Realtor.com+ is free. Read the fine print.

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By Kasey Jorgenson, designated broker, Jorgenson Real Estate · October 12, 2026

The short version: Realtor.com+ is a free co-branded search app from Move, Inc., offered through CTXMLS and Unlock MLS. Its privacy notice gives invited “Connected Clients” real protections, but only inside Realtor.com+ and only if the agent provided their info. The agent terms give Move a perpetual license to everything entered (chat included), say it isn’t confidential, and let Move change the terms alone. My advice: skip it; it adds little beyond what the MLS already provides. If you use it, keep confidential details out of the chat and invite signed clients individually.

Both of our MLSs - CTXMLS and Unlock MLS - now offer Realtor.com+ as a free member benefit. It’s a co-branded home search app you share with your buyers. You see what they’re looking at, you chat, you plan tours. Pretty slick, honestly.

My gut said “free app from a portal that sells leads... what’s the catch?” So I did the boring thing and read the actual terms. Turns out my gut was about half right. Here’s what the documents say, what’s genuinely good, what I’d be careful with, and what I asked our MLSs.

First, who’s behind it

Realtor.com is run by Move, Inc., a for-profit company that’s mostly owned by News Corp. It uses the Realtor.com name under a long-running license from NAR, but NAR doesn’t run the site. Move bought Zenlist, a collaborative home search app, in July 2025, and launched Realtor.com+ through MLSs in January 2026. It’s live in 21 markets now, and Unlock MLS is the newest one to add it.

Realtor.com told Inman at launch that Realtor.com+ isn’t a lead product. Fair enough. It’s also not a brokerage, which I appreciate. But when Unlock announced it, Unlock’s CEO put the value this way: Realtor.com brings top-of-funnel search behavior and Unlock brings verified transaction data. That’s a big part of why I wanted to read the fine print. Your buyers’ search behavior is the valuable part.

The good part (and it’s real)

Move’s privacy notice has a section just for Realtor.com+ clients, and it’s better than what most portals offer. While a client counts as a “Connected Client,” Move says it won’t:

• use their personal info to market agent lead-generation products to them, or
• sell or share their personal info with third parties, except as needed to run Realtor.com+.

To count as a Connected Client, all three of these have to be true:

• you (the agent) gave Realtor.com+ their contact info,
• they created an account, and
• they accepted your invite and are actively using Realtor.com+ while linked to you.

That’s a genuine protection, and somebody at Move clearly thought about it. Credit where it’s due.

Where the protection stops

The limits apply only to what happens inside Realtor.com+. The privacy notice spells it out: if your client has Realtor.com+ open in one tab and regular realtor.com open in another, the regular site is under the regular rules. And the regular rules are a lot looser. Under the general privacy notice, Move can share personal data with:

• other News Corp companies, which can use it for their own purposes, including marketing,
• third parties for their own commercial or marketing purposes, like targeted ads,
• NAR and its affiliates, and
• anyone, in de-identified or aggregated form.

Two things I couldn’t answer from the documents alone:

• Affiliates. The Connected Client promise says “third parties.” It doesn’t clearly say whether other News Corp companies count as third parties.
• The new Public Invite Link. Realtor.com is now pitching a shareable link for “passive” browsers. If someone signs up through a public link, you didn’t provide their contact info - so read literally, they may not meet the first condition above. I don’t know that for sure. I asked.

What the agent terms say about you

When you use Realtor.com+, you’re agreeing to Move’s standard terms (the version I read is dated August 3, 2026). The parts worth knowing:

• Section 2: you give Move and its affiliates a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, copy, modify, distribute and make derivative works of your “Content.” Content is defined to include chat content and anything you put into the app.
• Section 3(b): you acknowledge your Content isn’t confidential.
• Section 8: Move can change the terms at its sole discretion, effective when it notifies you.
• Section 11: you indemnify Move, including for privacy-violation claims.
• Section 13: Move’s total liability to you is capped at what you paid it in the prior 12 months. Realtor.com+ is free. You can do that math.
• Section 26 (Realtor.com+ only): you promise you have the telemarketing-law consents for every client you enter, and you indemnify Move if you don’t. Chat has to be about buying or selling a home. And Move says it’ll follow its privacy notice for your clients’ contact info.

None of that is unusual for a free tech product. It’s just worth knowing that the chat with your buyer about their max price isn’t confidential under these terms - and that you’re the one on the hook if a client complains. (More on why your client data matters in who owns your CRM data.)

What I asked our MLSs

I sent these questions to both CTXMLS and Unlock MLS:

1. What data does the MLS send Move beyond standard listing data?
2. Is the MLS paid, or does it get anything else of value?
3. Can Move use client activity, even aggregated, outside Realtor.com+?
4. Do Public Invite Link signups get the Connected Client protections?
5. What happens to client data and chats when an agent leaves, or the MLS ends the deal?
6. Can the MLS influence changes to the terms, or can Move change them alone?
7. Will the MLS share the data-related parts of its agreement with brokers?

These are fair questions, not accusations. Our MLSs work hard for us, and I expect straight answers. I’ll update this post when I hear back.

My advice: skip it

The bigger thing for me is the client experience. I don’t want my clients’ home search - and my conversations with them - living inside an app run by a company whose business is selling to agents. It just doesn’t pass the sniff test.

I also made an account to see what it actually gives you. Honestly? Underwhelming. Your MLS already gives you search, saved searches and client alerts. And at JRE, our agents keep texting clients from their own phones like normal, and every client conversation still lands in one place in our own CRM. No extra app for your client, and nobody else in the middle.

That’s my advice to JRE agents. If you use it anyway, at least:

• Keep anything confidential out of the chat. No price ceilings, motivation, finances or deadlines. That stuff goes in a phone call or our own systems.
• Invite signed buyer-rep clients only, one at a time. Skip the Public Invite Link.
• Tell your clients the app is run by Realtor.com, and that browsing regular realtor.com isn’t covered by the same protections.

And the bigger point: at JRE, the tools that hold your client relationships are ours. Our CRM is ours. Our client portal, JRE Homestead, is ours - your past clients’ home records, papers and alerts live with JRE and you, and we never sell that information. We’re building our own home search on jorgensonrealestate.com too. Free tools from someone else can be handy... but the stuff that actually matters to your business should live somewhere you control.

That’s the job, honestly. I read the fine print so our agents don’t have to.

This is a broker’s read of public documents, not legal advice. Terms change (Section 8 says so), so read the current versions yourself, and talk to your own attorney if you’re making a big decision on them.

General information, not legal advice. TREC says I can’t practice law, and I like my license. Run your specific situation past your broker or a real estate attorney.

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