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Realtor’s Allan Dalton Calls Zillow Carnival Act

Published by Joseph Ferrara (2) October 19th, 2006 in Zillow Real Estate. Comments

Realtor.com President Allan Dalton had some harsh words to say about Zillow, according to a report in OCRegister.com. According to reporter Jeff Collins:

Allan Dalton bitterly criticized Zillow.com, likening the site’s trademark Zestimates of home values to a carnival weight and age guesser.

Could this have been the inspiration for Zillow’s Carnival of Real Estate?

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Related Update:
Here is a statue Jim Lee made for Allan Dalton back in 2004. Watch the slideshow here.

daltonstaute.jpg

Linkfest: Realtor.com vs. Zillow.com

Zillow and Realtor.com Lock Horns – By Roberta Murphy – Active Rain

Carnival – “Step Right Up an Guess” – By Maureen McCabe – Columbus Best Blog

Zillow Gets Pillowed in Old School Smackdown – By Jonathan Miller – Matrix

Realtors cool to Zillow.com Chief – Ris Media

Realtor.com takes on Zillow.com – By Kevin Boer – Three Oceans Real Estate

Clash of the Real Estate Websites – By Don Jergler – Press – Telegram

Who threw the Chair? – By Jessica Swesey – Inman News

Zillow at CAR – By LLoyd Frink – Zillow Blog

Allan Dalton on Zillow – Is He Serious? – By Jason Leister – ComputerSuperGuy

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  • It was just a matter of time. This will not go away...watch this blog take off tomorrow a.m.! PS - when can I get one of those hats???
  • anon
    Ouch. Sounds like lloyd handled it properly, but Dalton sounds like an emotional wreck. An ostrich putting his head in the sand trying to ignore the changes that are happening in his industry. The king will fall and he won't even know what hit him.
  • We have met Allan Dalton and he is the king of one-liners & zingers. He knows his sound bites make for good press. And the conference organizers knew the fireworks would go off with Allan on the panel.
    It's not only Realtor.com that does not support zillow but name one major brokerage that advertises there? The fear I think is that zillow is one step away from being an owner driven MLS. It has every listing via public data. Now owner interaction is enabled. Just let an owner put a "for sale" sign up & bingo, there you have it.
    That's where I think the fear lies. Brokers really have no reason to fear a computer generated value. They've been competing against other brokers on CMAs for years. And our zillow poll showed that consumers still will use a professional real estate broker.
    http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/2006/09/01/z...
  • Makes me wish he had a different last name, actually. Ought he not be more concerned about the NWMLS pulling their listings from Realtor.com? Or that other MLS systems not controlled by the local boards could follow suit if they determine there's no benefit to be had?

    Should we be fearful that zillow becomes an owner-driven MLS? Somehow, I don't see why. It's not the MLS that sells homes or drives the market. If my buyers want a property that's in zillow, that's their choice. Simply sign my buyer broker agreement, pay me my commission and I'll be more than happy to assume the liability and negotiate an offer on your behalf.

    Oh, and I'd like to think I could beat the zestimate.
  • I think the fears of Zillow disintermediating the real estate industry are unfounded. Why? Very simple.

    There's a lot more money to be made in selling advertising to the real estate business than there is in disintermediating it. Real estate advertising is, if I understand the numbers correctly, a +$10 billion dollar annual industry, of which perhaps 20% is online.

    Real estate history is littered with the corpses of failed disintermediation attempts. Why? Ultimately because this is a relationship business.
  • Don't you think Zillow will need advertising revenue from realtors?
    I really don't see any yet. Most ads are for financing. Will that be enough?

    I agree that brokers will not be disenfranchised by zillow. Our zillow polls indicate that. Knowing a home's value, even ballpark, does not sell or buy you that home.

    Reator.com did take a blow by the NWMLS pull out. It will be interesting to see if others follow suit and why.
  • DALTON GOES SPRINGER ON ZILLOW AT C.A.R. SHOW.

    NEWS AND HIGHLIGHTS AFTER THE RE-RUN OF C.O.P.S. IS OVER...

    http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/2006/10/19/r...
  • DAMN. SORRY WRONG LINK.
    TOO DISTRACTED BY THE CAR CHASE AND NOISE OF THE GHETTO BIRD IN L.A.

    HERE'S THE RIGHT LINK:

    http://www.inman.com/blogger/2006/10/who-threw-...
  • trailer park - we'd love to see the video or hear the podcast of the panel discussion between lloyd and allan.
  • Ads from just financing probably won't be enough, as you say. I suspect they're not getting many realtor ads yet for two reasons:

    1) Many realtors are suspicious of and threatened by Zillow.
    2) Zillow's ad system doesn't yet (I believe) allow you to target your ads geographically.
  • Lloyd Frink weighs in with his own update of the panel discussion at the Zillow Blog. His version is pretty tame.
  • Kevin-
    Though Zillow does not yet have the ability to target ads at the zip code level, I just wanted to quickly point out we do presently have the ability to geo-target advertising campaigns to the city, county, or state level.
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