I’ve noticed many houses that appear on a local MLS, but not on Zip Realty–and vice versa. Also, Realtor.com seems to have an extremely poor update rate, and I find it hard to use since so many homes appear multiple times. Zip’s site also has some multiple listings, but as a consumer, I find it to be the best site for information on available homes. The price history is priceless, as is DOM–which was removed from my local MLS.
I’d never thought to ascribe this to realtor manipulation, but assumed it had something to do with how the databases are cross-referenced (or the lack thereof). I find the multiple database theory much more likely than widespread online manipulation by a group, who with some exceptions, cannot seem to figure out the nuance of their spell checkers.
