Portals’ 3D Turf War Is Causing Tours to Disappear — Here’s How to Protect Your Listing Media

If you’re an agent, photographer or listing vendor, you already know how powerful 3D tours are: they drive engagement, reduce time on market, and help buyers feel immersed. Now imagine you upload a beautiful 3D virtual tour, only to have it vanish from the portal your listing depends on. That’s what’s happening right now.

We’re in the next phase of the real-estate portal war — the same one where CoStar Group (owner of Homes.com, Apartments.com and, via acquisition, Matterport) and Zillow (and its marketplace brands) clash over data, photos, listings and audience. It’s just moved from still photos and listing feeds into immersive media.

CoStar acquired Matterport in 2024 and signalled a tighter control over 3D “spaces” and virtual tours, especially when those tours were captured or hosted as part of their marketplace business. On the flip side, Zillow is arguing that portals should be open, that agents and photographers should be able to distribute tours widely – and that locking out portals hurts the listing community.

For example: On October 20, 2025, Zillow removed hundreds of Matterport tours from listings, citing CoStar’s changed licensing terms as the reason. Some MLSs even told their members to remove tours and faced confusion over whether they’d be fined.

So yes – your tours can disappear, not because of a software glitch, but because of strategic platform gatekeeping.

What each side is saying

CoStar’s position

• “We make big investments in our media platforms, including Matterport. If we pay for capture or host it via our marketplace, we need to protect the asset and we won’t let a competitor portal benefit.”

• They emphasise that if the tour was commissioned, captured, or hosted under CoStar’s marketplace program, then that content is not freely distributable to competing portals.

• CoStar claims the confusion here is not on their part—that many of the removed tours were actually theirs to begin with and Zillow is mis-framing the conversation.

• The upshot: if the tour is “CoStar-sourced,” agents and photographers may face restrictions or removal from rival portals.

Zillow’s position

• “Portals should be open. Agents & photographers paid for these tours; they should be able to distribute them. Restricting tours hurts listing visibility and harms our mutual customers.”

• Zillow says the monopoly/control over 3D tours by CoStar is anti-competitive in practice.

• While Zillow themselves favour their own 3D format (Zillow 3D Home) on their site, they argue CoStar’s move is worse because it restricts already-existing content from being shown.

• Zillow has thus removed or “stranded” Matterport tours on its site rather than risk licensing violations.

What this means for real estate agents

• Confirm with your photographer: Who owns the 3D tour? Was it commissioned via a portal-program (e.g., co-branded with Homes.com) or did you hire a photographer who bought the equipment and captured it under your direction?

• Specify in your listing instructions: “We require 3D tour that can be published on all major portals (Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com).”

• After capture, verify the tour appears correctly on every portal you care about. Don’t wait weeks to find out it’s missing.

• If the tour disappears from a key portal (e.g., Zillow), don’t assume it’s a glitch—ask your vendor/photographer: was this a licensing/portal-gate issue?

• Consider offering two parallel 3D options: one for Zillow (Zillow 3D Home) and one for other portals, so you aren’t locked out.

Practical Steps to Safeguard Your Listing Media

1. Know who controls your 3D content
   Before scheduling a shoot, ask your vendor who owns and hosts the 3D tour. With portal-owned systems like Matterport (now owned by CoStar) or Zillow 3D Home, access and display rights can change overnight depending on corporate decisions.

2. Choose independent, open-access hosting
   At HomeJab, we intentionally use our own virtual tour software—not Matterport or Zillow 3D—as our default platform. Why? Because independence protects you.

   • Your tour is hosted for free, forever.

   • You own the usage rights to the tour, not a portal or parent company.

   • You can embed or share it anywhere—on any MLS, website, or social platform—without risk of takedown.

   • It will never disappear due to a licensing dispute between large portals.

3. Use Matterport or Zillow 3D only when needed
   We’ll absolutely shoot with Matterport or Zillow 3D if you specifically request it, but we recommend doing so only when a portal requires it. This keeps you compliant without locking your entire media package inside a single ecosystem.

4. Maintain your own copy and links
   Always keep a copy of your hosted tour link in your records, and embed it on your personal website, listing page, or social posts. Even if a portal removes it, your clients and leads will still have access.

5. Verify visibility post-launch
   Once your listing goes live, check every major portal (Zillow, Homes.com, Realtor.com) to make sure your tour is displaying correctly. If it’s missing, contact your media provider and confirm whether the issue is platform-related or policy-related.

The Bottom Line

The recent 3D turf war between CoStar and Zillow shows how fragile portal-hosted media can be. When billion-dollar companies fight, it’s the agents, photographers, and homeowners who lose visibility.

That’s why HomeJab takes a different approach. We believe your media should be independent, permanent, and portable. Our virtual tours are hosted outside of the portal ecosystem, always online, and always yours.

If you ever need a Matterport or Zillow 3D tour, we’ll provide it—but by default, we deliver a reliable, neutral solution designed to keep your listings visible everywhere, not tied to one company’s walled garden.

In short:

• No disappearing tours.

• No locked-in platforms.

• No corporate conflicts—just beautiful, lasting property marketing that you control.