Redfin and Zillow (appointed, mortgage, selling a house)

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

I disagree.

What a seller wants is for the home to sell quickly at the highest price with the least amount of hassle. Zillow and Trulia are absolutely, irrefutably, irrelevant to accomplishing that outcome, and I have the data that proves it.

The only argument otherwise would have to be "what about the buyer who is only using Zillow to look for homes?" To that, I would say that buyer is an idiot and I'd rather not receive his phone call. If he's not serious enough to be searching multiple sources, including AustinHomeSearch.com or Realtor.com, then he simply is not seriously looking and therefore is not a serious buyer.

Point of clarity: Redfin is a licensed Texas Broker and the Redfin site is an IDX (Internet Data Exchange - Broker to Broker agreement to display each other's listings online) site, at which our listings can in fact be found.

Zillow and Trulia or Media Advertising Companies operating as Syndicators of content around which they sell advertising, but they are not in the real estate business.

If a consumer inquires about my mine or my wife's listings on Redfin, they will communicate with a Redfin agent who has received training and can be helpful to the consumer, set up a showing, etc. A Redfin agent sold one of my listings earlier this year.

If a consumer inquires about a listing on Zillow or Trulia, it's a complete and total crap shoot as to who will receive that lead. But it's based on whoever paid to receive the lead for the zipcode in which the home is located. Agents who have to pay for internet leads suck. That's just my personal opinion. They should get out of the business because they don't know how to market their services and build a business the right way.

The fact that you and almost every other consumer (including the OP as evidenced by the Title of this thread) are confused about the difference between a "Syndication" real estate search site and an IDX search site troubles me. But my own industry and its own idiots caused it and allowed it to happen, so here we are.

Steve

I agree with you that Trulia and Zillow are pretty irrelevant. But that is based on the fact that they are (at least in Texas) wildly inaccurate in a lot of cases. For that reason I would think that Realtors would want potential clients to have accurate information available to them and not just those who are Realtors.

[CBB_bear]

I was under the impression that sales prices and property taxes were public records? So how can one fault a website for compiling this...

[EzPeterson]

Originally Posted by CBB_bear

I was under the impression that sales prices and property taxes were public records? So how can one fault a website for compiling this...

One is, the other isn't. Not in that order.

[TexasHorseLady]

CBB_Bear, in some states, sales prices are public record. Other states are nondisclosure states (we value our privacy and don't think all of our private information should be available to anyone just because they want to know). Texas is a nondisclosure state. If I were, as a real estate agent, to publish the sales prices of homes that I was a listing or buyer's agent for, I could get in serious trouble. It's one of the things that's drilled into us from our original courses on through the legal and ethics courses we're required to take before we can renew our licenses. Such information can only legally be shared with someone who we are representing as a buyer or seller in order to help them figure out how to price their home for sale or what kind of offer to make.

[Roadking2003]

Originally Posted by Kosmonaut

I think that homeowners should be privy to that info so they can determine whether or not they are being taken advantage of. If I move to Toledo OH, and I see a house for 200K, and I think *gee" that's a great deal coming from Austin* then find out the previous owner only paid 80K for it 3 years earlier, I think I would have a right to know that.

Why? What give you the right to know what somebody paid for a product?

[PrimusPilus]

Originally Posted by Roadking2003

Why? What give you the right to know what somebody paid for a product?

Is it illegal? I need to know because I don't want to make emotional decisions that I might come to regret later. Recently, a homeowner listed his home at an insane price in a really desirable neighborhood. I was about to make an offer due to the paucity of homes in that neighborhood but backed out based on info listed on Redfin. (Even my realtor was unable/unwilling to provide that info) I am so glad I could rely on Redfin because the home has been through 2 price reductions and is still on the market after 70 days. I'm aware of a couple other buyers that have been discouraged from making offers based on Redfin. So it's not just a matter of it being priced too high. In that sense, Redfin is affecting the market and that's a good thing. I'm not sure it's a seller's market anymore.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by PrimusPilus

I am so glad I could rely on Redfin because the home has been through 2 price reductions and is still on the market after 70 days. I'm aware of a couple other buyers that have been discouraged from making offers based on Redfin. So it's not just a matter of it being priced too high. In that sense, Redfin is affecting the market and that's a good thing. I'm not sure it's a seller's market anymore.

1. You are arguing two different issues - past sale prices, and current offering price history. What someone paid for a property has nothing to do with what the offering price is today. If you are trading in a car (effectively selling it), do you tell the dealership what you paid for it? I'm betting not - because they don't care. The market price is what the market price is.

2. I'd love to see the logic behind "Redfin is affecting the market". That data aggregator may have caused you to behave in a different manner, but a) listing price history is traceable, and b) it isn't the exclusive province of Redfin. So, please explain how "Redfin is affecting the market".

3. A single property that is overpriced says nothing about the market in aggregate. Fairly priced properties in my neighborhood don't stay on the market a week - and are up 8%/sq ft in the last year.

[Kosmonaut]

Good for pulling back on the house there Primus. Interest rates have no where to go but up from here, and sellers know that. The people who had more than one house were brilliant to sell when rates were rock bottom because they used the low rates as leverage to support their asking prices. They can now take that profit and will soon be able to invest it in a high rate interest environment - like 5% + returns that we will start seeing on conventional investement vehicles like CDs or even savings. Does anyone here really think that houses will continue to see a 5%+ YoY appreciation is a rising interest rate environment over the next 10 years? People pay MONTHLY PAYMENTS, not prices. That house Primus looked at will still be X amount of dollars/month two years from now, but the price will have been lowered to make that happen due to rates. The amount of apts coming on the market will also help suppress values. I'm a homeowner myself, and I have no problem admitting this because I'm not part of the real estate *pump-n-dump* crowd that you see in this town. I believe in honesty, even at my own detriment. That's how I was raised, and how I live.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by PrimusPilus

... (Even my realtor was unable/unwilling to provide that info) ...

What info are you talking about, specifically?

Price history is in the MLS, so it's not that. Which info exclusive to RF saved you from making a big mistake?

I'll repeat, as stated earlier in this thread:

RF is a Texas Broker and runs an IDX site. IDX is Broker to Broker sharing of listings to display on each other's company website. You can hire a Redfin agent to list your home or to help you buy. They are a "Discount Broker" and will charge you less for listing or rebate a portion of commission to buyers (above a minimum price point)

Zillow and Trulia and Syndicators. They are media companies who sell ads around the listing content they show. They are not real estate companies. The data shown on Syndication websites is notoriously inaccurate and wrong.

Steve

[PrimusPilus]

Originally Posted by scm53

2. I'd love to see the logic behind "Redfin is affecting the market". That data aggregator may have caused you to behave in a different manner, but a) listing price history is traceable, and b) it isn't the exclusive province of Redfin. So, please explain how "Redfin is affecting the market".

I meant this. Past sale prices make an impact on new sale prices and Redfin allows free and easy access to these values. Not every buyer has easy access to MLS and all the data available on MLS.