Zillow is addressing the questions everyone’s been asking since last week.
Byron Lazine sat down with Jun Choo, Chief Operating Officer at Zillow, for the company’s first public interview since announcing Zillow Preview.
The product has already drawn strong reactions across the industry and pushed a bigger conversation about who controls listings before they hit the MLS.
Choo walked through how Preview actually works, clarified where Zillow draws the line on private listings, and explained why the company is willing to limit distribution in the short term to control the experience.
He even responded to the growing push from companies like eXp that are taking a different approach and opening their feeds to more platforms.
If you’ve been trying to figure out what Zillow is really doing here, this is the clearest answer we’ve heard so far.
What Zillow Preview Actually Is, And What It Isn’t
Zillow is framing Preview as a simple idea.
As Jun Choo explained:
“Zillow Preview is a pre-market product. So if you want to think of it as Zillow’s version of a coming soon, that’s a fairly accurate way to think about it. And what we realize is that while we strongly believe that every seller should get the broadest exposure for their home, that the best outcome is to market your home broadly and make sure that you create the most demand.”
Zillow’s position on exposure hasn’t changed. More visibility creates more demand. Preview sits at the front end of that process.
Here’s how it works in practice.
Listings can appear on Zillow before they hit the MLS, according to local MLS rules. Some markets don’t allow a window at all. Others allow a short period. Some markets allow up to 14 days.
The listing uses a limited set of details, about 15 fields and one photo. It’s designed to create early interest while the home is still in its pre-market phase.
Choo put it this way:
“The idea that you want to pre-market a home before it’s active is a valid tactic. And what we wanted to do was make sure that Zillow Preview was a version of coming soon that we would want on Zillow, that is consumer-friendly, that helps the seller, and that also preserves the buyer experience.”
Zillow is focused on how pre-market listings are presented to consumers and how those interactions are handled.
Zillow’s point is about how pre-market listings are handled. The focus is on the details of execution, how the listing is presented, how consumers interact with it, and how quickly they get a response.
More on that last bit coming up.
Why Zillow Is Making Preview Listings Exclusive
Zillow didn’t avoid the question about exclusivity. Byron brought it up directly.
Zillow is focused on controlling how the listing is experienced during that pre-market window, which means any pre-market listings that go live on Zillow are exclusive to Zillow.
eXp is taking a different path. Its approach centers on pushing listings out to as many platforms as possible, with the goal being to reach as many consumers as possible. The assumption is that more visibility creates more opportunity.
Choo explained why exclusivity matters to Zillow right now:
“The reason for the exclusivity is that we’re trying to create a product that works everywhere and control the experience for the consumer—so, things like making sure that there is a schedule a tour button and clicking and linking it up to real-time touring and linking it up to our preferred network of partners to make sure all those consumers are followed up with.”
“In order to make that experience work, it’s something that has to be built on Zillow and controlled by us.”
That control shows up in a few specific ways:
- The interface stays consistent.
- The response system is built in.
- The real-time touring option is connected to agents who can actually respond.
- The same flow applies every time a consumer interacts with the listing.
Choo expanded on the limitation of pushing that experience across multiple platforms:
“Frankly, we can’t guarantee what that experience would be like on other sites. And so making it exclusive to Zillow means that just for the preview period, that is an experience that only occurs on Zillow.”
Choo made it clear that this isn’t a closed door. Zillow is still in conversations with eXp. There’s no hard line being drawn between the two approaches yet. The strategies are developing in real time, and both sides are still figuring out how they might overlap.
For agents, this comes down to understanding how listings are handled once a consumer engages with them.
Where Zillow Draws the Line on Listings
A good portion of the conversation was spent clarifying where Zillow stands on listings. There’s been a lot of confusion around what they allow and what they don’t.
Choo broke it down in simple terms.
“A coming soon listing—a listing that is either a Zillow Preview listing that we just created, or it’s through a coming soon status to the MLS that comes from an IDX feed through us—those have always been perfectly fine. We have no problems with coming soon listings as well.”
That includes three categories Zillow is comfortable with:
- Coming soon listings through the MLS
- Zillow Preview listings
- Truly private listings, where a seller doesn’t want public exposure at all
The issue for Zillow comes down to how some listings are being handled before they ever reach the public.
Choo addressed that directly:
“What we object to is the idea that you would create a private listing network where a brokerage hides listings from the consumer, uses that to then entice consumers to give their information. You’re not giving them any information about the home and you’re not letting them shop. And instead you’re inviting them to go through a red wall so that you can control where that consumer goes.”
The concern here is that listings that sit behind a registration wall limit what buyers can see. They also shape where those buyers go next and who they’re connected to.
Zillow’s position is that this approach creates a worse experience for both sides of the transaction.
Choo connected that back to seller outcomes:
“And we’ve data to back up… we understand that sellers want options, but if you’re going into a private listing network and you’re not marketing your home broadly, you will leave money on the table and you’ll get a worse outcome.”
Zillow also clarified a recent change that added to the confusion. They are no longer trying to apply one standard across every market. Instead, they are deferring to local MLS rules.
That means if a coming soon status is allowed in a given market, Zillow will display it. That has already been happening through IDX feeds in many areas.
The line Zillow is drawing is based on visibility and access:
- Listings that are visible to consumers are allowed on the platform.
- Listings that are intentionally hidden behind barriers are not.
What Zillow Preview Means for Agents
Zillow is positioning Preview as part of a broader change in how listings are introduced to the market and how consumers engage with them from the start.
They’re building around how consumers search and how they connect with agents. They’re also focused on how quickly those interactions turn into action. That same approach runs through Preview, real-time touring, and the systems they’ve built to handle inquiries.
Choo brought it back to the same principle Zillow has followed from the start:
“It always comes from the same place, which is this maniacal focus on the consumer and their needs. And I think twenty years of consistently thinking about the consumer, their needs, and meeting them where they are—that’s what builds the brand.”
That focus is shaping how Zillow handles pre-market listings and how those listings are experienced by buyers.
Tune in to enjoy the full conversation between Byron Lazine and Jun Choo.
