The Real Estate world is being shaken once again.  Just last week ListHub announced that it would no longer supply listing information to Trulia, which was recently purchased by Zillow.

This week Zillow has managed a court injunction prohibiting that action, at least for another week while both sides gather their cases.

For those unfamiliar with the names above, they are the two largest collectors of real estate listing data that is sold to other sites, and of course their own.  Since ListHub was purchased by Move (who is also affiliated with Realtor.com, this battle has been brewing.

What does it mean to you, the consumer?  That remains to be seen, and in part can change depending on the court actions.  There are good and bad in the processes.

Is this a good thing?  The information currently in question is owned by the MLS administrators, in turn governed by the rules of the Association of Realtors®.  The benefit to users is that the information must be kept current, accurate, and meet other guidelines.  This is how we protect you.

Can it be a bad thing?  One of the most frustrating things for someone looking for homes on the internet (or otherwise) is getting inaccurate and/or outdated information.  The number of times I’ve had to explain to a buyer why a home is not for sale when they found it on Zillow (or another web source).  This is one of the things that needs to be addressed.

We are not against competition!  Competition is a good thing, if for nothing else it forces the players to strive to be better.  We are against the taking of information (that we pay to get), then twisting or mismanaging it in such a way as to frustrate and confuse the public.

What are your thoughts?  We’d like to hear from you.  In the coming weeks we will post (and respond?) to your comments.  The comment box below is for your use.