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Wow! You leave for an hour, and Zillow changes the world

 Kevin Boer, Broker Owner, 3 Oceans Real Estate, Inc. ()

December 7th, 2006 · 14 Comments

I stepped out for an hour….I came back…and the world, or at least my little piece of it, had changed, courtesy of Zillow’s upcoming product release.

Quoting Drew Meyer (Zillow PR), the new product release includes three components:

  1. Agents and owners can post homes for sales–for FREE.
  2. Added a real estate wiki that is seeded with over 100 articles–and opening it up to the community for improvement & expansion
  3. Make Me Move–now ANYONE can set a “dream” price for their home

Of my four predictions, only one turns out to be correct: community commentary, which is at least part of what the wiki concept seems to be. (Note to self: Keep remaining three predictions on file — maybe they’ll be part of Zillow’s next release!)

Thinking as a traditional Realtor, my thoughts on the three components above are, respectively:
Oh #!^%
Huh???
 Huh? again.

Putting on my consumer hat:
Brilliant
Brilliant
Brilliant

And now my Web 2.0 Realtor hat:
Brilliant (if I do it right)
Absolutely brilliant
Brilliant again.

1. Agents and owners can post homes for sales [sic] for FREE.

Traditional Realtor: “Damn them! First they stole our data, now they’re pulling the MLS rug out from under us, next they’re going to start selling us leads or doing the transaction themselves. I will never — never — advertise there, and I’ll take every opportunity I can to bad-mouth them.”

Consumer: “Very, very, very cool. I love how I can get quick-and-dirty estimates of my home’s value. I should let my neighbor John know about this new feature — he’s having a hard time selling his home, and his Realtor should definitely advertise the home on Zillow. I mean, it’s free, so why not? And Joe down the street, who’s also selling his home (but on his own without a Realtor) should also know about this.”

Web 2.0 Realtor: “Gotta play this right, but this could be big. I’m already advertising my listings on Craigslist, Google Base, and Trulia; I definitely need to add Zillow to the list and stop wasting my money on enhanced listings on Realtor.com. In neighborhoods I’m trying to break into, I definitely need to start buying some banner ads. If this is where my potential clients are hanging out online, I need to be there too. But…gotta be careful. If the Zestimate for this home is below where I’ve listed it, not sure Zillow is the best place to advertise it. Oh, and here’s another idea: I’ll buy ads in the neighborhoods in which my buyer clients want to move — an easy way of letting the FSBO’ers in that neighborhood know to call me since I may have a client for them.”

2. Added a real estate wiki that is seeded with over 100 articles–and opening it up to the community for improvement & expansion.

Traditional Realtor: “Wiki?”

Consumer: “Nice, very nice. I love Wikipedia, but I can’t always find the really local real estate information I’m looking for. What’s the market been doing in Barron Park lately? How many offers are typically coming in on homes in Palo Alto these days? Hmmm…looks like this 3oceans guy Kevin has some of the answers I’m looking for…maybe I’ll shoot him an email.”

Web 2.0 Realtor: “Not 100% certain how to play this, but hey, I’ve got all kinds of content on my blog that I can re-purpose into some interesting Wiki-type content, and this could get me some publicity — help me get known as the local expert on Eichler homes, or on the Fair Oaks neighborhood. Realbird just started something similar at Realki.com — maybe I’ll split my efforts between the two sites and see which gives me better results.”

3. Make Me Move–now ANYONE can set a “dream” price for their home.

Traditional Realtor: “Yeah, right. Now anybody with a crap Eichler worth $850,000 is gonna put it out there at $1,100,000 and cross their fingers. If it’s my listing, they’ll probably expect me to advertise it in the paper at that price, too, and waste months of my time and thousands of my dollars while they come to their senses.”

Consumer: “It’s a bit gimmicky, but also kind of entertaining. I know my home is only worth $800,000, but you know what? If somebody really wanted to offer me $900,000, I’d sell it in a heartbeat! Can’t hurt — I mean, it takes 2 minutes of my time to do it, right?”

Web 2.0 Realtor: “Gotta watch these numbers like a hawk. If there’s a home with an unreasonably low Zestimate, and a “Make Me Move” price above that, but below what I think market value is…that could be tasty. If there’s a home with a “Make Me Move” price above market value, but not too much so, might be worth contacting that homeowner and explaining my services.”

Now…time to head to the other blogs and see what their reaction has been…

Update: (12:41am PST, Thursday, December 7, 2006) — About an hour ago, Zillow President Lloyd Frink posted the announcement. Zillow’s site itself, however, is still not back on.

Update 2:  (9 minutes later)  — Zillow’s David G, in his inaugural post on Active Rain, addresses one of Web 2.0 Realtor’s above issues.  Apparently if a home is listed for sale on Zillow, the price that will appear is its list price, not its Zestimate.

Tags: , Google Base, , , , ,
Possibly related posts

Tags: Craigslist · Google Base · Lloyd Frink · Real estate · Realtor.com · Trulia · Zillow

14 responses so far ↓

  • 1 » Blog Articles on Zillow’s New Upgrade by Seattle’s Rain City Real Estate Guide // Dec 7, 2006 at 2:03 am

    [...] Blog Articles on Zillow’s New Upgrade December 7, 2006 While Zillow is choking over there on the side trying to digest my listing info, here are some links to everyone I can find who is talking about tonight’s big news on Zillow.com [...]

  • 2 Zillow Adds For Sale Postings, Make Me Move, and RE Wiki » Personal Insights on Web 2.0, Blogging, and Business // Dec 7, 2006 at 2:44 am

    [...] Kevin Boer (2nd post) posts “Wow! You Leave for an Hour, and Zillow Changes the World” (I don’t know if this is EARTH changing–but we’ll take the compliment) [...]

  • 3 Real Central VA - Tracking the Charlottesville and Central VA real estate market and more » Zillow steps it up // Dec 7, 2006 at 9:11 am

    [...] Techcrunch Pat at Transparent Real Estate Blueroof RCG Sellsius 3 Oceans [...]

  • 4 Todd Tarson // Dec 7, 2006 at 9:13 am

    Perfectly done, Kevin.

    I just put one of my listings on Zillow (the first one I’ve ever seen so far in my neck of the woods) and the zestimate is quite a bit lower than the list price. I’m not fearing this as of yet since I can still make a case for the asking price from the MLS (for now anyway).

    I do feel for the traditional RE folks… but only the strong survive and I think tools like this will only help me get to where I want my business to go.

  • 5 The San Diego Home Blog » Blog Archive » While I Was Sleeping - GodZillow Strikes // Dec 7, 2006 at 10:22 am

    [...] Footnote: I think I am going to like the Wiki feature, and my “Make Me Move” price is $2 million. Now here are some other links for those that would like to read up: 360Guide, Ardell’s Seattle Area Blog, Blue Roof, Future of Real Estate Marketing, Three Oceans… Oh, forget it. Just go here, and Drew Meyers will link you to just about everybody who is talking. [...]

  • 6 Joel Burslem // Dec 7, 2006 at 10:25 am

    My take, FWIW:

    1. Love it. A great way to capitalize on Zillow’s eyeballs.

    2. Gimmicky and destined for failure. The Wiki idea I think is just a bad idea because it’s ripe for abuse and spammers. I can see every one with a “Get Rich in Real Estate” scam putting it up on the wiki.

    3. Redfin has a patent application on this idea so we’ll see how Zillow’s move plays out. That said they have deep pockets so I suppose they could buy their way out.

  • 7 Erik // Dec 7, 2006 at 11:16 am

    Incredibly good write-up Kevin, really well done. I, like Joel, think that there’s some interesting things swirling around in regard to Redfin. In fact, I think they’re a micro-example of what a true real estate vertical might look like in the future. We’ll see. :)

  • 8 Charleston Real Estate Blog // Dec 7, 2006 at 2:07 pm

    An old Zillow poll and looking into the future …

    Just below is an informal poll at sellsius° from Labor Day, as of today, I suspect the trust of Zillow…

  • 9 miOaklandCounty » Blog Archive » My First Zillow Post Ever // Dec 10, 2006 at 5:00 pm

    [...] Well, I decided I need to go to sleep anyway, in spite of this very timely blog fodder. So I woke up this morning to a plethora of commentary going on out there in the blogosphere. Some of my favorite thoughts on the topic so far, are from Kevin Boer at 3 Oceans. I see merit in Kevin’s 2.0 approach. Well presented, Kevin. Thanks for doing some of my thinking for me. Otherwise I might have been yelling “the sky is falling, the sky is falling” this morning. OK, not really, but… [...]

  • 10 Carnival of Real Estate, Round 22 at The Phoenix Real Estate Guy // Dec 11, 2006 at 2:18 am

    [...] Kevin Boer at Three Oceans Real Estate gives his take on Zillow’s latest product launch from three different perspectives, the old school agent, the consumer, and the next generation real estate agent in his post Wow! You leave for an hour and Zillow changes the World! [...]

  • 11 Homefinders.com Blog » Blog Archive » ZILLOW // Dec 11, 2006 at 3:09 pm

    [...] Well, I decided I need to go to sleep anyway, in spite of this very timely blog fodder. So I woke up this morning to a plethora of commentary going on out there in the blogosphere. Some of my favorite thoughts on the topic so far, are from Kevin Boer at 3 Oceans. I see merit in Kevin’s 2.0 approach. Well presented, Kevin. Thanks for doing some of my thinking for me. Otherwise I might have been yelling “the sky is falling, the sky is falling” this morning. OK, not really, but… [...]

  • 12 Douglas Heddings // Dec 12, 2006 at 9:21 am

    Kevin,

    Firstly I have to say that I really enjoy your blog. Chock full of wit and intellect making every posting in interesting read.

    Now for Zillow…this is a perfect demonstration of the reactions that we are all seeing to there newest “tools.”

    I actually find the free sale listings tool quite user friendly from a listing agent perspective but I’m concerned that Zillow has such a poor NYC presence that it’s not likely to produce buyers. That said, I’m only listing one of my properties for now as the Zestimator is grossly inaccurate. I think Zillow needs to continue to amend their products and concentrate on providing more accurate data for the larger markets like yours and mine. I do like the direction they seem to be heading but as someone who attempted to create a NYC MLS (we have none!) about 12 years ago, I’m hear to tell you that breaking into the Manhattan market is going to be a very tall order indeed the team Zillow.

    Keep up the great work Kevin!

  • 13 Carnival of real estate at Three Oceans Real Estate // Dec 15, 2006 at 9:31 pm

    [...] Unable to resist the temptation to write yet again about Zillow (and to submit another Zillow post!), I lucked out and made it to the list with my post on Zillow’s new features.  And yes, “lucked out” is the correct phrase because apparently my placement in the top 10, in competition with two other bloggers who wrote about Zillow (including Greg Swann himself) was decided by a coin toss. [...]

  • 14 Realbird’s RealKi Becomes Inman Wiki // Feb 1, 2007 at 9:48 pm

    [...] Realbird, the Bay Area-based MLS search provider, launched a real estate Wiki about the same time that Zillow made its big December 6th announcement, which also included a Wiki. [...]

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