Zillow’s dominance in listings is widely dissatisfied, according to the latest Intel Index survey of real estate professionals. This is what they say they want to see instead.
The majority of real estate agents do not rely on buying leads from property listing portals.
Nevertheless, many agency and brokerage leaders are deeply concerned about the so-called “portal war” between Zillow and its fiercest rivals.
In its latest monthly survey, Intel set out to gauge the securities industry’s level of investment in efforts to challenge Zillow’s dominance in the public sector space and gauge support for each of its major competitors.
The results revealed which final step, from “your listings, your leads” to brokerage-owned alternatives, agents find most favorable.
Read the full findings in this week’s report.
Aim for the giant
Inman’s analysis of web traffic shows that for much of last year, readers were very interested in news related to Zillow’s listing rules, efforts by rivals like Homes.com to unseat Zillow, and attacks on Zillow’s business practices by securities giant Compass.
Additionally, the majority of agencies surveyed by Intel in December admitted to chasing the portal wars, even if they were taking little risk on direct lead purchases.
Question for agents: “Which statement best describes the relationship between Zillow, Homes.com, and the so-called “portal wars” with other competitors?”
10% — My business relies heavily on lead purchases, so my revenue is directly affected by who wins. 39 percent — I’m not directly affected, but I’m invested in the competition because whichever portal wins will have a lot of influence within the industry and a lot of influence over how that data is used. 38% — I follow with some interest, but I don’t think Portal Wars will have much of an impact on me or the industry. 14 percent — I have no interest in the topic.
Additionally, Intel sought to determine what outcomes real estate professionals most want to see emerge from the portal wars.
Few people wanted to see a version where Zillow’s model stayed at the top.
Less than 7% of agents surveyed in December told Intel they believed Zillow’s continued dominance in the listing space was in the best interest of their business.
In fact, nearly every alternative “Portal Wars” endgame scenario was more popular among surveyed agents than the Zillow-centric status quo.
28% of agent respondents supported the hypothetical scenario that a challenger portal with a “your listings, your leads” approach would steal Zillow away from consumers. An additional 18% of agents preferred a model in which intermediaries like Compass take control of their listings and create increasingly large private networks that protect more listings from use by portals like Zillow. Perhaps surprisingly, as many as 10 percent of Agent respondents supported a model in which big tech companies swooped in and took market share from Zillow. In this scenario, platforms like Google and ChatGPT will become the primary places consumers look up housing information.
But the largest group of agents still yearns for a different path. That path has proven attractive to industry players for years, but is difficult to implement in practice.
A plurality of agent respondents, or 38 percent, rejected the above option in favor of an MLS-coordinated effort to create a national, industry-controlled home listing platform that would compete directly with Zillow and other portals.
A number of challenges, including regulatory oversight of the industry and the sheer mindshare Zillow has with consumers, have made this particular initiative an uphill battle for industry players thus far. However, an industry-managed listing platform independent of major brokerages remains an attractive idea for many real estate professionals.
In Part 2 of this series, Intel considers more specific questions such as: Which specific listing platforms do real estate professionals trust the most or least? How do agents think their business will fare if big technology platforms like Google and ChatGPT become the primary gateways for consumer home search? How do agents’ attitudes differ across different brokerage types and business models? And where do brokerage leaders stand on all of this?
Look out for these findings in the next Intel report.
Methodology note: This month’s Inman Intel Index study was conducted from December 19, 2025 to January 2025. As of May 5, 2026, we received 468 responses. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate, and a rotating selection of randomly selected community members were encouraged to participate via email. Users answered a series of questions about their self-proclaimed niche in the real estate industry, including real estate agents, brokerage leaders, financiers, and proptech entrepreneurs. Results reflect the views of our passionate Inman community, but do not necessarily align with the views of the broader real estate industry. This survey is conducted monthly.
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