What to compare on major home listing sites when house hunting

The four biggest national home listing platforms generally present similar property information, but a new report from the Consumer Policy Center says buyers should still notice a few important differences.

One of the most useful distinctions for careful shoppers is that only one site, Realtor.com, prominently flags homes with “contingent” and “pending” contracts. Contingent deals depend on certain conditions being met, such as a satisfactory inspection. Pending sales are simply waiting to close.

Many of those contracts never make it to settlement. Roughly 15% fall apart for one reason or another, so buyers should keep an eye on them. If a deal collapses, a seller eager to move on may be more open to negotiating on price or other terms.

At the same time, the CPC report says Realtor.com, the official listing site of the National Association of Realtors, includes a “deceptive” button. The concern is that it is not obvious whether clicking it leads to the property’s listing agent or to an unfamiliar agent seeking buyers.

Among Realtor.com, Redfin, Zillow and Homes.com, Redfin was the only portal that included “coming soon” listings, which it calls “Early Access.” These are homes that agents have under contract but are not yet ready for public viewing. Repairs may still be underway, or the seller may want time to stage and photograph the property.

“Coming soon” listings remain a contentious issue in real estate. Some brokers favor them because they can market homes within their own offices and keep the full commission in-house. Critics argue that the practice keeps properties from the broadest possible audience, which can reduce the number of potential buyers and possibly lower the final sale price.

Even so, consumers do not need to worry too much about which portal they choose first. The report’s author, Stephen Brobeck, found that, for the most part, the four major sites make the same information available on the same properties.

Still, Brobeck, who frequently criticizes how real estate operates, says it is wise to check listings on all four sites.

These portals dominate the U.S. housing search market, pulling in listings from most local and regional multiple listing services and making it possible to search homes nearby or across the country. Because of their reach, they are a major source of information for buyers.

But the big four are also involved in ongoing disputes over access to listings. Depending on how those fights are resolved, some buyers could lose access to key information needed to make informed decisions.

“Our fear is that we would return to the pre-portal days when consumers were highly dependent on agents,” Brobeck warns. “This would represent a huge loss for consumers that would erode their confidence in the housing market.”

For the study, the CPC reviewed listing samples in 21 communities located in or near 10 major metropolitan areas. Brobeck used Google to find homes for sale in specific locations, then compared those listings across each portal.

In total, he examined more than 2,000 listings for 500 properties. Three-quarters appeared on all four sites, and more than four-fifths showed up on three of the four.

There were a few notable exceptions.

In one case, a property listed on Zillow and Realtor.com did not appear on either Redfin or Homes.com. Brobeck suspects one explanation may be how the sites handled lower-priced homes. Among the missing listings, Homes.com failed to show 15 properties priced under $500,000, while Redfin missed 10. By comparison, Realtor missed only two and Zillow missed just three.

In another unusual example, Redfin was the only portal to list “coming soon” homes brokered by Compass and its affiliated companies, Coldwell Banker, Christies and Sotheby’s.

A third major difference involved listings that did not show how long a home had been on the market. Sellers of long-listed homes are often more willing to negotiate, yet displaying “days on market” remains a somewhat controversial topic in real estate.

For several years, Compass has offered sellers the option of keeping a listing private instead of sending it to the local multiple listing service. Those private listings do not disclose days on market.

Some brokers also remove homes that have sat unsold for long periods, then relist them days or weeks later so they appear brand new. When the data is shown, however, the report found that days on market is usually accurate and useful.

There were a few other differences as well. Realtor.com does not include a map with listings. Redfin does not show the listing agent or brokerage, while Realtor.com lists only the broker’s name. Zillow and Homes.com display both. Only Realtor.com also included the property’s acreage along with the home’s square footage.