Zillow and Redfin don't use the term "master bedroom" anymore & homeowners had to update their language.

Question

But for the “ordinary people with normal jobs” camp, the language absolutely changed and you had no say in it. You can check Zillow and Redfin right now- they do not have “master bedroom” anymore. Every homeowner had to update their language.

Answer 1

The term "master bedroom" has existed for a long time. Nowadays, housing platforms such as Zillow and Redfin have moved over to the phrase "primary bedroom". The term "master" was referred to as power. This made many individuals feel like they were in a lower class or a lower hierarchy. Master was also referred to as the head of a household and back in the day that would be associated with slavery. They felt that the "master bedroom" was contributing to the ongoing racial bias and discrimination in our society. This claim is correct, but it's very exaggerated. Overall removing the term master bedroom calls for a more inclusive environment in the house market.

https://realestate.usnews.com/real-estate/articles/what-should-you-call-a-master-bedroom-instead?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Answer 2

The included source in this claim links users to a tweet made by someone who also seems to claim that Zillow and Redfin no longer use the term "master bedroom." So, the source that you provided gave no help other than leading us to another claim on this topic. You also claimed that Zillow and Redfin do not have "master bedroom" as terminology on their websites; however, master bedroom does not appear to be a filter to look for when searching for a home. If you were to look up "master bedroom," you would find on Zillow that people post postings of their homes that use that in the descriptions of their houses. It is also a term that can be included in the interior description on the website. So, the website Zillow certainly still uses the term "master bedroom." After a prolonged search on Redfin, I was unable to find the use of the term "master bedroom" on the website. Looking back, your claim may be true as far as Redfin no longer uses the term, but Zillow still does, and both can have the term used in descriptions from its sellers; it is not like the term is banned from their websites. The term "master bedroom" may just be out of fashion for some of these listing websites. Below is a link that shows a listing where Zillow uses the term "master bedroom."

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1440-Long-Island-Dr-Eugene-OR-97401/48443130_zpid/

Answer 3

This claim can be seen to be exaggerated. First looking at the source, the information on BlueSky does not have any sources or citations under the claim. The author also has no credibility. They do have a couple hundred followers but no information in their bio that suggests that they have credibility on the subject that they are talking about.

Looking at both Zillow and Redfin, they still use the term master bedroom and they also use the term primary bedroom. While looking at Zillow in one of the descriptions, they say master bedroom while Redfin says primary bedroom. With this information found, it can be said that the claim is false for Zillow, but there would need to be more research done to see if any other Redfin listings say primary bedroom. Also in the terms in conditions of Zillow and Redfin, there is no rule that says that you need to use the term "primary" over "master" so it is up to the realtor on what they want to use.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/316-5th-St-Manhattan-Beach-CA-90266/20422802_zpid/

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Manhattan-Beach/1820-9th-St-90266/home/194945373

https://www.redfin.com/about/terms-of-use

https://www.zillow.com/z/corp/terms/

Answer 4

There is no official "ban" on the term master bedroom on any real-estate platform, however, many platforms are looking to stray away from that term and encourage using other names instead. Some other ways of saying master bedroom include, "primary bedroom" or "owner’s suite." The reason why people are trying to use alternative names is due to the history of the original term and it's ties to racism. The word master typically refered to a male figure in a house who had power and ruled over the others in the house. The term was first used in 1926 in a Sears catalog. 

So it is true that people are trying to change the term and replace it with something more inclusive, however it is not officially banned on any online platform. 

https://www.homebeautiful.com.au/bedroom-ideas/main-or-master-bedroom-history/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/realestate/master-bedroom-change.html

Answer 5

This claim is almost accurate. It’s true that Redfin and Zillow are trying to phase out the term, "master bedroom" and now use the term "primary bedroom." This shift started in 2020, when both companies updated their language because of the conversations about DEI and gender neutral terms in real estate. However, the statement that "every homeowner had to update their language is not true. It was never required for homeowners to change anything. 

Trusted Sources: 

Redfin Blog (2020)

New York Times (2020)

Answer 6

This claim was posted by a user on BlueSky who was responding to another user expressing there's no social pressure for companies to abandon the term "master bedroom." This user's response states that every homeowner, specifically on Zillow and Redfin, has had to update the language on their listings to exclude the phrase. From reading a New York Times article on this, the exact origins of the term seem to be "unclear", but is likely referring to the word "master" being used amidst slavery in the US pre-Civil War. They point out how the Real Estate Standards Organization has urged its members, including those on Zillow, to update this expression for inclusivity reasons. Despite this, when you search specifically for a "master bedroom" on Zillow, that keyword shows up on many listings (I've attached one below). Redfin doesn't have this type of search feature accessible, but from the many searches I did, I didn't find the term used once -- instead "primary bedroom". Ultimately, it appears that most sites have made this update or have encouraged users to -- but this leads this claim to be misleading since Zillow (which the user identified) has not done this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/realestate/master-bedroom-change.html

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2540-Cubit-St-Eugene-OR-97402/48450731_zpid/

Answer 7

The claim that this BlueSky user, Michael Aloysius, made is partially false but mostly true. Firstly, I noticed that this user did not back his claim with evidence, which would have been helpful for his case. So, instead, I did some quick research to find out if this claim is true! My initial step was to find out why using the term “master bedroom” was an issue in the first place because before doing a simple internet search, I did not realize the depth to which this term is problematic. In this article, https://ypn.realtor/the-lounge/terms-to-avoid-master-suite/ I discovered that this term was removed from most real estate vocabulary because it is tied to historical associations with slavery and male dominance which can be very triggering for some. So yes, for the most part, Zillow and Redfin have removed this term from its site when looking at the details of a home, for example instead of “Master Bedroom” it is referred to as the “Primary Room” or “Main Room”. However, I noticed that the homeowners are still capable of keeping this terminology in the main description of their home. For instance, this home listed on Zillow has the words “Master Bedroom” shown on it. https://www.zillow.com/b/immaculate-unit-with-two-master-bedrooms!-redmond-or-9VRZh2/

I will say, after searching in the main search bar on Zillow the keyword “Master Bedroom” a few houses pop up for me to click on. However, after reading up on them, the keyword is mentioned nowhere on the house listing. The only one I found that does still have this term kept in the description is in the link I have above. In conclusion, this user has mostly factual information, but should probably fact-check a bit better so that others can see a more thorough explanation of why this is the case this term was mostly removed from both Zillow and Redfin. 

Answer 8

This claim is partly wrong. A search on both Redfin and Zillow shows that the term "master bedroom" is still used on Zillow. The listing linked below is an active example of that. Redfin doesn’t use that term, it uses other ones. Instead, it just lets you filter by the number of bedrooms, not by the type of bedrooms. This means that the claim is false for Zillow but for Redfin, it’s unclear because the site doesn’t use that kind of wording in its search options. It may be a technical difference, but my research would show that this claim is partially false. Also linked below is a link to Redfin, where you can see that it only searches by the amount of bedrooms. This could support the claim, showing that they do not use the words "master bedroom," but it could just be a coincidence. 

 https://www.zillow.com/b/immaculate-unit-with-two-master-bedrooms!-redmond-or-9VRZh2/

https://www.redfin.com/?gclsrc=aw.ds&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=1024362&utm_term=kwd-844252101&utm_content=456331167539&adgid=112201380648&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADirq3vxSw8DazvCqjlOmKg1gCXdd&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqv2_BhC0ARIsAFb5Ac9B_aL7v5f3eFc2KHAZO-qEA3jlUa6Azr00ZHmkqIlmnSVDDk7UwqEaAtPiEALw_wcB

Answer 9

The source from the post is not from Zillow or Redfin, they got this information from BlueSky which is another platform where anyone can post their thoughts like twitter. When I did a search on Zillow, there are still listing that include the terminology "master bedroom", meaning that listings still use this term. Although because of the connotation that "master bedroom" has, the CNN article, "Everyday words and phrases that have racist connotations" by Scottie Andrew and Harmeet Kaur, stated that, "[n]ow, because of its slavery-era connotations, some members of the real estate industry are now calling to retire the term “master.”"(Andrew, Kaur). Although this could support a decline in the usage, the fact that was stated, that the term is no longer used, is incorrect since it is still used. I also searched up Redfin, and in a Redfin blog about their houses, UnReal Estate of the Week: Master Bedrooms, they still use the term "master bedroom" in their title and throughout the article. Although the poster, zenyogi has a history of News Detective, and has a lot of up votes, and is ranked #1, they still have a good amount of down votes, meaning they may not always be correct in their facts they post, like this one. 

https://www.zillow.com/

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/06/us/racism-words-phrases-slavery-trnd/index.html#:~:text=Nationally%2C%2042%25%20of%20current%20property,bedroom%20with%20a%20private%20bathroom.&text=%E2%80%9CMaster%20bedrooms%E2%80%9D%20were%20more%20widely,the%20use%20of%20the%20term.

https://www.redfin.com/blog/unreal-estate-of-the-week-master-bedrooms/

Answer 10

This claim is mostly true. From what I found when searching on Zillow and Redfin under their "property details" tab, the term "master bedroom" is nowhere to be found. For Redfin, bedrooms are already listed by number with no defining terms such as "guest" or "master" bedrooms. Zillow has changed the term to "primary bedroom," but that was just under some of the homes listed in Eugene. Some properties still use the word master bedroom. 

CBS News published an article titled, "Some realtors are no longer using "master" to describe bedrooms and bathrooms," in June 2020. This article talks about how some groups are starting to stray away from the term, "master," as it can be seen as sexist and racist. It mentions how some platforms have elected to change the term to, "Primary Bedroom."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/realtors-master-bedroom-bathroom-terminology/

All in all, it is true, that many online listing sites have elected to push a more neutral term like primary to describe the largest bedroom and bathroom in a home, but the use of the term still varies depending on the agent or listing of the home.