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Mike, I'll a admit that I absolutely don't understand all of what you are saying. (VOW feed?)
But as a consumer, I do ask questions when hiring a listing agent. One biggie: what are you going to do to market my property? If zillow isn't part of that plan, I'd seriously question hiring that agent to list my property.
I KNOW that zillow is deeply flawed and the zestimates are misleading garbage. Unfortunately, not all buyers know this and many prefer zillow (and I agree that the UI is good.) So, in my mind, if I want my property to be seen by the largest number of potential buyers, it's gotta be on zillow. But maybe I'm offbase?
How would/will you respond to this with a potential seller?
Well, FWIW, I believe that I can actually syndicate listings to Z via other avenues.
Did you find your current home on Z?
Z doesn't really sell houses, and educating the seller is part of the responsibility of the agent.
The consumer may well ask Z why they would dilute their value and refuse my listing input? MLS doesn't.
In a sellers' market, we are still working hard at stuffing unnecessary, non-productive costs into the transactions to WOW our prospective clients while raising fees.
Jeeze, I am looking at a Matterport camera. $$$ For what? To impress Sellers.
I saw drone photo of a tract house in a good school area yesterday. It will probably sell in a day or two, anyway, and someone had to pay for the drone shots.
Fun. Glitzy. No value added to the property.
VOW is a deeper MLS search site, with closed listings, etc.
Like IDX, but more fields available to the client.
They say they are trying to make sure the listings on their site are ACCURATE. When I was house shopping, I looked in a fairly small geographic area for over a year. Prices were quickly going up. I saw at least 2 instances of a closed listing entered into Zillow as way for agents to get new clients. Houses that sold over 3 months prior, listed with their initial asking prices as active. I reported both listings to Zillow and they were removed.
Agents or non agents can enter whatever they want into Zillow. I don't blame them for trying to get some control over what is listed on their site.
They say they are trying to make sure the listings on their site are ACCURATE. When I was house shopping, I looked in a fairly small geographic area for over a year. Prices were quickly going up. I saw at least 2 instances of a closed listing entered into Zillow as way for agents to get new clients. Houses that sold over 3 months prior, listed with their initial asking prices as active. I reported both listings to Zillow and they were removed.
Agents or non agents can enter whatever they want into Zillow. I don't blame them for trying to get some control over what is listed on their site.
Their words mask a huge power play.
There is much more to it than "accuracy." They want a LOT of data that is not needed to provide current accuracy.
They say they are trying to make sure the listings on their site are ACCURATE. When I was house shopping, I looked in a fairly small geographic area for over a year. Prices were quickly going up. I saw at least 2 instances of a closed listing entered into Zillow as way for agents to get new clients. Houses that sold over 3 months prior, listed with their initial asking prices as active. I reported both listings to Zillow and they were removed.
Agents or non agents can enter whatever they want into Zillow. I don't blame them for trying to get some control over what is listed on their site.
Do you know for a fact that these listings were manually entered by an agent? Z is notorious for having poor data accuracy and that includes leaving listings up that are long sold. If you called me asking about a sold property, I would certainly chat you up because you're an active buyer. They may have just been taking advantage of Z's mistake.
When we first thought about moving last year we looked at everything online first just to see what was out there in the area we wanted to move to. Then we called a realtor
I sometimes find that Zillow has some listings not on the Utah Mls site/app for all else the mls app is superior for data accuracy. Zillow does keep the price history listing over time and property tax assume that over time which the mls does not list.
Do you know for a fact that these listings were manually entered by an agent? Z is notorious for having poor data accuracy and that includes leaving listings up that are long sold. If you called me asking about a sold property, I would certainly chat you up because you're an active buyer. They may have just been taking advantage of Z's mistake.
Definitely entered by an agent. Somewhat vague description of property, not as many pics... wording like "if you are interested in a 3 bedroom house like this, call me".
You are NOT "seeing everything" on Z.
Anywhere.
Brokers have to agree to a feed of some sort. Many will. Some will not. By most MLS rules, brokers cannot withhold listings from IDX sites without seller notification and acquiescence. So, your local sites generally will have more inventory from MLS than Z will.
But, I agree. Z IS glitzy.
And, they do have big fast servers. I understand how that can suck an unknowing consumer into the site.
Well, if I'm "hot" and actively looking to buy I am going to work with a solid agent and I'm going to be all over the internet looking at any resource I can.... and I have. I suspect that all things being equal if it's "available" I will see it on my local MLS or realtor.com. I'm sure there are "private" listings and super duper marketing for higher end properties - but if I'm unable to find everything with a MLS search at my measly price point, something is wrong.
Zillow is more than glitz and fast servers. It is a superior product - actually a far superior product. I'm an IT Engineer, I know the difference between lipstick on a pig and quality development. Now this isn't about the zGUesStimate part of the site, their "magic" algorithm, or how they market to RE professionals. I'm talking the consumer experience. How realtor.com with all the power, money, and resources at their disposal doesn't get it is well beyond me. realtor.com is flat out terrible. MLS sites suck. Most broker personal sites look like some kid in college threw it together.
RE professionals are so busy putting Zillow down and "educating" consumers on how "terrible" it is they completely miss how well Zillow delivers the consumer side of the service... it seems to go against what marketing professionals should be all about. Heck, most time it sounds petty.
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