Zillow to bar publicly marketed listings not shared via MLS

Huh? Sellers can always sell to individuals without ever publically listing, and Sellers always have the option of (non-obviously) discriminating this way.

Hell, sellers can just tell people at their church group, madrasa, whatever that they’re thinking if selling.

It’s common for less economically minded sellers to pick a lower offer from someone they like, or have some personal connection with their story on, etc.

Even if listed publicly, they can pick and choose whatever buyer they want, as long as they don’t explicitly say they used a protected class as the justification for excluding someone.

Doing so would be a dumb unforced error (no one has to tell a buyer why they rejected their offer!), but I’m sure idiots do it all the time.

Anti-consumer, marketing homes to actual people instead of faceless corporations and investment arms (which have destroyed family housing) helps keep communities strong.

Why would it be anti-consumer though? An broken analog clock is right twice a day, and not letting there be a private market for the rich and well-connected is good for the individual realtor or firm that isn't well connected and is also good for consumers who aren't rich and well-connected. It means that property being sold get listed to a database that all consumers get access to, instead of conglomerates or large companies like Compass dominating the market with their private databases. it's like if there was a members only section of a store that sells specific things, and you have to know the right somebody to gain access to it. Regardless of the prices, the people running that corner of the store have advantages over the others, if they can generate demand for products only they can stock.

Only listing a house to buyers that can actually afford it and not having to waste time dealing people who need to get a mortgage with the bank who ultimately rejects the buyer. These aren't low end, low demand properties we're talking about. It makes it a "who you know" market, especially one where you don't want eg tabloids theorizing why you're selling the house. Eg if Beyonce was selling one of her mansions. The pool of qualified buyers for one of those it's a relatively short list, and the list of people she'd actually want to sell to is shorter still. in that kind of market, you don't need or want to publicly put it up for sale.

Can you explain more?