News of the Zillow-Trulia merger hit the real estate world last week like Chris Farleydoing a cannonball. The $3.5 billion deal will bring together the two largest real estate web portals, who together with their partner networks account for more than 70 percent of all real estate-related Internet traffic.

Thought the deal is not expected to close until 2015, the ripple effects will be deeply felt. According to figures from web data tracker ComScore, the two sites’ combined traffic in June was nearly triple that of third-ranked Realtor.com, which is operated by Move Inc. The play is an avowed attempt to monopolize consumer-facing real estate web space, much in the way that InterActiveCorp (IAC) has acquired a suite of the most popular online dating services, including Match.com and Tinder, Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff told investors and analysts in a conference call announcing the deal.

That’s precisely what worries some in the industry.

“We are concerned that this merger could provide fewer choices to consumers and lead to higher advertising costs for Realtors and their clients,” said 2014 Massachusetts Association of Realtors President Peter Ruffini, regional vice president at Jack Conway & Co., in a statement.

Many real estate agents have bitterly resented the two sites for a long time, feeling that they are forced to advertise on them to in order to acquire leads generated by the agent’s own hard-won listings. Many online commentators renewed calls for agents and brokers to pull their listings from the site. But though a scattered handful of brokers and MLSs across the country have taken that step in recent years, there has been little indication that a substantial number will follow.

Instead, over the past 18 months, both portals have pushed hard to acquire direct feeds from brokers and MLSs, ensuring their listings data will be fresher and more accurate. Their efforts have met with some success, with both sites signing deals with hundreds of brokers. Rascoff said on the call that that push would continue, and seemed confident that the two portals command sufficient attention from consumers that few brokers would dare to abstain from the sites.

“It ought to be quite clear to a listing agent or their broker that it behooves their seller to have their listing on Zillow or Trulia. It’s almost inexplicable to me how a listing agent could say to their seller that their listing is not on these websites, and I think that increasingly, the industry has reached that conclusion – that the client is the seller, and it benefits the seller to be on these websites,” Rascoff said.

Some Predict Rain; Others Look On The Sunny Side

That the sites have gained such a powerful position in relation to the industry provoked a burst of doom and gloom from some online commentators, with Inman News founder Brad Inman writing that the deal was “checkmate” in the chess game between brokers and the portals, while pot-stirring blogger and consultant Rob Hanh declared that the “syndication wars” were over, noting that various industry efforts to provide an alternative to the portals have been underway for months and are not yet off the ground, while the Zillow-Trulia deal was negotiated in a mere six weeks.

Many local agents were more sanguine about the prospect of the merger.

“For a small independent [broker], I have a large advertising budget with Zillow and Trulia,” said MaryBeth Mills Muldowney, president of TradeWinds Realty Group in Norwell. “I have had mixed emotions about the impact of Zillow buying Trulia. One thought process is they will be stronger and bigger and produce more leads, [but] once they become the combined prime player, my bargaining power as an advertiser is muted.” However, she still finds the sites of value to her agents.

“I think if they do try to [create a monopoly], somebody else will pop up with an alternative – I’m actually glad this is happening, because I feel like I won’t have to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ and spend money with both Zillow and Trulia,” said Bill Kuhlman, broker/owner of Kuhlman Residential Real Estate in Needham.

Email: csullivan@thewarrengroup.com