Our mls has not syndicated to Zillow in years. My listings are syndicated to Zillow via Re/Max and via RealBird. You have other options (such as RealBird) to syndicate your listings to Zillow. This has nothing to do with the Code of Ethics. Listings don't sell at their highest price because of exposure on Zillow/Trulia. And you are confusing business failure due to lack of marketing and exposure with listing exposure. They are two different things, in my opinion. Free syndication via MLS to a Zillow does not keep me in business at the end of the day. It only provides exposure for a property I have to sell... and as I've already mentioned you can syndicate to Zillow via other means than just your MLS.

Why? Zillow is no friend to any agent! Good ridance to bad rubbish - the sooner we get rid of Zillow the better for all of us!

It never was prior to Zillow. With literally hundreds of other sites and methods, Zillow is ONE ad space.

Weird how we sold homes without Zillow before?

Why don't we train the public to go to Realtor.com instead anyhow?

So I take it you are not in opposition of Z exploiting our intellectual property?

I could care less as our board has already done this in my area & now Z has a direct feed but I'm not sure what type or timeframe involved. I think that there is now going to be an A & a B feed so to speak in the future.

Code of Ethics?  

You cite Code of Ethics and advocate for Zilow in the same message.

An organization which is a marketing company, who relies on false data, misrepresentation, deception, stolen IP and masquerades as a real estate authority, yet many agents find essential to their business message. Now, that presents an 'ethics,' not club rules, issue.

The dark-side, anticipating too little too late response from agent to mls, long ago struck a deal with franchises and regional MLS to subvert the efforts of local organizations to protect real estate agents who believe they must keep their buyers and sellers from the hazard 'forever on the Internet' creates.

The ethics of the franchises needs to be questioned.

The reality is, the darkside has become the voice of real estate and the $2,500 transaction fee is on its way.  Let's see how the big teams like that.

The franchises see agents as fungible resources and they keep sell'n 'We got Train'n!"

I have never had a listing sell without it getting shown by agents driving people around looking at all the houses in their price range. If all internet advertising went away, we would still conduct business as usual except that we would save a lot of time and energy not having to prove that a bunch of house are not really for sale.

The Zillldabeast needs to be strangled.

Not from my perspective.  If the day ever arrives where I believe I need a Zillow feed to get a listing sold is the say I need to set my broker license on Fire and end my career.  Adding to that ... I am with Nina Hollander 

  In a perfect world, every MLS would "pull the plug" on Zillow. 

There are other ways to get your listings syndicated and placed on such sites as Zillow. I am torn as a listing agent you do want your listings splashed everywhere. However for them to take your listing, and then sell the leads to your listing to another agent willing to pay for it is the wrong business model.

Nina Hollander nailed this one!

Dennis,

Nina Hollander gave you the answer.  

One thing that will never change and works is the mighty "for sale" sign

Zillow is not an agent's friend!

Each broker can choose who they syndicate their listing to. Some brokers try to keep their listings local and don't syndicate to anyone. It's not an ethical violation.

You have other options.

The MLS should allow the brokerage to link directly to Zillow. Ours made that decision after much pushing back.

Our MLS has stopped sending the feed to Z too, they won't take down listings once they go UC and sold.

We have the option for it and it has not affected us one bit, since we opt not to use Z.

I wish everyone would pull the plug on Zillow. I wish we would pull the plug on everything and only syndicate to REALTOR.com and our own web sites. Real estate is local so buyers should use local sources.

I do not think so, we still have REaltor.com, Redfin, home.com, and hundreds of larger or individual websites who promote our listing. Removing Z. would not bother me at all. 

Dennis Swartz - indeed this will impact the exposure of the listings - as many buyers go to Zillow - whether we like it or not.

There are so many ways to get listings out on the Internet...Z is not the "be all end all" by far, even though consumers love it. Most consumers are looking multiple places anyhow. We got by just fine without Z before, thank you very much

With the false info that z puts out about listings, by not letting them have our listings we are watching out for our clients best interest

Our MLS gives each broker the choice but our listings are syndicated through our franchise and I feel like it is in my sellers' best interest to get them seen as many places as the buyers are looking.

Dennis Swartz  -The issue is not exposure to the websites, but the seller expectation. We all know that the vast majority of homes are sold via Broker coop in the MLS and not through third party websites. But sellers want to see their homes in these sites, so we give them what they want.

Our MLS just email us yesterday that they are cutting a deal with zillow, not sure if I am a fan of it.

Our MLS has done that years ago.  I was manually inputting them but Zillow gave me grief for my branded photos a couple days ago so now, to quote Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank... "They're dead to me."

After a local zillow premier agent claimed to be the "Exclusive Listing Agent" for one of MY LISTINGS I have zero desire to put things there.  I get almost zero leads and have only once come close to selling a house because it was on there.

ours continues to syndicate.... we are listing agents and we are fine with it.... we don't pay for buyers and we prefer they have their own buyer agents.... buy agents are taking it on the chin...big  time....

You can still syndicate to Zillow by using Realbird, Listing to Leads and any other number of syndicators if you so desire.

As listings drop off so will viewership of zillow, then they may come back and pay for that info.

the board has ruled

I imagine that your association membership or leadership had a role in this decision.