All internet business is in such a gestational stage too... so, a strategy applicable to all online business is to not have all your eggs in one basket. Everyone must use everything!.. as long as using everything doesn't mean wasting time on Twitter all day.

The downside we see about Z. is that it can be a distraction for well-meaning information driven consumers.

The quality of the information is just not that accurate.

When Z. is able to compensate for the negatives of a corner lot or the positives of a nicely contoured well landscaped parcel, then they might have something.

Until then, it is just a datapoint.

Jon Boyd Ann Arbor Real Estate Buyer's Broker

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

**Eric Pointer | Ann Arbor Real Estate´s last blog post..Advertising Your Home for Sale: Marketing Dollars Move Online</abbr></abbr>

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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/news/residential/2...

Take care.

-Brandon

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!

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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..

I am glad that one of my favorite bloggers decided not to blog about Zillow. But what is Zilow?

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.

All internet business is in such a gestational stage too... so, a strategy applicable to all online business is to not have all your eggs in one basket. Everyone must use everything!.. as long as using everything doesn't mean wasting time on Twitter all day.

The downside we see about Z. is that it can be a distraction for well-meaning information driven consumers.

The quality of the information is just not that accurate.

When Z. is able to compensate for the negatives of a corner lot or the positives of a nicely contoured well landscaped parcel, then they might have something.

Until then, it is just a datapoint.

Jon Boyd Ann Arbor Real Estate Buyer's Broker

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

**Eric Pointer | Ann Arbor Real Estateu00c2u00b4s last blog post..Advertising Your Home for Sale: Marketing Dollars Move Online</abbr></abbr>

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.

I have a couple of posting in zillow but have not get any direct response. Have you?

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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/news/residential/2...

Take care.

-Brandon

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!

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

"And no, I wonu00e2u0080u0099t 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.

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.

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.

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..

I am glad that one of my favorite bloggers decided not to blog about Zillow. But what is Zilow?

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.