You know why many Realtors feel so threatened by Zillow? Because at first glance, it looks like yet another attempt to cut us out of the business. In fact, second and third glances could lead you to the same conclusion:
- Second glance: Zillow’s founders cut their teeth at Expedia.com, one of several sites that let to the demise of the travel agent business.
- Third glance: Zillow initially considered pursuing that business model…until they figured out, and apparently pretty quickly, that the real estate business ain’t the travel agent business, and they could make far more money by becoming an advertising-driven media company instead.
Listen to Lloyd Frink, Zillow President, at a recent convention of the California Association of Realtors. [Note: For some reason during much of Lloyd's presentation, the camera showed a still of him instead of a live shot.]
Money quote for paranoid Realtors:
At Zillow, we quickly realized that you can’t replace Realtors with people over the phone…a much better business model for us is to NOT be part of the transaction, but to build something that is very, very compelling to consumers, and if we get enough of them to come to our web site, then we can attract people like you to come and advertise.
Tags: California Association of Realtors, Lloyd Frink, Real estate, Zillow
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Athol Kay // Oct 31, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Or in other words… “we are trying to destroy print advertising, not Realtors”
2 Kevin Boer, Alain Pinel Realtors // Oct 31, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Couldn’t have put it better myself! Zillow’s competition is Realtor.com, not Realtor, Inc. In the offline world, it’s newspapers, magazines, and the like.
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