I love it when those employed or investing in the web or real estate 2.0 industry, supposedly with 100’s of high-tech options available to them, choose traditional methods to buy or sell a home. Their actions underline the importance of traditional marketing and the MLS.

Rich Barton, Chairman and CEO of Zillow has his home listed with Gordon Stephenson of RPA, and now Kristin Acker, VP, Product and Design at Zillow found her new home and is selling her present one with Gordon too.

Mr. Barton has been quoted saying “major change in home selling is inevitable over the next five years or so because “there’s an unsustainable disconnect” between the commissions charged by most agents and the value of their services.” But, I’m glad to see he’s paying a 2.5% commission on the sale of his $2.8M home.

When Zillow was first launched, Barton was more frank about his intentions, or perhaps his business model has changed or he’s got better handlers or PR, but now he’s claiming Zillow is just a media company and a partner with Realtors and not a competitor.

Since they just hired Greg Schwartz as Vice President, Advertising Sales, to Zillow, perhaps we’ll see some new features and advertising opportunities rolled out soon for Realtors, agents and brokers.