Zillow just lost most of its Chicago listings. Is the rest of the country next?

On Wednesday morning, about two-thirds of Zillow’s Chicago home listings abruptly vanished. Zillow is in an ongoing dispute with a local MLS, or multiple listing service, named Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED). The two companies have been in an escalating conflict for about a year. Zillow has sued MRED in federal court, alleging antitrust violations. This week, MRED cut off Zillow’s access to its listings as the latest blow in that fight, although a federal judge has temporarily restored them. It took that step at the apparent urging of Compass International Holdings, the nation’s largest brokerage—which itself once tried to sue Zillow under antitrust law. Compass is actively partnering with other MLS providers around the United States, which means Zillow will likely lose listings in other parts of the country as well. This dispute comes down to how homes for sale are presented to buyers, and who controls that process. It’s the kind of battle that can break out when a startup uses technology to disrupt and dominate a well-established industry, and the biggest player in that industry attempts to squelch that disrupter. Selling homes through private networks Increasingly, large brokerages are using their own private listing networks to initially list homes for sale. Those networks are only available to those who work with a brokerage agent. Doing so gives the brokerage an exclusive on that listing. Perhaps most significant, it means the agent can probably keep the whole commission, rather than split it with a buyer’s agent. And if a home doesn’t sell immediately (which most don’t), the brokerage can then list it with an MLS, and thus Zillow. Until now. Zillow wants all homes listed in their local MLS—and thus on its site—as soon as they become available. It doesn’t want leftover homes listed exclusively on a private network for days or weeks before they appear on Zillow. Zillow, which owns Trulia, is the nation’s largest real estate portal, and it believed it had the c