About 15 percent of residential sales in the US are managed without a realtor. A homeowner is perfectly free to sell a house without one (such listings are gene

About 15 percent of residential sales in the US are managed without a realtor. A homeowner is perfectly free to sell a house without one (such listings are generally referred to as FSBO, for sale by owner). A FSBO doesn't get access to MLS listings or any other promotional effort a realtor might provide, but also they don't pay any commission. So Zillow is free to act as an intermediary on whatever terms are acceptable to the parties involved. On the other hand, Zillow's ability to act as an intermediary is greatly enhanced by access to MLS data. So if the NAR pulled Zillow's access to the MLS, a buyer would have a much harder time searching for houses to buy without a realtor.