.
One of my favorite bloggers and all around cool chick Maureen Francis asked this in a comment today:
“Are you intentionally the only RE blogger in America NOT talking about zillow today?”
And actually, I did intentionally plan to not write about Zillow’s news. I mean, why bother? Seems every real estate blogger on the planet is discussing it. What more could I possibly add?
Well, as the words spewed forth in my comment to Maureen’s comment, I said to myself, “Self, despite good intentions, you just DID provide an opinion on Zillow’s news.” Since said opinion is burried in a comment on a silly “snow humor” video post, I figured I might as well just join the party.
So here’s my (relatively) brief opinion on Zillow’s news:
As for Zillow, I grow weary of them. I feel no threat from Zillow, never have, never will. No machine can replace me until it learns to drink. I’ve actually used “Zestimates” when talking to clients (NOT as a hard valuation, but as a data point). And I’ve used other data gleened from Zillow as well.
The whole Zillow thing has been covered ad nausem, me adding more commentary won’t really help. I am pondering a post with nothing but links to all the buzz, but that will probably be the extent of it. (other than this comment)
I actually like some of the new Zillow stuff. Will I put our listings there? Sure. Free exposure is always good. I’ve never paid for an “enhanced listing” on Realtor.com because, well, Realtor.com’s idea of “enhanced” is FAR different from mine. If I may be so bold, realtor.com sucks. A cursory examination of Zillow’s “listings” shows me I may just be able to truly enhance our listings displayed there. The Wiki is cool. I love Wiki’s. They’re so geeky.
Is any of what Zillow has announced a surprise? Shouldn’t be. If anything, I’m surprised it took this long…
I really haven’t had much time to play with anything else. I’m sure I will. I was on a couple of forums where real estate agents are freaking out, claiming Zillow is going to take over the world. That’s just silly. Besides, we all know that Google’s going to be the one to take over the world… to that end, I’ll put it right here with a time stamp — I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Google buys Zillow one day. But the price tag just increased significantly. A *brilliant* move from the folks at Zillow.
Well crud, here I was not going to post about Zillow and I basically just did. Maybe I’ll turn this comment into a blog post. If nothing else, it’ll push the silly snow humor further down the page…
So there you have it. Yet another opinion on Zillow’s latest. Reading that back, the opening statement, “I grow weary of Zillow” really should have been more along the lines of “I grow weary of the Zillow hype“. And I do. I know for a fact many agents feel threatened by Zillow. I honestly don’t (and never had). I’m an information junkie. To that end, I LOVE Zillow. It’s info junkie nirvanna. And it just got better from that respect.
And no, I won’t be posting an entry to the blog of every blog out there discussing Zillow. Drew Meyers already is doing a great job of that here and here.
Will its Zestimates replace valuations by appraisers and real estate agents? No. Will it’s listings replace the MLS? No. Is it a valuable resource to agents and consumers alike? Absolutely.
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Technorati Tags: Zillow, disintermediation, Drew Meyers
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Anonymous 12.07.06 at 3:51 pm
Your an idiot. Your saying “realtor.com sucks” does a disservice to every realtor out there, yourself included. You just spout “it sucks”. WHY does it suck? You can’t say. It’s a great tool for OUR use. and if you don’t think zillow is out to end your job then your REALLY an idiot.
Maureen Francis 12.07.06 at 3:52 pm
I am glad that one of my favorite bloggers decided not to blog about Zillow. But what is Zilow?
Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy 12.07.06 at 4:15 pm
Mo - nothing gets past you. You should win an award for that.
(And this blog is ALL your fault. You got me all spooled up about ZiLLow)
Anonymous - You said, “Your (sic) an idiot”. Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. You expressed yours about me, I expressed mine about Realtor.com. I thought the BOLD sentence right before I stated “realtor.com sucks” was pretty clear. Their “enhanced” listings are a joke, particularly in light of what they charge for them. How does Zillow allow UNLIMITED photos for FREE, yet Realtor.com, with a captive audience of one million members, get away with the dreck they provide? Simple. WE just keep on paying it and letting them get away with it. It may be bold and way out there to say this, but Zillow adding listings may just be the beginning of the end of realtor.com.
As for Zillow being “out to end my job”, that’s just… well… idiotic. If you feel that way, you may just find yourself in the midst of a self-fulfilling prophecy..
REBlogGirl 12.07.06 at 4:49 pm
I am in complete agreement with you, Jay. Zillow’s new tools rock. We use the API on our blogs to excellent results. With all the new features on the front-end- I can’t wait to see how they enhance the API so us lowly developers can utilize some of the new functionality.
Now, as for the “idiot” comment. Sticks and stones can break your bones, but anonymous name calling will never hurt you. Because you are 10 feet tall and bullet proof in my book.
Austin Real Estate Agent 12.07.06 at 7:16 pm
Im not too worried about zillow. Their data is not very accurate. We have had tax values online for years and they are roughly about as off as zillow. Zillow might start charging for referrals but they will never be able to give accruate estimates because it cant take into account the quality of a remodel or compare a lake view of one house to one down the street. Also zillow wont be able to drive people around town and open up lockboxes.
Jon Ernest 12.07.06 at 7:48 pm
“And no, I won’t be posting an entry to the blog of every blog out there discussing Zillow. Drew Meyers already is doing a great job of that here and here.”
Yeah, I did though…. what a freaking horrible idea that was. Guess how much real work I got done today.
Doug Quance 12.08.06 at 6:30 am
Jay:
You’re not an idiot.
Realtor.com is a joke. And those who pay all those outrageous fees for upgrades are the butt of said joke.
If anything, Zillow may help push Realtor.com (and others) to improve their services… and that will be a positive development. Meanwhile, Realtor.com isn’t getting any of my money.
If Anonymous doesn’t understand why Realtor.com sucks… perhaps he/she should come out from under cover. In the years that I employed Enhanced Listings on Realtor.com, my tracking and conversion rate were horrendous. Unquestionably the worst money I ever spent (short of an SEO scam).
So if you think it’s a great bargain - throw your money at it. I won’t call you an idiot. But as long as you write under the name “Anonymous”, I will call you a coward.
Charleston Real Estate Blog 12.08.06 at 6:50 am
Jay, you are so clever, by not talking about Zillow, of course you are. And you are so right about realtor.com, I use it and their website is the least user friendly site I have ever seen, their customer service is dreadful but it was hard to drop when I traced transactions directly to my enhanced listings. But I can’t wait for my year to be up and Zillow will be getting more eyeballs and my listings in the future.
Dave Smith 12.08.06 at 7:34 am
Jay,
Great non-post, what are you thinking of not writing about next? The one thing about Zillow I want to know is it Zillow as in Pillow, or Zillow as in Silo? I prefer the hard i.
John Lockwood 12.08.06 at 2:45 pm
Actually you and Maureen Francis are the only real estate bloggers not talking about what’s-their-names that anyone has heard of. I’ve been not blogging about what’s-their-names since 2003, before what’s-their-names started, but fortunately no one’s heard of me besides MSN, Google, and Yahoo.
Someday I’ll get indexed in the blogosphere as well if Maureen Francis has anything to say about it.
Anyway, what were we talking about besides me again?
Andy Piper 12.09.06 at 4:48 am
Wake up Realtor.com and thank you Zillow. r.com has seemed cluncky for years and they are too busy raking up the 100 dollar bills to pay attention to inovation. Trulia too will give r.com something to think about. This high level of inovation is a good thing for real estate professionals and for consumers. Here in Ann Arbor MI, I find Zillow estimates can be 20 percent one side or the other from reality but people are using them as a “data point” (I like that) and some are putting a lot of trust in these numbers. Dangerous. Thanks for your blog. Andy
teresa boardman 12.10.06 at 5:39 am
I didn’t right about the Z thing.
Mostly because it was so heavily covered that I did not think there was anyway I could add value to the conversation. By Saturday bloggers were listing posts from other blogs about the z thing.
Toby 12.10.06 at 8:09 pm
I have to agree with you about the whole Zillow thing — I don’t really care what their intentions are. They’ll kill my business … but only if I allow them!
Have a great day!
Toby
PS - Just finally getting around on the AR Blog Tour — so I can’t stay long!
Brandon 12.13.06 at 2:41 pm
Hi Jay.
While you’ve got Zillow on the blog brain, you might enjoy this article I published through Broker Agent News a while back:
http://www.brokeragentnews.com.....07638.html
Take care.
-Brandon
Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy 12.13.06 at 5:17 pm
Brandon -
Thanks for stopping by. GREAT article. I read it when it first came out and always meant to link to it.
“Zillow will not make professional agents out of your clients any more than Weather.com will turn me into a meteorologist.”
Precisely. Fantastic analogy!
JT
Derek Burress 12.14.06 at 6:13 pm
I was never planning to write about them either until I actually typed in my hometown - seems zillow got lost in my neck of the woods - see the post on my site where I did the weekly real estate countdown. I think zillow is number 6 or 7 in the countdown.
Austin Texas Real Estate Broker 12.17.06 at 6:47 pm
Great post! Zillow can be a great starting point for buyers/sellers to get some idea of their homes’ values, but it will never take the place of an agent’s expertise. I love comparing a zestimate to my CMA with my client - it tends to show them how much analysis really goes into a CMA.
Sam Chapman 04.05.07 at 7:24 am
I can’t believe I just now saw this post. I had no idea Zillow allowed property postings. I just got a property on and it won’t be the last!
Bill Gassett 11.30.07 at 2:14 pm
Hi Jay - Was wondering about the blogosphere and found your post here about how your not going to talk about Zillow (sshh) but actually do anyway
I don’t understand why still today everyone is so fascinated by this company. I actually market properties through them because they do generate a significant amount of traffic. The Zestimates still leave a lot to be desired a year later I might add. One would think they would have improved upon the accuracy by now.
Skinner 03.01.08 at 10:25 pm
I have a couple of posting in zillow but have not get any direct response. Have you?
Luke - Canton Michigan Homes 07.14.08 at 8:17 pm
I think sites like R.com, Zillow, Trulia, and the like give us an opportunity to differentiate and show TRUE market knowledge.
When a client talks about pricing based on one of these services, without slamming the company’s credibility, you can gently reveal reality to your prospect and give them that ‘behind closed doors’ view point that everyone finds compelling. Its like the Matrix movie - there’s one thing everyone sees on the surface and a whole other thing that is the ‘real deal’.
One thing though: generalities stink, you have to have concrete specific stats. Use that and Zillow and the like can make you shine imho.
Eric Pointer | Ann Arbor Real Estate 10.20.08 at 11:52 am
Andy,
I concure with your assesment..Eventually, in most cases, as we all know half truths, however,well intended, can be and often are misleading. Z. appears to be getting better as their data improves. As a 15 year veteran Realtor in Ann Arbor, I have found that it is simply easier to make lemonade out of lemons than it is to get all worked up about the fact that lemons exist.
Eric Pointer
Ann Arbor Real Estate
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