Zillow Again

I'm not sure how much John Q. Public knows about Zillow.com, but in the real estate blogging community another Zillow hullabaloo has arisen.  When I last checked Technorati tags for Zillow there were 740 entries with Zillow tags!  Zillow went live in February and the real estate blogosphere went nuts.  Things had quieted until last week when Zillow announced three new "features" or "traps" depending on whether you're an optimist or pessimist!  The 3 features are:

• Agents or unrepresented sellers can list their homes for free on the Zillow.com site.  Other sites already exist for agents or consumers to list homes.  There is REALTOR.com, Trulia, Oodle, e-Bay, Craig's list, and many others.  Agents and sellers can now add Zillow to the list.  This feature may be attractive to sellers without agents since they are not listed on the MLS.  The more internet exposure the better.
• The "Make Me Move" feature is attractive to me.  Would I move if someone offered me a million dollars for my $200,000 home?  Let's see, would I?  Could I find another Victorian to fix up in a neighborhood like mine?  Would the extra money be worth it?  I'm not sure.  I'm pretty happy where I am, but Zillow has dangled the carrot to those who want to speculate.
• Wikis have been added.  That's right, Wikis.  The public can now write about their neighborhood or their town, just like on Wikipedia.

One of the concerns by agents is that Zillow's home value "zestimates" have proven to be quite inaccurate.  Placing a listing on Zillow with a good comparative price next to an inaccurate "zestimate" created confusion for the public.  Who is one to believe?  Is Zillow right (at a sometimes lower price) or is the listing agent or owner right?  Why should the buyer offer more if the "zestimate" is several thousand less?  The consumer may not realize the "zestimate" is created by algorithms on a machine, not true analysis of the specific home by a live professional!

The next question being asked by agents is whether Zillow wants to be the "go to" place for real estate and that their ultimate business goal is to charge for these services in the future.  Do they plan to be a national listing service?  Agents are asking if, or when, the other shoe will drop.  Most people believe TANFL ("There ain't no free lunch.") and that Zillow has an ulterior motive even though they currently deny this accusation.  Time is the great revealer for answers to this question.

As far as the "Make Me Move" option, it sound like fun and is a creative way to lure people in.  The Wikis also will be a great added feature.  Consumers are always looking for more info.  The value of that info will depend on the accuracy of the person creating the content.  Once again, only time will tell whether this feature will retain high standards of excellence.

Although some agents are worried about their jobs being eliminated because of the internet exposure, I think this is a bit far fetched unless, of course, the agent is not internet savvy.  If that's the case, I think I'd start packing my bags and look for a new career, because the internet and all its innovations is definitely here to stay!

 

Comments

[Larry Cragun]

They have a reputation in our home town of being intensly competitive and people who play to win. With the huge amount of money. They took a large amount of money from VC's. Therefore, they have a large value to build to provide a multiple that is a commonly expected return. Look for them to seek to be the central mls.

[Bonnie Erickson]

Larry, I've been avoiding that big word, disintermediation, as I think a good share of the consumer population doesn't know what it means, but also would agree with the concept. I guess I'll have to write something on it soon. Only time will reveal Zillow's true motives. In the meantime, as you say, words can have lots of different meanings. Experience, however, has taught us that money motivates a lot of people and Zillow has a plan for how they will make their money!

[Larry Cragun]

Bonnie: The Zillow guys are All American nice guys. Nice smiles. Nice clothes. Nice mannerism. Nice Words. But words have hidden meanings sometimes. Take the post above. He says they offer the seller to put up their agent. He says 25% have. What that means to me, 75% haven't. We need to learn the meaning of DISINTERMEDIATE. They made millions by this word once. They don't want us to think about that in our busines,they want to keep thinking about that to their board meetings. Trust me Bon, it is about Disintermediation, a smile at a time, a feature at a time. Where is Zorro when we needed him? PS: I am not afraid, this is not the travel business, the ones that should be concerned are the FSBO sites, because that is what Zillo aims to be, in a smiley hybrid form. Lar

[Bonnie Erickson]

Thanks, David, for giving the "nod" to my review. It better be good since the source was your own Zillowblog! ;-) You do know there are more than a few of us lurking in the background, not quite sure if trust can be given yet. I do hope you get your zestimates a little closer to the "real" prices. I recognize in this changing market, that's a challenge, but maybe as things settle down, the programming will work better!

[David G]

Hi Bonnie, its David from Zillow.

This is a fantastic review of our new features, thank you. I wanted to point out that represented sellers are also posting their listings on Zillow. We actually ask owners in the posting process whether they want to provide their listing agent's contact details. So far, about 25% of sellers choose to provide their agents contact details.

Thanks again for posting.