Zillow Behaves
Zillow, the web site Realtors love to hate, has announced targeted ads aimed at consumers in that most fruitful buying mode(s), the new home buyer or the buyer about to tear up the house and renovate. Using data from its 70 million homebuyers in the U.S., namely those hunting for homes, Zillow’s home-direct ads promise to zero in on the juiciest. Recently, Zillow moved closer to making nice with at least one Realtor group: ERA Franchise Systems LLC has agreed to feed about 80,000 property listings to Zillow.com daily, giving ERA’s listings free exposure to Zillow, and giving Zillow the ability to boast a relationship with at least one broker. Industry experts tell me more will follow. What does this mean for Realtors and consumers: like it or not, that internet is the future in Real Estate.
One Comment to “Zillow Behaves”
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Hi Candy,
Why do agents love to hate Zillow? Because this site doesn’t know how to accurately price homes with their ‘zestimate’value formula. They are only within 10% of the actual value about half of the time. And people actually believe the information.
Before I blast Zillow, I’ll admit that I list my properties for sale on that site - only because folks in Dallas like to peruse it. I currently have a property listed on this site for a reduced price of $1,450,000. It is on the Dallas tax rolls at a ‘pre-finishout’ value of $1,505,000 and actually comps out at $1,850,000. So what does Zillow list as the value? A mere $767,700.
Thank goodness they removed their neighborhood profile information. The higher education institutions associated with our 75230 zip code were Southeastern Career Institute and the University of Phoenix. The restaurants for our area were a couple of Pizza Huts.
Maybe an association with a professional real estate company will improve their statistical ability - but how much influence does ERA have in Dallas?