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They can't. The access to the MLS is contingent on them not being an active brokerage. If they go in that direction they simply become another brokerage. And neither Redfin nor anyone else has found a way to make that work any better than the traditional model.
They do provide access to buyer leads but not much else. And that capability is good only for a small class of agents who generally already have thriving businesses.
So no they are not about to revolutionize anything. In fact I would not be surprised to see them selling out cheap eventually to one of the big brokerages...simply showing they do not have a viable model as a free standing business.
Making sense positions you to be called a hater by people who lack your grasp of business fundamentals.
The question lingers... Where will Z gain profitable revenue?
They are 11 years old, and dependent on agents for 75% of their revenue.
Well obviously from all the investors who will continue to buy stock in a business that plans to eliminate its paying customer (who are real estate agents) base so that they can offer a free product to consumers. You know the whole dot.com bust thing revisited.
Same question for all of you:
What are you contributing to Zillow's bottom line?
Not a durn thing, other than using the Zillow-tools to keep the real estate business moving long. It is the REindustry that benefits, so the industry should pay. And clearly, the consumers pay into the industry by paying RE commisions. If Zillow were to charge the consumer/house buyer-seller it would go broke in a minute. The current way there exists a good resource for consumers to use as a search engine since MLS data feeds from realtors are 'fixed' searches, while consumers like to try all different things on the fly.
Think of Zillow data as the grease that keeps the RE engine moving along.
It is often hard for an online business to find a way to capture revenue from their contribution. Maybe the 'industry' should make some reasonable suggestions.
Not a durn thing, other than using the Zillow-tools to keep the real estate business moving long. It is the REindustry that benefits, so the industry should pay. And clearly, the consumers pay into the industry by paying RE commisions. If Zillow were to charge the consumer/house buyer-seller it would go broke in a minute. The current way there exists a good resource for consumers to use as a search engine since MLS data feeds from realtors are 'fixed' searches, while consumers like to try all different things on the fly.
Think of Zillow data as the grease that keeps the RE engine moving along.
It is often hard for an online business to find a way to capture revenue from their contribution. Maybe the 'industry' should make some reasonable suggestions.
I love the smell of "Ponzi" in the morning!
It is not hard to thrive in this service business without ever giving Z a penny.
What motive would I have to run up my clients' costs by raising my fixed costs for a third party service that provides me with nothing?
Maps? Bing and GOOG have them, and both on my MLS.
Schools? The county has them.
Tax information? Readily available, and updated more frequently than Z can do, right from the county.
Photos? Z takes them from the MLS. Or from FSBOs, often which are direct from the MLS.
Where does Z get their contractor, inspector, engineer, cleaning people, pest control licensee, surveyor, or attorney referrals?
When will Z crawl under a house to identify polybutylene or Zurn PEX fittings?
Surely, if they are going to replace agents using reduced agent money to do so , they will offer those resources, too?
Why would I give Z a penny, when I can get better data at my fingertips in moments?
For leads? Momma didn't raise an idiot.
If the NAR would give total access to the MLS to buyers, plus throw in links to google maps, school rating sites, tax data, etc. and do all those gis overlays onto the maps, then consumers might not need Zillow. But as it is, they have a nice consumer friendly product and realtors would probably never accept having their MLS completely transparent and searchable since they already pay to play. This gives the agent a lot of power.
If the NAR would give total access to the MLS to buyers, plus throw in links to google maps, school rating sites, tax data, etc. and do all those gis overlays onto the maps, then consumers might not need Zillow. But as it is, they have a nice consumer friendly product and realtors would probably never accept having their MLS completely transparent and searchable since they already pay to play. This gives the agent a lot of power.
Nonsense pretty much. Our local RE sites have at least the same amount of information that is available on Zillow maybe even a little more. Provides access to google maps and street view. And the agent can set up individual searches for a client that have more detail than they can get at Zillow and go on as long as wanted providing all the fresh information.
Zillow does provide a similar interface to more than one MLS. So if you need to search multiple cities it might be better. But once down to a single city it has no advantage.
And Zillow may provide access to some small number of FSBOs but that requires that the seller knows how to get it on there.
If the NAR would give total access to the MLS to buyers, plus throw in links to google maps, school rating sites, tax data, etc. and do all those gis overlays onto the maps, then consumers might not need Zillow. But as it is, they have a nice consumer friendly product and realtors would probably never accept having their MLS completely transparent and searchable since they already pay to play. This gives the agent a lot of power.
HAR has a nice consumer facing portal. The issue is competition. The MLS is meant to be a private database for agents that isn't supposed to compete with real estate agents own sites. Also, MLS's are individual non-profit companies so you would need a larger portal, which is in the works, to feed all that data into a site.
There is a project called the broker portal project that will be a national public MLS facing site. They are doing beta testing in a few markets and will be powered by the homesnap app. I have no idea if it will be good or not, but there is something in the works.
...
Zillow does provide a similar interface to more than one MLS. So if you need to search multiple cities it might be better. But once down to a single city it has no advantage.
....
Right. Anyone using Z in our local market instead of a VOW site to search for homes is kidding themselves.
It is true that as an investor, one could reasonably expect Zillow to be a good near-term investment. I'm not sure who would pay them more than their current valuation, but you can lay a bet on whether the stock value will rise 20-30% in the near term.
Now, that's financial advice akin to Zillow's zestimate or other consumer real estate advice. It's worth what you paid for it.
by the way, it appears our local latest, SoloPro, has "pivoted" again. Those pesky licensing and agency rules.
Not a durn thing, other than using the Zillow-tools to keep the real estate business moving long. It is the REindustry that benefits, so the industry should pay. And clearly, the consumers pay into the industry by paying RE commisions. If Zillow were to charge the consumer/house buyer-seller it would go broke in a minute. The current way there exists a good resource for consumers to use as a search engine since MLS data feeds from realtors are 'fixed' searches, while consumers like to try all different things on the fly.
Think of Zillow data as the grease that keeps the RE engine moving along.
It is often hard for an online business to find a way to capture revenue from their contribution. Maybe the 'industry' should make some reasonable suggestions.
by the way, numerous local sites get higher-quality feeds from the local MLS than Zillow.
Some of these same sites allow you to search by a variety of methods (a database search, map search, school searc, etc)
Some others allow you to save multiple searches that you define.
So, my personal reasonable suggestion would be to use Zillow for entertainment value, or when you're just tire-kicking and not really moving, and when you're thinking about moving to a completely different market and want to get an idea of costs before you actually move and engage the services of a professional.
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, they will offer those resources, too?
