Realogy sends (more) listings to Zillow – so what?

As noted on Inman this morning and the corresponding press release:

Leading real estate Web site Zillow.com today announced an expansion to its marketing agreement with Realogy Corporation (archived: 2022) that will result in approximately 700,000 total property listings from Realogy’s brand networks to be posted to the Zillow.com Web site on a daily basis.

For the record, I theorized earlier this month that:

Where is the tipping point going to be when Realogy (for example) decides that it’s more beneficial to just send everything to Zillow rather than the MLS?
We’re seeing a variation of the above example in some markets that have large non-Realtor populations – the MLS is not as effective due to lack of participation.
Zillow is competition; if only for the fact that your data could one day be better than ours.

Note also David G’s response:

Your Realogy analogy is interesting though probably unlikely. If it ever did happen though, nothing would really change for Realtors. Realtors would still have access to all of Realogy’s listings; the only differences being that that access would be now be free and you would also find potential clients hanging out where you find the data.

IMO, the fact that Zillow will be a richer source of information than the MLS’s is a given. That’s simply because Zillow’s databases are populated by far more data sources than MLS databases are (with homeowners being the most notable missing contributors to MLS data.) Likewise, since Zillow’s databases are exposed to a much larger audience, there’s significantly more opportunity for correcting data quality issues than in the case of a closed MLS.

Questions –

– Could this strategy disintermediate the local MLS? (doubtful, as MLS’ still have far more information than Zillow)
– Could this be the way to finally divorce the commissions?
– Does the average Realtor or consumer see the potential ramifications of this? Or do they see this as simply another place to showcase their listings?
– Will Zillow show statuses of properties? ie – contingent, pending, days on market? (good luck with that last one!)
– Will Realtor.com step to the plate and innovate?