Google went national. Arizona isn't in it.

On June 11, Google took its home-listing search nationwide. What was an eight-market pilot is now open across all 50 states: on a phone, a buyer searching for homes can see listings with photos, price, beds and baths, and a button to contact the agent — without ever leaving Google.

It's real, it's mobile-only for now, and here's the part that surprised me: it's free. Listing brokers and agents get prominent attribution at no cost beyond existing MLS fees. Normally you pay Google for that kind of placement. Here, participating listings are surfaced automatically.

So the obvious question for a Phoenix agent: are your listings in it?

I pulled up the live participating-MLS list. There are four: Bright MLS, California Regional MLS, My State MLS, and San Diego MLS.

No Arizona MLS. Not ARMLS, not anyone else in this state.

That's the honest status. The thing I told you was coming back in May is now genuinely here — and Arizona is standing outside of it.

In June I wrote that the single most important question about this program was the one nobody would answer: when a buyer finds your listing on Google, who gets the lead — you, or the vendor's pipeline? I asked. The marketing carefully avoided it.

It's answered now, in plain language on HouseCanary's own program page. The listing carries the broker's and the agent's attribution, and there's a click-to-contact button on every listing — the buyer taps your name and connects directly with you. At no cost. And no commission: HouseCanary's own executive has pointed out that Google isn't a licensed brokerage, so it has no entitlement to one.

A few more answers worth having, since these are the fears I keep hearing in the office:

Your listing data isn't being fed to Gemini — HouseCanary says it's contractually barred from going into any large language model for training. Participation is a brokerage-level choice: depending on your MLS's rules, brokerages can opt in or opt out of the feed. Active listings qualify, some pre-market ones do too; commercial, rental and land generally don't.

So on the merits, this program is better than I expected it to be in June. The lead comes to you, with your name on it, for nothing.

Which is exactly why what I found next bothered me.

On that same page, right under the participating-MLS list, there's a section headed "Want your listings live today?" It tells you that if you'd rather not wait for your MLS, you can sign up with My State MLS — the nationwide MLS that already participates — and your listings become eligible right away.

I clicked it, the way I'd want any of you to click it: to see where it actually goes.

It goes to a tracked referral link. The URL carries a referral code and a campaign tag. And at the very bottom of that page, in the fine print under the FAQs, is this: HouseCanary may receive compensation from participating MLS organizations and third parties in connection with memberships generated through its programs.

That's disclosed. It's legal. And it's in a footnote almost nobody will read while they're being told the window is closing.

Then I went one level further, into My State MLS's own affiliate program — and this is the part I want every agent in Arizona to understand before somebody in your office pitches you.

Affiliates get paid when they refer people who buy a My State MLS membership. They also get paid on sales made by the affiliates who signed up under them. Their own brochure lays out the structure:

I'm going to be careful with my words, because this is a disclosed, legal referral program and I'm not calling it anything else. But I'll describe plainly what it is: a recruitment-based compensation plan, six levels deep, sitting underneath a "get on Google" pitch.

And full disclosure, because it's the whole point: I clicked the affiliate button myself, to see what would happen. I am now an affiliate with my own referral code. It took one click and cost nothing. I'm not going to use it, and you will never see a referral link from me in this newsletter. I'm telling you because that is how easy it is to become someone with a financial interest in your decision — which means a lot of people who are "just sharing something great" have one.

Membership runs $50 a month, or $420 a year. Somebody earns 20% of that. Somebody above them earns 10%. And so on, six deep.

HouseCanary has an "Express Interest" form on that same page, and they're explicit about why it exists: when they bring an MLS a list of that MLS's own brokers and agents who have said they want in, the MLS has a concrete reason to participate. It's their lobbying mechanism, and they say so out loud.

Which means the lever on ARMLS isn't waiting. It's Arizona agents raising their hands. Two minutes, name and license number. No purchase, no membership, no commitment.

I'd also send one email to ARMLS and simply ask: are we evaluating the HouseCanary and Google listings program, and if not, why not? Four MLSs are already in. Bright joined in June. It's a fair question, and members are entitled to ask it.

And if you're still tempted by the "don't wait, just join My State MLS" route — go in with clear eyes. The listing funnel it gives you is genuinely useful, and I said so in June. Just know that the person recommending it to you may be earning a percentage of your $420, and so may their sponsor. Ask them directly. A straight answer is a good sign.

Have you gotten the "join this MLS and get on Google" pitch from someone in your office? I'd like to know who's pitching it, what they told you — and whether they mentioned getting paid. Hit reply. I read every response.