Compare Zillow and NAEBA
For Buyers
Answer: Zillow is a Multiple Listing Services (MLS) aggregator while NAEBA is a referral fee network that enables broker-to-broker collusion with use of blanket referral agreements
Buying and Selling with Zillow
Zillow is an MLS Aggregator that allows buyers and sellers to list homes and find out what local homes are available for sale. Zillow aggregates home listing data from thousands of private MLS databases across the United States.
By making this otherwise unavailable information to consumers, Zillow creates a positive value-added experience with local results for the majority of available listings.
Zillow generates revenue with ads using Zillow Group’s Premier Agent and Premier Broker programs.
Zillow Pricing
Zillow does not offer paid services to consumers directly, instead, the portal generates revenue with ads and referral fees from real estate brokers.
Listing Services
- This Service Does Not Represent Sellers
Buyer's Agent Services
- This Service Does Not Represent Buyers
Zillow Editor's Review:
This review is focused on Zillow as an MLS aggregator, separate from the referral fee network (Zillow Premier Broker) and (Zillow Instant Offers). Two separate reviews are assigned to Zillow Premier Broker and Zillow Instant Offers programs. As an MLS aggregator, Zillow benefits real estate consumers with highly accurate MLS data and home value estimates.
Today, most consumers ready to buy or sell real estate begin their search on the Internet. This is a logical first step that can help identify similar properties, pricing budget to help make the correct decision about buying or selling real estate. Zillow is one of the main and most well-known sources of such information. Zillow analyzes property values, aggregates data and displays results that make sense to seasoned real estate professionals as well as newbie home buyers and sellers.
Undeniably, Zillow, has a great wealth of aggregate MLS property information, an easy-to-use interface, valuable neighborhood information, excellent user reviews and a wide array of real estate-related services, articles, and forums. Zillow is one of the top real estate platforms in the United States and will likely remain there with acquisitions of Trulia.com, Streeteasy.com, and RealEstate.com “mirror” platforms. The chances are that a consumer either buying or selling a home uses Zillow platform or one of its affiliates as part of their real estate transaction experience.
Zillow is technically free, but Zillow is funded with advertising and referral fees. Zillow advertising costs vary by ZIP code, cost per impression and Premier Broker referral fees are currently hidden from consumers. Agents that sign-up for their Premier Agent program "get in front of buyers and sellers in the largest online real estate network."
This fact ultimately means that real estate agent recommendations provided to real estate consumers by Zillow are biased. Those agents that pay Zillow for Premier Agent accounts consistently show up first in their search results without a clear indication of Premier status. Thus, an agency at the top may or may not be the best choice, yet Zillow implies to its users that it is.
As of 2019, Zillow has further turned to “broker mentality” against consumers with an introduction of Zillow Premier Broker and Zillow Instant Offers programs. Both of these programs effectively take Zillow into a middle-man real estate broker category, and away from an independent portal. Zillow had designed these programs to “trade consumers as leads” and push buyers and sellers onto a select group of real estate agents in exchange for hidden referral fees.
Unlike the Premier Agent program, where agents simply pay for ads, Premier Broker is a pay-for-play lead generator pipeline that qualifies consumers as a service.
This literally means that Zillow qualifies consumers into a commodity where agents buy that commodity; Zillow calls this a “flexible” payment option. Zillow CEO states that “it simplifies selling process because it de-risks the purchase decision for advertisers.” There is no upfront fee to brokers when they receive consumers info as validated leads, so there is no risk to the broker if they quote a consumer a "standard" commission – if the broker doesn’t get the business, they move on to the next validated lead with their overpriced commission offerings.
Like any other limited agent referral network of agents who are willing to pay “industry standard performance advertising expense” the only job for Zillow here is to push a few agents onto consumers en masse. With even a small percent success rate, each time Zillow converts consumers into leads, it receives thousands or tens of thousands in referral fees, typically set at 25%-40% of the commission. This business model is called reverse competition, where Zillow still refuses to acknowledge the exact amount in referral fees it receives from this new program.
The only way real estate agents are able to pay 25%-40% of their commission to Zillow is to either reduce service or jack up the price. Consumers should be careful not to provide their complete information to Zillow including name, email and a phone number in order to avoid being "sold as leads" to random real estate brokers.
Where does Zillow operate?
Buying and Selling with NAEBA
WARNING: Unlawful Kickbacks, Broker-to-Broker Collusion, False Marketing, Wire Fraud, Price Fixing.
NAEBA) is a broker-to-broker collusion scheme, where "partner agents" unlawfully agree to pay massive kickbacks to receive your information and engage in market allocation, consumer allocation, false advertising, unlawful kickbacks, wire fraud, and price-fixing practices in violation of, inter alia, 18 U.S.C. § 1346, 18 U.S.C. § 1343, 15 U.S.C. § 1, 15 U.S.C. § 45, 12 U.S.C. § 2607, 12 C.F.R. § 1024.14. As a consumer, you will always significantly overpay for Realtor commissions subject to hidden kickbacks and pay-to-play steering promoted in this scheme.
United States federal antitrust laws prohibit consumer allocation and blanket referral agreements between real estate companies.
Be smart; do not allow your information to be "sold as a lead" to a double-dealing Realtor in exchange for massive commission kickbacks paid from your future home sale, or your future home purchase.
NAEBA claims that it is a professional organization of real estate buyer agents and buyer brokers who only represent home buyers, designed with consumers in mind, but this is not true.
NAEBA is an intricate web of For-Profit (Business) Corporations and brokerages designed to collect referral fees from all transactions it originates. NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. provides referrals to brokers for an undisclosed fee, it does not represent consumers.
NAEBA Pricing
NAEBA revenue comes from referral fees, dues, and sale of user information to real estate brokers.
Listing Services
- This Service Does Not Represent Sellers
Buyer's Agent Services
- This Service Does Not Represent Buyers
NAEBA Editor's Review:
National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) operates as a Non-Profit corporation. Further, NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. is a 100% NAEBA-owned Domestic For-Profit (Business) Corporation in Arizona No 19566663 operating under a separate Tax ID with Gea Elika as its Director and Kenneth Reid as President. NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. operates a for-profit brokerage called Buyer's Broker of Arizona working under a License Number CO656331000 with a designated real estate broker Kenneth Reid. Why such a complicated web of companies?
NAEBA claims that it is a professional organization of real estate buyer agents and buyer brokers who only represent home buyers, designed to educate consumers.
In reality, NAEBA is an intricate web of For-Profit (Business) Corporations and brokerages designed to collect referral fees from all transactions it originates.
NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. provides referrals to brokers for an undisclosed fee, most likely set anywhere between 25%-40% of the agent's entire commission.
In this process, NAEBA makes a few dozen referrals each year in exchange for a lucrative payout. In 2016 NAEBA Non-Profit brought in $522,261 in revenue; where membership dues account for only $24,583. In the same year Non-Profit claimed additional $431,010 in revenue, classified as a Miscellaneous, this amount comes directly from NAEBA Referral Service, Inc., where office expenses are further split 50/50 and salaries are billed by the hour for actual hours.
In 2016 NAEBA Non-profit Corporation spent 82% of its revenue, or $483,192 for salaries, employee benefits, and other expenses. It is unclear what additional revenue NAEBA Referral Service, Inc. keeps on its own books without an obligation to publically disclose full amount as a private For-Profit Corporation.
These financial incentives clearly point to the process of collecting referral fees as the primary reason for NAEBA operations.
NAEBA collects fees where "agents only pay if there are a match and the consumer purchases a property." There are a number of problems with this process and, eventually, consumers end up paying higher commissions when working with real estate agents that NAEBA recommends.
When consumers submit information to NAEBA, this information is simply sold to real estate agents who are willing to pay for it with 25%-40% share of their commission.
This fee makes it hardly a free service for anyone since referral fees are inevitably passed down to consumers. More importantly, NAEBA applies this pay-to-play bias towards all matching results, meaning, only real estate agents that have agreed to pay a referral fee are displayed in match results for consumers.
NAEBA further audits all transactions because it needs to find out how much money real estate agents receive in commissions, inevitably collecting private details of consumer’s agreement for home purchase or sale.
NAEBA plays fees down to consumers while it rigidly locks every participating real estate agent into a referral fee attached to the back-end of every contract. As a licensed real estate agent that doesn’t perform any real estate services, or takes any responsibility for the transaction, it is not entirely clear how this process works under the Business and Professions Code in Arizona.
Clearly, real estate agents only sign-up with NAEBA because the price of the referral fee can be easily incorporated into their client’s agreement by way of excessive commissions. NAEBA receives the lowest score because this service is clearly biased and it claims to provide the complete opposite of what it actually does. NAEBA claims to help buyers, but in reality, it only makes the home buying process more expensive with unnecessary fees.
The best proof of NAEBA's flawed model comes from that fact that it remains absolutely silent on the issue of Buyer's Rebates. Why? Simply because informing consumers about these actionable savings eats directly into NAEBA’s bottom line – if agents that NAEBA recommends beginning to offer consumers fair pricing and rebates, NAEBA would no longer be able to collect excessive referral fees as part of its business.
Buyers should avoid using NAEBA referral service and negotiate directly with real estate agents for a competitive representation, or use services that offer consumers a clearly-defined 0% referral fee structure.