Isn’t it a fact that contact details ARE permited when you list/report a home for sale? And isn’t it a fact that contact info is provided to the viewer of the listed/reported home? (Gee I sound like Perry Mason)

I have tried out the feature (when it first launced and again today)

My photo and link to my profile (and contact info) is indicated just under the Home Info in a section called “Reported for sale”

If you click my name, it links to my “Contact Information” (that’s Zillow’s label).

http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/wp-content/zillow-profile.gif

Yes, I feel your frustration David.

I have been frustrated by your failure to address issues/questions contained in this post/comments:

http://tinyurl.com/2dvcxf

If you can just answer this one question (please): If a homeowner objects to the listing/reporting of their home for sale because they want a private sale, will Zillow honor that homeowner’s request and remove the reporting/listing? My guess is NO.

Only an agent / owner can advertise a home for sale on the site. It’s free. You can post up to 50 photo’s / links to virtual tours & agents get free attribution on their listings (photo’s / contact details etc.). Again, this feature is separate from the feature that allows (any)one to report that a home is on the market - something buyers’ agents could consider doing, especially with the foreclosure inventory currently on the market.

Joe. Please. Check it out.

Oh yes, the idea that the “community” (in the form of one person)is “reporting” the home is for sale at a given price does not equal “marketing” “advertising” or “listing” a home for sale. I disagree with that characterization. It is my opinion that this IS marketing, advertising and listing a home for sale because it attracts buyers/offers/inquiries– is that not the purpose of advertising? You, and others, are free to disagree with my opinion.

IMO, this “community reporting” is Zillow zemantics for the purpose of doing an “end around” the prohibition of advertsing another’s listing. Clever. But it’s still advertising in my book. It will take a legal case to convince me otherwise. Until then, you know where I stand.

But there is more to the practice I find objectionable– the denial of the homeowner’s right to say “I do not want my home listed as for sale on Zillow”. This could be simply a matter of wanting a “private sale”. If the seller were to object, Zillow, as far as I know (and please correct me if i’m wrong) will NOT prevent the third party from putting what amounts to a “for sale” sign on the home.

And let me ask you this. If it is merely reporting, why is it necessary to ask the reporter attach their contact info– this is an answer i’d love to hear but expect you not to answer. And the reason you will not answer is, IMO, because it looks like the third party is rewarded with free advertising on the home simply by “reporting” it for sale.

If it walks like an ad and quacks like an ad, it’s probably an ad.

Please correct yourself. As you well know you are mischaracterizing the posting and reporting features on Zillow. These are distinct features yet you insist on conflating them despite my numerous corrections of your numerous inaccurate postings. So, here we go again.

It’s incorrect to suggest that anyone can “list”, “market” or “advertise” any listing on Zillow. Listing agents and owners can only “list”, “market” or “advertise” their own listings on Zillow.

There is an entirely separate feature that allows the community to report THAT a home is for sale but that feature does NOT fascilitate “advertising”, “marketing” or “listing” the listing - the user merely reports the fact that the home is for sale and the sales price.

I should have just answered D to all of them

Thanks for taking the quiz.

Sorry I made 6 confusing by throwing Zillow into the question,when the house the buyer wanted to see could have come from anywhere, including a yard sign.

Zillow will allow ANYONE to list a home is for sale even if it is not theirs to market & even if the owner has no idea it is being done– Zillow calls this “coffee house” logic– that is, if the mortgage guy could tell folks in the coffee house that he saw 25 Main Street is for sale, he can do the same on Zillow (plus put his business card on the listing, like some kind of reward for tipping folks to the listing). IMO, it is a clever way around the homeowner (and listing agent’s) right to choose where (and how) a property is marketed. IMO, Zillow is not concerned with these marketing rights — so long as they can get someone to put a for sale sign on their listings, they are happy.