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The beauty of having multiple websites that publish real estate data is that you can check one against the other once you find an attractive looking property. Poking around in more than one of them will give you all kinds of additional insight. Why won't Zillow allow manual entries anymore? Do they assume that the MLS will transfer all data correctly and in the most timely way?
Triangle MLS will only feed Z with the individual listing firm or listing agent's agreement.
Zillow is historically inept with data, and individual agent input is confusing to them. I expect that it is also expensive option to maintain, particularly for a company that is hemorrhaging cash.
Ironically, the bulk of Z's revenue is provided by agents who buy leads from Z.
If Z can convince MLSs to provide their entire database for free, they can cookie cutter the feed at less expense.
Additionally, this seems obviously to be a market power play. I believe Z thinks they may have achieved adequate "critical mass" in the market to successfully pressure MLSs to "stand and deliver."
They may win.
They may fail.
Rolling the dice as they seek elusive profitability.
They are telling me to provide any listing history so agents who give them money can troll the data I provide for leads.
Hmpfh.
It's because they make money on sending leads to agents, so if the house is shown as sold or pending instead of Active, the agents would get less leads.
Makes sense. I guess the most benefit, agent-wise, would be to the listing agent, who will show as having sold more houses than otherwise, thus maybe generating some leads to those wanting to sell but not wanting to sell with the agent who helped them buy the house. And I'm guessing listing agents don't pay (or don't pay as much) to Zillow for that, unlike the agents looking to catch buyers?
Makes sense. I guess the most benefit, agent-wise, would be to the listing agent, who will show as having sold more houses than otherwise, thus maybe generating some leads to those wanting to sell but not wanting to sell with the agent who helped them buy the house. And I'm guessing listing agents don't pay (or don't pay as much) to Zillow for that, unlike the agents looking to catch buyers?
Buyers agents pay TONS of money, depending on the locale and market.
Listings are the power in real estate, and why Z wants them so badly.
You can buy or sell without an agent.
It gets much harder to buy without a property.
Buyers agents pay TONS of money, depending on the locale and market.
Listings are the power in real estate, and why Z wants them so badly.
You can buy or sell without an agent.
It gets much harder to buy without a property.
Wow! I didn't realize Zillow was milking agents quite so much, at least not on the listing side. I figured they make most of their money off of those buyer leads. No wonder most (all?) of the realtors who post here are so against the site.
Wow! I didn't realize Zillow was milking agents quite so much, at least not on the listing side. I figured they make most of their money off of those buyer leads. No wonder most (all?) of the realtors who post here are so against the site.
I am not so much "against" Z. I just don't have much respect.
It's a shade different. I guess...
Go to a finance site, and pull their numbers for a quarter or year.
And their reports.
Revenue and Agent Advertising are nearly identical.
Thanks for your suggestions. I did not find same info across different listing. Some site list the property as active and same propert shows as pending/under contact etc.
What is the site give correct info?
What is the use of $/sq ft info?
Thanks for sharing.
Many sites have very incorrect info. Even the MLS has been known to have incorrect info. You'll notice each site has a disclaimer about the info given. Your best bet for square footage is the town/city clerk and the tax rolls. Take that with a grain of salt and make sure you get ALL of the info.
I say this because just the general info on the town website says my house is 1994 square feet. I wish it was that large! Included in that 1994 square is a 20x20 deck and a 8x6 porch. I don't know about you, but I don't put a bedroom on a deck so why they include that in our actual square footage I'll never understand. They call it livable space.....I live in Upstate NY...we get WINTER here....like REAL winter. No one is using a their deck in January....it's under feet of snow!
I think a major red flag would be a home is an underperforming school district. Homes tend to lose value when the school district is not good versus a home in a good school district will typically increase in value.
regardless of where you are, the local MLS, and any individual brokerage sites it feeds to (youragent.com or youragentscompany.com or bigcompanyinyourcity.com) should have the most accurate info ... for 1 very simple reason:
As a REALTOR - and by most MLS rules - we are REQUIRED to be ACCURATE in our presentation/marketing of a home.
Square footage, for example. In NC, we have a 5% variance from the square footage the appraiser eventually measures. We have to show our measurements, or have a qualified person (usually another appraiser) measure the home.
Status - has to be accurate within a fairly short (2 days in my market) time period.
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Not a single one of the large national data aggregators is a REALTOR or even a BROKER, so there's no standard to be held to. Redfin, if you can use them to search your locale means they have a REALTOR/Broker locally, so they are held to the same standard as me.
I think Realtor.com - which isn't even run by the Nat'l Assn of Realtors - has gottent he message on data acccuracy and the "guilt by association" of nothing else - their data is more accurate than Zillow.
But Zillow and it's stepsister Trulia, among the most recognizable (homes.com, elookyloo, etc) are nothing more than ADVERTISING SITES. Zillow is proud to announce they have 80 million unique visitors - lots and lots of people think Zillow is the place to go to find a home. and it's not bad when you're not buying a house TODAY, rather you're planning to move to another state and you don't have a relationship with a Realtor here or there. Problem is - those 80M visitors ... we sell about 10M total homes a year in the US.
Zillow doesn't charge a fee for a lead. They charge a monthly fee to be on the right hand column, by zip code. Depending on the folks looking in that zip, the fee could be higher or lower. In my market, they usually limit it to 5 agents. There's no guarantee a looker will so much as click on your name. But it's not a merit system, it's capitalism. If you want Zillow-lookers to think you're the A#1 agent in Million $ McMansion-ville, all you have to do is spend money even if you've never sold more than a trailer in Broketown.
Thanks for your suggestions. I did not find same info across different listing. Some site list the property as active and same propert shows as pending/under contact etc.
What is the site give correct info?
What is the use of $/sq ft info?
Thanks for sharing.
The correct square feet is important as that is partly how the tax assessor figures your property taxes. As far as what home is active or contingent, Realtor.com is probably the most accurate in my opinion.
It is hard to review property listings, GNCamry99, and try to find the same info on each one. As you noticed, they don't all seem to match. FWIW, I don't use Zillow at all since it seems not very useful. My local MLS has listings that aren't picked up by the other online real estate listings.
However, when looking for property, the most important things are what matter to you. What makes a property 'good' for you, may not matter to someone else. At the moment, I'm sort of keeping track of properties for sale in my area because two of my friends want to move here. Their lists of what make a 'good' house are totally different.
Changes in property history can be good or bad, depends on what they were. Around here, I check to see if the permit was finaled if one was pulled. If the property sold multiple times it would be interesting to find out why. Sometimes a house has a sold date when it was refinanced, so it may not have been sold at all. Depending on what the changes are, they may be nothing or something personal to the owner and nothing to do with the house at all.
Age of property doesn't matter that much, IMHO, the important thing is the condition of the property. For me, I'd much prefer to buy an old well built house over a new shoddy built one. But, given the option to buy a new house built to old construction standards and using comparable quality of materials, I'd opt for the new one.
What most likely matters is what your life would be like if you bought the property. Is it close to all the places you go? Can you access everything you need from there? (i.e. as Realtors are fond of saying, the three most important things about a property are 1. location, 2. location and 3. location) What are the taxes like? Is the house and property in good condition? What about the surrounding area? Is it a community you want to live in? (Back to the location, again)
So, there's a lot of things to consider when looking for property. A lot of stuff can be changed such as the color of paint, etc. Harder stuff to change is basic layout, although that can be changed, too, if you have enough money.
We've bought houses that are in horrible shape and pushed them back up on their feet again. New construction is a lot easier, though, but overall more expensive since that's usually done by contractors. You can do a lot of home repair yourself if you're handy. Buying a 'tear down' (that was mostly in cosmetic stress) and fixing it up has given us a good return on investment. So, there's all sorts of good deals out there, it all depends on each individual house and how much they're asking for it, IMHO.
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