not advertise another broker’s listing without the listing broker’s prior, express consent.
“This principle exists to protect fiduciary responsibility, prevent consumer confusion, and ensure accountability for representations made to the public,” Lund wrote.
According to Lund, there is an important distinction between displaying a listing and advertising one, noting that advertising “implies promotion, solicitation, and lead capture, not passive information access,” which Google’s display has with its “request a tour” and “contact agent” buttons.
“In most states, advertising another broker’s product without consent can trigger violations related to false advertising, unauthorized practice, misrepresentation, and inducement,” Lund wrote. “MLS participation agreements reinforce this by limiting how listing content may be used, where it may appear, and who may benefit commercially from it.”
IDX feeds are a carve-out to this rule, according to Lund, allowing brokers to display each others’ listings on their site. However, this only exists due to the system’s reciprocal consent framework. Even so, the permission to display another broker’s listings is limited to broker-controlled displays and the possession of an IDX feed does not grant advertising rights or the paid promotion of listings, especially on a third-party site.
According to Lund, Google’s search results page is not the broker’s display, meaning that the advertisement or promotion of listings here is a breach of IDX rules.
“When listings appear inside paid Google ads, they are being promoted, targeted, and monetized in a third-party environment that sits outside the IDX framework. IDX consent does not transfer to Google, nor to any advertiser using Google as the distribution channel,” Lund wrote.
HouseCanary contacted MLSs first
In response to this criticism from Lund, as well as others, HouseCanary wrote on LinkedIn that this endeavor with Google was a “controlled experiment” designed to “market ComeHome and the listings displayed on the site in a new way. “
The firm noted that before it began this “experiment” it contacted every MLS in the regions included.
“We are working with those MLSs directly and we have active, ongoing communication with them throughout the test. If an MLS has questions or concerns, we address them directly and promptly,” the firm wrote. “The goal is simple: improve how consumers discover listings while staying aligned with the rules and expectations of the MLS community.”
HouseCanary added that it is committed to building this new venture with Google “the right way with the MLSs and other stakeholders.”
A “multi-layered problem”?
While the news HouseCanary met with MLS leaders is a good thing, Lund also sees it as an additional reason for alarm, as ComeHome, which is powering the experience, is a proprietary platform built for mortgage lenders, not a brokerage display. For Lund, this creates a “multi-layered problem: advertising listings without listing broker consent, using IDX-licensed data for paid advertising, placing listings on a non-broker third-party platform, and enabling a mortgage-centric product to commercially benefit from brokerage content.”
In his view, if the MLSs signed off on the IDX feeds being used in this manner, then the “MLS itself is in violation of its MLS participation agreement that extends a limited license from the Broker to the MLS.”
“That limited license does not allow the MLS to sell or authorize the broker’s listing content beyond the scope of providing MLS services,” he wrote. “This scheme by HouseCanary and ComeHome is beyond the scope of MLS services as articulated in the participation agreements that we have reviewed over the past 25 years of MLS consulting.”
A range of views
Not everyone in the housing space shares Lund’s conviction that the Google-HouseCanary partnership violates IDX policies.
“Zillow’s cooperation with OpenAI and Google’s cooperation with HouseCanary are simply second-level MLS partners supplying a necessary demand within our ecosystem. Are they a blatant misuse of the data? Having read my share of IDX agreements over the years, I’m not so sure we can claim that,” Bill Fowler, the founder of MLS Innovator Network, wrote on LinkedIn. “I think we’re simply seeing rapid change in our industry and the MLSs that are talking about rebuilding their data feed operations, specifically the licenses that regulate use cases, are going to survive this next chapter.”
Saul Klein, a real estate industry veteran and the CEO of San Diego MLS, also weighed in on LinkedIn, asking listing brokers if they would allow another broker to place a “for sale” sign on their listing without permission.
“In essence, that is what you are doing by allowing your listings to be distributed in an IDX feed under an IDX data license agreement. I am not saying you shouldn’t, but you should be aware of the benefits you are potentially giving away,” he wrote.
For Jay Teresi, the real estate industry consultant and former Inside Real Estate executive, the situation is a “non-starter.”
“Google can certainly offer advertising again for real estate. But it would have to be a broker advertising their own listings or an agent advertising their own listings,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Real Estate IDX does not allow a broker to advertise another broker’s listing. Google is not a broker controlled website, which is one of the requirements for IDX sharing.”
What NAR thinks
A NAR spokesperson said NAR did not wish to comment on this issue, but the trade association did release a statement in late October in response to Zillow’s app integration with ChatGPT, stating that when it comes to enforcing IDX policies, “each MLS is individually responsible for conducting its own assessment of technologies that use and display MLS data.”
According to NAR, in order to determine if things like Zillow’s ChatGPT integration complies with IDX policy, MLSs should “consider things such as whether MLS data is being transmitted to an unauthorized party, if the displaying Participant maintains ‘control’ over their display, and if the display fulfills the disclosure and display requirements outlined in local IDX rules.”
As a result of the Zillow-ChatGPT announcement, many wondered if MLS policies, many of which are decades old, need to be modernized to fit this current age of technology. There is no doubt that this news from Google and HouseCanary will further fuel that debate.