I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.
We told you so. Was it really any surprise? Zillow is now a national listing site.
Keep Your Eye on the Zestimate
Every professional knew Zillow could not live on zestimates alone. They were so often lacking in nutritional value and those who got a taste of it were spitting it out. The word got out—play with the zestimate, just don’t eat it. But Zillow never intended to starve its VCs. Valuation and that Kelley Blue Book mantra were all a ruse to get a database of property listings without asking or paying anyone, bypassing MLSs and broker permissions. Those hardworking folks at Trulia and Propsmart took the traditional route and went after the “for sale” listings. Zillow was smarter. Much smarter. They went after the “not for sale” homes. Brilliant, simply brilliant, for a future listing site.
Abracadabra
To those who might have missed it, here’s how they pulled off the switcheroo. Zillow scraped public data (free and copyright free), sprinkled some special sauce over it and told everyone to come look at what they made. And people did. And why not? And like a carnival act, once they saw the show, they walked out and didn’t come back. To get them back, Zillow let owners fix what was broken. Now owners had a reason to come by. To look at THEIR value, not Zillow’s. So far so good.
And There You Have It
So now with all the listings and the public data that owners can tidy up for you, it was a small step to say to owners, “Now you can sell the home at our value, or your value, or your broker’s value, whatever”. But no pressure, dear owner, just wait till the buyer makes you an offer you can’t refuse. Perfect. As plans go. Or is it?
Related Posts:
Zillow Confesses, Opens A Can of Worms and May Become a National Listing Site (yes indeed)
Unzestimate my Home, Will Zillow Let Owners Opt-Out (Zillow Answer: No)
Will Listing Your Home Above the Zestimate Turn Away Buyers? (would a buyer be afraid of overpaying that trusted zestimate?)
Zillow Poll Results: Agents Still Needed (now more than ever to sort out all those values)
Mining The Elusive Unzillowable (see the elusive David G)
I See Said The Blind Man to The Deaf Lady (”a” starting point is not the “best”, or even “good”)
Zillow v. Consumers: Searching for Truth in A Sea of Madness (an old dog learns a new trick)
Unzillowable to Coin a Phrase (the one that started it all)
Zoophole (the letter z thanks zillow for all the work its gotten)
Other Posts:
2006 is the Year of Zillow… (BloodhoundBlog) by Greg
Zillow Says “MAKE ME Move” (Rain City Guide) by Ardell
Zillow Knows that Everyone Has a Price (Tech Crunch) by Natali
Zillow Ads For Sale Postings… Drew Myers
Zillow Adds For Sale Listings (Inman) by Glenn
This has been along time in coming. Now that the speculation has come to an end, we can focus on the benefits of Zillow. I, personally, am excited about the new development and can’t wait to see what they include int he next version of the open API.
Yup. Zillow is certainly more valauble to investors (and agents) as a listing site than a magic shop. I sense they realized this very early on, if not from the git-go. If they play it right, they should prosper.
We support any outlet for owners and agents to disseminate their listings for sale, according to the wishes of the owner & their agent. If zillow recognizes this overriding right of owners to control their home for sale listing, then we say they are serving consumers. This means if an owner selling their home wants the zestimate taken down (an opt-out), zillow should honor that request. We predict they will, eventually. Next time you see David G, ask him if Z will now give owners the right to opt out of displaying the zestimate if the seller is asking more than the zestimate. The previous answer was “NO”
We only hope that the non-real estate people at Z driving this bus know how to navigate the roads.
We have yet to understand what the FSBO effect will be here.
Don’t forget about Cyberhomes run by Fidelity. They are very Realtor friendly and promise to be one to watch in 07′.
/sigh
I’m going to be the only one that knows about this at work tomorrow I bet.
You’re ahead of your time Athol.
Zillow is intriguing, but a tad confounding as to how to effectively update the sometimes very misleading listings and “Zesstimate” valuations on the site. If country records are indeed to be taken in, they still fall short with the record on two of the homes I own completely off the mark. Simply “updating” the incorrect fact base, does not seem to alter the “Zesstimate” and so the question becomes - do I trust this site; the methodologies and process applied to arrive at this precise process?