Last week, Intel revealed the current state of the real estate portal wars through the eyes of the brokerage industry.
Widespread dissatisfaction with Zillow dominated the day. However, the latest Intel Index findings suggest that the industry’s inability to rally behind a single, consistent alternative remains one of the biggest talking points in real estate.
In the final chapter of our two-part Portal Wars series, Intel digs deeper, gauging not only how the agency feels about the traditional main challengers to Zillow’s crown, but also the more dramatic possibilities the industry is talking about, from Compass’ private listing ambitions to Google and ChatGPT’s flirtations with listing intermediaries.
Read the industry’s multi-layered thinking and disagreements on this topic in this week’s report.
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As discussed in last week’s analysis, agents from virtually all brokerages surveyed in December had a generally negative view of Zillow’s central role in real estate listings.
But when you consider the alternatives, clear fault lines begin to emerge across the brokerage.
Thirty-five percent of agents at large non-franchise brokerages, such as Compass, eXp Realty, and The Real Brokerage, have chosen the Portal Wars endgame scenario, where the largest brokerages each create their own private networks to manage their own listings. For comparison, only 15 percent of franchise agents and 7 percent of private indie agents responded similarly.
Instead, these agents were most likely to move toward a united front with MLS as a favorable outcome of the portal war.
41% of franchise agents and 47% of independent agents said they prefer a national home listing platform run by the MLS to win the market and serve as the industry’s gateway to consumers. Only 22% of agents at large non-franchise brokerages said the same.
To better understand the situation from an agent’s perspective, Intel also asked agents for their opinions on the biggest players and potential disruptors in the home listing space.
Although there were some differences, agents at major franchise networks tended to view each of the major listing platform players similarly to agents at private indies.
But agents at publicly traded non-franchise brokerages had a decidedly different perspective on the portal wars.
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As seen in the graph above, almost all institutional investors participating in the portal wars were viewed with some level of skepticism and negativity. In this context, the least offensive challengers to Zillow’s crown from the traditional portal space were Homes.com and Realtor.com, with their models of securing leads to residential listing agents.
As previously established, Zillow itself was one of the least desirable parties to remain on top in the portal wars.
But some of the winners in the alternative portal wars were particularly divisive within the industry.
Agents with large, non-franchise models were much more likely to view Compass as the preferred focal point for consumers to access housing information.
Fifty-one percent of agents at large non-franchise brokerages said they viewed Compass favorably as a key player in the listing, while only 29% viewed it unfavorably. Compare to all other agent respondents. Only 14 percent of franchise or private indie agents viewed Compass having a central listing platform favorably, and 61 percent viewed Compass negatively in this virtual role.
But Compass isn’t the only major portal outside company that industry observers have speculated could one day challenge Zillow’s crown.
In December, web search giant Google attracted industry attention when it tested an advertising model from its partner HouseCanary that displays ComeHome listings directly in search results on mobile. The pilot, which drew accusations that it violated House Canary’s contract with MLS, appeared to be designed in part to drive users to paying real estate brokerage partners.
That could pose a risk to Zillow if Google goes all in on Zillow’s market share — so far, Zillow appears to be escaping the challenge from competitors. (Zillow’s stock price quickly fell on the news and remains 8% lower than it was before the bankruptcy.)
But are agents concerned about the possibility of Google and other big tech companies suddenly surging into the public listing space?
Just a moment, it turns out. But many believe platforms like Google and ChatGPT have the potential to deliver better outcomes for their businesses than Zillow’s current status, Intel found.
Twenty-five percent of agent respondents viewed Google’s role as the primary housing information provider to consumers favorably, while 40% viewed it unfavorably. It’s not a feverish enthusiasm. However, this reflects agents being far more tolerant of Google than agents are of Zillow, which only 10 percent of respondents supported and 62 percent opposed.
Agents also seemed to think their business would be better off if an AI chatbot like ChatGPT took over from Zillow, and agents from Compass and other large independent models were especially likely to agree.
Why?
Compass CEO Robert Refkin shared his thoughts with analysts and investors during an earnings call in November.
“The great thing about ChatGPT is that it brings the flow of leads back to the truth and directs them down an organic path to the best, most experienced agents, just like Google did,” Levkin said at the time. “This is great for experienced real estate professionals and great for companies like Compass.”
Still, Levkin was critical of how platforms like Google are moving toward monetizing relationships by emphasizing sponsored agents rather than directing consumers based solely on search algorithms.
This step causes the agent’s search results to move away from what Levkin calls “the truth.” A similar effort to introduce ads into chatbot results could also be planned in the coming months.
One of the interesting findings from the study is that there are organizations that are more stigmatized than Zillow. It’s a vertically integrated home trading platform being developed by mortgage giant Rocket Companies and Lower LLC. Each of these companies acquired their own home listing platforms, Rocket’s Redfin and Lower’s Movoto, to further this goal.
And the agencies Intel surveyed don’t like the idea one bit.
Four percent of agent respondents supported Rocket’s Redfin-powered vertical platform as central to how consumers access real estate listing information, while 69 percent disapproved.
Less than 2 percent of agent respondents had a positive view of Movoto’s central role in the listings space now that it is owned by Lower, compared to 63 percent of agent respondents who had a negative view.
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, brokers, 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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