While Greg & Ardell were making history yesterday, so was this innovative real estate broker. In what appears to be the world’s first and only property listing containing the term “unzillowable”, Jay & Francy Thompson, Realtors, Century 21 Aware Realty, listed this Arizona property on the MLS.
You may know Jay by his blog, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy. Adding to Jay & Francy’s many credits is Jay’s popularity as an Active Rain member.
We asked Jay about his decision to use the new buzz word. He said, “I sent an email off to the sellers explaining the term “unzillowable”. They like it and think (as I do) that it might just draw some attention to the listing.” Time will tell. Jay will keep us posted.
We welcome any other listings with “unzillowable” in the headline or copy. We will post them here.
Thanks Jay for passing this on to us.
If 50 people digg this story for Jay and his client, that would get them on the first page of digg which might equal 10,000 plus people viewing the real estate listing. That would be amazing!
Update:
Jay’s Unzillowable real estate listing has made it to Inman News.
pathetic. you guys are pathetic. the story only got 10 diggs. i’m guessing this comment won’t get posted, but who cares. hope your circle-jerk of 10 cronies have fun.
so when does your site launch again?
btw, despite what you think, i don’t work for zillow. i just despise kicking below the belt, which you’re clearly doing.
your over compensating attitude here makes me think you’re short and bald. it’s ok, life is hard.
Of course trolls like like anon do not link to their website in the comments. Who really gets enjoyment at spewing hatred all over the web like this?
what if i don’t have a website or blog?
it’s not hatred, it’s pity.
Anon
Thanks for commenting. We have no problem with you being anon–that’s your right & we respect it. We did not censor you.
A couple of points:
1. Actually 10 diggs is not that bad because digg is primarily tech heavy.
2.As for our post here—this is news in our opinion. It is the first use of this term. It was approved by the seller of the property, which we think is significant. Are you saying a seller or broker should not be able to use the word “unzillowable”?
3. We do not think we hit below the belt. We have always said that zillow was valuable in providing data. BUT, the data must be fresh, accurate & complete to be valuable. Just taking it straight from the public record is no guarantee. No person is double-checking it. We told this to David G of Zillow. Now Zillow lets an owner make corrections. If they were accurate why would you need anyone to make corrections? So I think we were right to point out this problem with public data. Plus, a lot of public data is stale. Some counties dont recalcualte assessesed values for YEARS.
4. We never told anyone not to use zillow. What we said was there is a BETTER way to get closer to the value of your house —the better way is an experienced professional who actually LOOKS at your home and its surroundings. The reason it’s better is unzillowables that are not factored into your house zestimate. We are not the only ones to say there exist unzillowables. Zillow said so too—that’s why they created the zestimator—for oohs & ahhhs (they say oohs & ahhs we say unzillowable). Why would you need a zestimator if everything was already factored in? We also pointed out that the zestimator calcualtion was not made public which meant the zestimate people were looking at was wrong. Even with the zestimator there are key unzillowables not factored in like current market conditions & market pool.
4. Zillow will give a zestimate on a house even if beds & baths are missing. Now if you asked me to value your home & I did it without putting down your beds & baths you would probably call me unprofessional. I dont know for sure, maybe you’d have no problem with that. We just think it looks bad to give a value, even an estimate, when CRITICAL DATA is missing. Just leave it blank.
5. As a homeowner we think you have the right to prevent someone from putting an unsolicited value tag on your property. Are you a homeowner. Would you like it if you listed your house for sale at $300,000 & I stood in front of your house with a sign saying “Based on the public records downtown & my expert calculations, I estimate this house to be worth only $220,000″ Better yet, what if I took the zestimate & put that on a sign and marched up and down your block. I dont think you’d thank me. That’s why we think owners have the right to opt out. Do you think owners should have this right?
Without going on & on (sorry I went this long), we invite you, Anon, to take the OPEN MIKE & contribute a post. Here’s the link explaining how it works.
http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/blog-open-mike-speak-your-piece-on-sellsius/
You can argue your case for zillow on our blog. We don’t mind debating any subject on the merits. If our arguments against zillow are flawed point them out. We give you our blog as your stage to speak your piece. We think that’s fair. Don’t you?
anon, “why the negativity?” It does come across as hate.
It’s an honest question. Like “sellsious” I’m not here to disrespect you. I’m truly curious.
Do you two know each other?
From an outsiders perspective, anon, it does seem like you’re a bit judgemental. Do you really work for/with zillow? Are you’re hiding zomething. (sorry)
sellsious, way to keep the post productive. Has Zillow.com indicated any desires to allow homeowners to opt-out? I could see how zestimates could be good and bad for homeowners.
Brent,
Thanks for your comment.
Zillow has never answered the opt-out question. Our guess is they would not allow owners to do it.
Our poll, which may be biased, we don’t know, indicates that owners should have the right to opt-out. Maybe Zillow should ask owners on its blog or take a poll.
Remember, Zillow is making money off the homeowner’s asset. And it’s doing it without the owner’s consent and without any compensation to the owner. Some owners may not think that’s fair.
Also, if the zestimate is wrong, why must the owner be forced to register to correct it? They should have the right to have the zestimate removed. It’s an unsolicited opinion which is “published” without consent and it may not be an owner’s best interest to have it publicized.
David G of Zillow and I had an interesting exchange on this post if you’re interested.
http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/mining-the-elusive-unzillowable/
I instantly understood the term “unzillowable.” I think it was a clever marketing approach to use it in a listing.
However, Zillow is often unzillowable itself, since correcting misstatements about one’s own home do not necessarily affect the Zestimate. Never, immediately. They promise that in general, overall, their system improves.
However, appraisers aren’t much better. We live in a unique home, the first pueblo-style ever built in Sedona, AZ, one of only three homes featured in Arizona Highways’ 1985 issue called “2000 Years of Arizona Architecture.” The home includes a ceremonial kiva. It’s “split-level” layout allows for a 5′7″ crawl space we’ve converted into a media center a partially finished storage area; and an “upstairs” (only 9 steps, not 12) that is a full bedroom-bath-sitting area with a clerestory. Yet, both appraisals we’ve had compare it to square two-bedrooms in the area, without regard for the kiva, upstairs private suite, or the basement (because of non-standard height).
To us, it is at least 1.5 stories, in practice 3, because we go both upstairs and down.
But the local appraisers call it a split level and compare it to rectangles with no views. (To be appraised here for having views, one seems to need elevation. Somehow looking up at amazing sites doesn’t count! Go figure!)
So that’s my take on it. Zillow is unzillowable!
I agree with your comment Lin.
I suspect the appraisal community has not risen up to point out Zillow’s (or any AVM) inability to factor in the unzillowables of individual homes is because they are guilty of doing the same thing. A Blue Roof Blog post on appraisers touches the issues you raise.
http://blueroof.wordpress.com/2006/09/27/the-battle-between-appraisers-and-everyone-else/
Greetings! Just wanted to give you an update on the world’s first listing to use the term “unzillowable”.
Views of the listing on our site exploded, as evidenced by the chart here:
http://www.buygilberthomes.com/images/unzillowable_listing_views.jpg
My host isn’t able to tell me where visitors to this page came from, but most were direct hits to the listing page (as opposed to navigating from within the site).
I did receive calls from three agents outside Arizona seriously requesting more information on the general area where this parcel is located. Prior to adding “unzillowable views” to the description, we hadn’t had a call in 3 - 4 weeks.
Thanks, and more to come, I’m sure!
Jay
Another call from an investor looks promising. Perhaps not for this specifc parcel as he’s looking for better access. But we have several parcels listed in the area, and he’s considering a trip out to view some of them in a couple of weeks when the weather cools down a little. And believe me, we’ll take him for a spin in the Jeep up to this parcel. Once he sees the unzillowable view, his need for easy access may change!
One call from an agent said simply, “That whole unzillowable listing thing is nothing but a marketing scam. You should be ashamed.”
Marketing? You betcha.
Scam? I don’t get that. Is it not my job as the listing agent to get my seller’s property exposed to as many people as possible?
Ashamed? Absolutely not!
Whoops, not sure how:
“Thanks, and more to come, I’m sure!
Jay”
Wound up in the middle of that comment. Feel free to edit!
That’s great Jay. We’ll post an update.
If the post gets more diggs (it has 12, it needs 50), it could land on digg’s front page & then look out—-you’d get several thousand more page views.
Almost all of the property in RSF is unzillowable. Same with La Jolla, Del Mar, most of Downtown… the list keeps going.
I couldn’t agree more. Great article man!