Realtor.com has launched Realtor.com+, a multi-family home search experience for agents and their buying clients. Available only through the Multiple Listing Service and provided as a member benefit.
Realtor.com is kicking off the year with the launch of Realtor.com+, a multifamily home search experience for buyer agents and their clients.
The platform is available exclusively through the Multiple Listing Service as a member benefit, allowing agents to search listings using MLS filters, view real-time insights into buyer search activity, read local market intelligence reports, communicate with clients, and automatically plan tour routes without leaving the Realtor.com+ platform.
Consumers will be able to access the platform through a personalized link from the agent, directed to the Realtor.com search experience, and all branding and communications will be connected to the agent.
Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales said Realtor.com+ is consistent with the portal’s commitment to maintaining an open marketplace. This concept is at the center of a heated industry debate over private listing networks and access to listing data, as well as a lawsuit between Zillow and Compass.
Damien Eales |Credit: Realtor.com
“Realtor.com was born out of a partnership between the National Association of Realtors and MLS. For 30 years, we have championed an open marketplace that provides transparency and meaningful value for consumers and professionals,” Eales said in a written statement. “Realtor.com+ modernizes that legacy by providing powerful tools to more agents than any other product in our history, putting professionals at the center of transactions, and giving MLSs the valuable AI-driven features and member tools they need to move the industry forward.”
“But this is more than just a tool. It’s a step toward strengthening the marketplace, empowering MLSs and agents, and improving the search experience for consumers,” he added.
Anna Marie Castiglioni, head of Realtor.com Next, said in a conversation with Inman that Realtor.com+ is not a major product. Rather, it’s an opportunity for agents and clients to have a frictionless, data-driven home search experience that helps them reach their ultimate goal of finding their first or next dream home faster.
“Once a consumer completes their initial search and is ready to actually find a home, the value that agents bring to that experience is tremendous. [Realtor.com+] What matters is how we enhance the role of the professionals who are the heroes of the moment. It was just like a guiding principle,” she said. And from a consumer perspective, it’s all about how they can collaborate more effortlessly and seamlessly to move faster and achieve better results. ”
Castiglioni said Realtor.com+ represents the portal’s “largest partnership” with an MLS and emphasizes the importance of maintaining an open and robust marketplace.
anna marie castiglioni
“The problem is [the platform] It’s not a new problem to solve. “This idea of fragmentation, where is the data originating, how do you ensure that the agent remains at the center of the transaction? These are all questions that have been around for a long time,” she said.[MLSs] If possible, I wanted to be in the driver’s seat and in the car with a partner that I trust and share many of the same values with. ”
“We think we’re pretty unique within the industry in terms of our history and our role. We’re not an intermediary. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the industry time and time again on industry issues and issues that are important to the industry,” she added.
“And that has generated a lot of trust over the years. We understand that we are still a large portal, but if you look at what we value, it aligns very closely with a lot of the things that MLS offers and seeks to protect its subscribers: openness, fairness, transparency, and choice over their data.”
Canopy MLS and Canopy Realtor Association CEO Anne Marie DeCatsye echoed Castiglioni’s insight, saying the platform “comes at the right time” as many industry players lean toward building “closed ecosystems.”
“Realtor.com has taken a different path championing openness, collaboration and professional empowerment,” said DeCatsye. “They are the only portal that is not an intermediary, and that is important.
“Realtor.com+ empowers subscribers, supports clients and enhances the value of MLS by integrating directly into MLSs and providing tools designed for subscribers, rather than competing with them. We are proud to partner with a company that truly shares our commitment to open and transparent marketplaces.”
In addition to enhancing Realtor.com’s reputation among MLSs, Castiglioni said Realtor.com+ also provides a competitive edge as the company navigates a rapidly evolving portal landscape.
“If you look more broadly at what’s happening with other players in the industry, I think we’re seeing a trend towards more closed, vertically integrated ecosystems where you have to use certain tools to participate or you’re only given access or status to certain types of perks and benefits of certain solutions provided by checking certain boxes,” she said. “But this isn’t limited to a select few. You don’t have to be a lead buying client of ours or use any of our other products to access it.”
“MLSs that choose to enable this type of product within their membership base will be able to use it free of charge for all MLS members,” she added. “And considering the scale of it, it’s incredible.”
Realtor.com+ is currently available at Charlotte-based Canopy MLS and will expand to 15 additional MLSs in the coming weeks, representing more than 122,000 agents across the United States.
Email Marian McPherson
