Zillow^® Listings Feed - FAQ

A feed is a means to publish frequently updated data in a consistent data format. In the Zillow Listings Feed process, it's an XML file that transmits your listings. Typically, a Web master or developer will set up the feed. As always, you can upload your listings manually on Zillow if you prefer to manage your properties one at a time.

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Nothing. It's free to set up a feed and it's free to list your homes for sale on Zillow and, yes, all the referrals that you get are free.

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Zillow is a media site, so we make money just like newspapers do - we create content and sell ads around the content. The big difference between Zillow and a newspaper is that Zillow considers listings content so it's free to post listings on Zillow.com and all the referrals that come through listings on Zillow are 100% free.

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No. All the listings on Zillow are enhanced for free. You can upload an unlimited number of photos, keep your listings live indefinitely, and all the referrals you get from your listings are free. If you want to step on the marketing gas pedal even more, then we do offer brokers and agents advertising opportunities through products such as EZ Ads.

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To get free exposure for your listings. Zillow is one of the most-visited real estate Web sites, with 4 million monthly visitors.1 Two-thirds of Zillow's users are actively buying or selling a home, or plan to within the next 1-2 years.

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We don't yet have this capability. There are a number of issues with scraping, but namely, inconsistencies between different sites' formats cause data errors. A feed provides a consistent, guaranteed format that ensures your listings are posted on Zillow with high-quality data.

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Any information that you provide in the feed will appear on Zillow. For example, sales price, beds, baths, home description, photos, contact information, etc., will all appear on your Zillow listing.

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When new home facts and information are added to our database, it helps to build information about the history of a home and assist in the overall customer experience. Since we will get this data from county records anyway, we prefer not give our customers an uneven and inconsistent experience when looking at homes by adding data, removing it, and adding it again. So, when data is added to a home, it becomes part of the house history on Zillow.

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We support HTTP and FTP protocols. If your feed is password protected, please contact us at feeds@zillow.com and we'll set things up to maintain that security.

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We support two types of XML feeds:

• ZIF (Zillow Interchange Format): This is our own feed format that will allow you to create rich listings on Zillow. (See the technical spec for the Zillow Interchange Format.)
• TFF (Trulia Feed Format): If you have a feed set up with Trulia, you can use that same format for Zillow.

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As many as you want!

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Each home can have up to 50 photos. Each photo file size can be up to 5 MB. We encourage you to supply as many photos as you can as we have found that listings with more photos get materially more page views than those with fewer.

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It will take us 3-7 business days to validate and set up your feed before your listings will appear on Zillow.

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We'll download your feed nightly.

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The source for the feed (e.g., broker, data provider) will provide the contact information for each listing, whether it is for an individual agent or a centralized call center. The contact information that is displayed on Zillow (e.g., e-mail, phone, Web address) comes directly from the feed you provide and cannot be overridden. Interested consumers contact you directly, not Zillow.

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No. The Zestimate^® home valuation and other unique Zillow content is what attracts 4 million visitors to Zillow each month. As a result, Zillow's huge traffic makes it an effective place for you to advertise your listings. Keep in mind that once a home is for sale the selling price is what our users care about. However, once a home is for sale, buyers want to see the listing price. Therefore, on for sale homes, we put the listing price at the top of the page and move the Zestimate information lower.

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Zillow's Zestimate is a starting point and is not to be used as an appraisal. Since we've never been in the home, we fully expect a local real estate professional will have the best feel for a home's value. We encourage agents and brokers to explain the difference between the Zestimate and the listing price by updating the home's facts and publishing their own estimate through the My Estimator tool. Also, keep in mind that when a home is posted for sale on Zillow, the listing price is the primary and most dominant price on the home's detail page while the Zestimate is moved to a secondary position on the page.

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Yes, advertising is our revenue source and it's how we are able to provide your listings with exposure to our huge audience, for free. However, we will not display other brokerage ads on your listing.

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You can, but feed-provided property facts will override user-provided property facts, so it's important to keep your listings information in the feed up-to-date.

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No. Photos that were uploaded manually or via a feed will not be overridden.

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Please read the technical spec for the Zillow Interchange Format. If you still have questions, email us at feeds@zillow.com

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Imagine if you had the opportunity to leave your "Sold" signs planted in the front yards of all the listings you have ever sold. Think of the marketing benefit in those neighborhoods as potential buyers and sellers could clearly see you as a local real estate expert based on your past transactions. Now take that experience, put it online ,and that is exactly what Zillow is doing with its Virtual Sold Sign program. We have created a way for you to market your most valuable asset - your sold homes - to our millions of buyers and sellers, for free.

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When your listing on Zillow sells, you have the option to keep the home photos up on Zillow and continue to receive broker attribution and links on the home details page.

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One of your greatest marketing assets is your sold homes. This is a free opportunity for you to use those sold homes to establish your presence in the community, build your brand, and generate leads.

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Homeowners have complete control over the photos that are displayed on their home details page on Zillow.com. So if an owner wants to update some exterior photos, add their kitchen remodel or even remove some photos that they didn't post, they can do so.

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When you remove a home from your feed, the listing will come down on Zillow the next time we process your feed. We strive to process feeds every night. If you want to continue to get free marketing on your former listing we encourage you sign up for the Virtual Sold Sign program.

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Zillow will display whatever data exists in your feed. So if the price changed or new information is added to a listing, it will be updated on Zillow once the updated feed is received by Zillow.

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Your listings information will be updated as often as we receive data about it.

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To take your feed off of Zillow, and thus take down the sale status of all of your listings, you can send a feed containing no properties.

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Please contact Zillow Customer Support via e-mail at feeds@zillow.com.

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We currently send agents reports about their listings, but plan to expand upon these reports with data-rich content that will also be available to brokers and listing aggregators.

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No. In the future, we might offer this service, but it would be an opt-in option.

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