Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Sometimes it’s worth a thousand lawsuits, a few panicked earnings calls, and at least one executive quietly Googling, “Can Google legally do this?”
Welcome to late 2025, where Google — the company that already knows where you live, what you searched before you bought your last couch, and why you’re suddenly obsessed with air fryers — appears to be flirting with the idea of becoming a real estate portal.
Not loudly.
Not officially.
Just enough to make everyone uncomfortable.
And if history has taught us anything, it’s that when Google runs “a small test,” entire industries should probably sit down.
The Moment Everyone Pretended Wasn’t Happening
At first glance, it looks innocuous. Almost boring.
You search for homes.
You get listings.
You tap on one.
There’s a full property detail page.
You can request a tour.
You can contact an agent.
No big deal, right?
Except… that’s literally the entire business model of real estate portals.
And now those core functions are showing up directly inside Google Search results.
Not behind a link.
Not through an ad.
Not after scrolling past three pop-ups and a mortgage calculator.
Right there.
If you’re Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, or any portal executive who has ever said the phrase “Google is just a traffic source,” this is the moment where the room gets very quiet.
“It’s Just a Test” — The Most Dangerous Sentence in Tech
Let’s get this out of the way: yes, this appears to be a test.
It’s live in a limited number of markets.
It’s mobile-only.
It’s not universally available.
And Google, as always, is maintaining plausible deniability.
But here’s the thing about Google tests:
They are rarely about curiosity.
They’re about leverage.
Google doesn’t test because it’s unsure whether something works. It tests to see how much disruption it can introduce before someone screams.
And judging by the lack of immediate public outrage, this test is going extremely well.
What’s Actually Included (And Why That Matters)
Let’s talk about what Google is quietly rolling out:
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Full property detail pages
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Photos
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Pricing
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Property information
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Links to request a tour
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Links to contact an agent
In other words, everything a buyer actually needs before choosing whether to visit a portal.
Which raises an uncomfortable question:
What happens when users don’t feel the need to click out anymore?
Because Google has spent the last decade perfecting one thing above all else:
keeping users inside Google.
Search, maps, flights, hotels, restaurants — every vertical eventually learns the same lesson.
Traffic flows in.
Value flows out.
Google stays.
“Not Supplied or Sponsored” Is Doing a Lot of Work Here
According to current disclosures, these property results are “not supplied or sponsored by listing agents or brokers.”
Translation:
This isn’t an IDX feed.
This isn’t a paid placement.
This isn’t a listing portal playing by the traditional rules.
Instead, this appears to be a partnership with ComeHome by HouseCanary, which immediately adds another layer of intrigue.
HouseCanary already lives in the data world — valuations, analytics, predictive modeling. They’re not a consumer portal. They’re infrastructure.
Which makes them the perfect partner for Google.
Because Google doesn’t want to be a portal.
Google wants to be the place where portals become optional.
The Portal Industry’s Favorite Illusion
For years, portals have told themselves a comforting story:
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Google drives traffic
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Portals monetize traffic
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Everyone wins
And for a while, that was true.
But Google’s entire business history suggests a different arc:
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Dependence
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Integration
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Replacement
Just ask:
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Travel sites
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Price comparison engines
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Review platforms
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Media publishers
The pattern is always the same.
Google doesn’t announce a war.
It simply stops needing you.
The Real Threat Isn’t Listings — It’s Behavior
This isn’t about Google owning listings.
This is about Google owning intent.
If the first meaningful interaction a buyer has with a property happens inside Google, then Google controls:
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The order of exposure
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The framing of value
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The decision funnel
Once that happens, portals aren’t competitors anymore.
They’re optional downstream utilities.
And optional utilities don’t command premium valuations.
Exclusive Listings Just Got Awkward
Now let’s talk about exclusivity — the holy grail of portal differentiation.
Exclusive listings have long been pitched as protection against commoditization. If you can’t get the listing anywhere else, you control the consumer.
But what happens if Google’s property data doesn’t rely on agent-supplied feeds?
What happens if “exclusive” no longer means invisible?
Because exclusivity only works when distribution is scarce.
Google specializes in eliminating scarcity.
Agents: This Is Not About You (But It Will Affect You)
Right now, agents might shrug this off.
After all:
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Leads still matter
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Relationships still matter
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Local expertise still matters
And all of that is true.
But agents should pay attention to who controls first contact.
If Google becomes the first stop — even informally — agents may find themselves negotiating visibility inside an ecosystem they don’t control.
Which is… familiar.
Ask any small business that now lives and dies by Google Maps rankings how that worked out.
The AI Angle Everyone Is Underestimating
This story gets more interesting when you add AI to the mix.
Because Google isn’t just indexing listings.
It’s training models.
Imagine a future where:
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Buyers ask natural-language questions
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Google surfaces properties directly
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Recommendations adapt in real time
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Human portals become one option among many
At that point, the interface matters less than the intelligence.
And Google has never been shy about replacing interfaces with answers.
International Expansion Is the Silent Elephant
U.S. real estate portals often assume their moat is domestic complexity.
MLS fragmentation.
Regulatory nuance.
Cultural quirks.
But Google doesn’t think in borders.
If this model works in a handful of U.S. markets, it becomes infinitely more interesting internationally — especially in regions where portal dominance is weaker or more fragmented.
The global implications dwarf the local panic.
Why Google Doesn’t Need to “Win”
Here’s the most unsettling part:
Google doesn’t need to crush portals.
It just needs to reshape expectations.
If consumers start expecting property information to appear instantly in search — cleanly, visually, without friction — then portals are forced to justify their existence every single click.
That’s not competition.
That’s gravitational pressure.
The Market Reaction Will Be Subtle — Until It Isn’t
There will be no dramatic announcement.
No splashy keynote.
No “Google Real Estate” logo.
Instead, there will be:
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Slight drops in referral traffic
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Higher customer acquisition costs
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More paid placement pressure
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More “strategic partnerships”
Until one day, someone looks at a chart and realizes the slope changed two years ago.
Everyone Is Calm Because Everyone Is Afraid to Blink
Right now, the industry response is polite curiosity.
Let’s wait and see.
Let’s not overreact.
It’s probably nothing.
That’s usually how disruption starts.
Because reacting early feels embarrassing.
Reacting late feels inevitable.
The Bottom Line
There are enormous implications here — for portals, for listings, for agents, for AI-driven discovery, and for global real estate distribution.
But for now, it’s all still speculation.
A test.
A quiet rollout.
A few screenshots.
And yet, history suggests that when Google casually steps into a vertical, it’s not sightseeing.
It’s measuring.
So yes — let’s wait and see how this plays out.
But if you thought 2025 was interesting, 2026 is shaping up to be a full-contact sport.
And Google just walked onto the field without putting on a jersey.