This will go down in history as the day my feed reader exploded.
I must be the only real estate agent in the country with a 9:00 PM bedtime. While I was sleeping, the BIG announcement from Zillow came. Agents far and wide were logging midnight posts on the news while I was having Open House dreams. Here’s what I missed (from Inman News):
Home-valuation site Zillow.com, which offers past sales data and other detailed property information for millions of homes across the country, is opening up to real estate agents, brokers, builders and homeowners who want to post information about for-sale properties.
Another feature announced Wednesday allows homeowners to test the waters for a future home sale by posting a “Make Me Move” price for an address. The site facilitates the initial contact between prospective buyers and the owner without revealing the owner’s personal information. And Zillow is also launching a series of real estate articles as a “Real Estate Wiki” that allows site users to update and refine the articles’ content.
I’m late to the party, but for our local West Coast audience, many of which I will assume were also doing other things late last night (like sleeping) when the announcement came, let’s recap.
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Agents and homeowners may now place free advertisements for their homes for sale on Zillow.
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In ebay fashion, homeowners may float their trial balloons with a “Buy It Now” (or “Make Me Move”) price. Show me the money.
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Zillow is looking to become the Wikipedia for real estate, where users can edit a on-line real estate content.
We are looking at the embryonic form of a de facto national MLS system. There are wrinkles… but there are two things that Zillow.com has by now proved itself eminently willing to do that both the National Association of Realtors and Realtor.com have proved themselves eminently unwilling to do: Change and grow.
And therein lies the problem. Revolutionary, yes, but a national MLS system Zillow will never be, at least not without the cooperation of every local MLS in the country. This will ultimately leave Zillow as yet another home search tool that, while clearly beefier in content than its competitors (the 1000 pound GodZillow), will offer only a piece-meal from the homes-for-sale menu. I have written of my own information-overload-hell, and real estate
consumers are no doubt feeling my pain. It is a full-time job to keep abreast of all of the places I could possibly gain on-line exposure for my listings. With the exception of the MLS, each opportunity can present the homebuyer with an only an incomplete piece of the pie. The on-line customer (most of the population now) can only be frustrated at best and confused at worst with the information fragmentation.
Many real estate professionals, of course, will find Zillow’s announcement threatening, just one more indication that disintermediation is on its way. Inman News quoted Ed Krafchow, president of Prudential CA/NV/TX Realty as saying:
I believe that in the future the market will be much further open to the public, and that doesn’t preclude Realtors from being involved in transactions — they may be much more important, at the end of the day.
Now, while I hate the term “at the end of the day”, today I couldn’t agree more. This should be a huge wake-up call to the National Association of Realtors. Technology has spawned a control-freakish society. Information is at our fingertips. Make it hard or make it easy, but the consumer will not now or ever relinquish that desire for control. That ship has sailed. Why continue to cling to the antiquated theory the survival of the real estate professional is dependent on the MLS being a proprietary system? There
should be no secrets and no secret listings. I continue to believe that agents will always have a role in the home buying and selling process, it is just that that role is changing.
Inman news observes that “The online company is mixing property record data and listing data in a dynamic way. It is using its property record database to establish the baseline for for-sale listings, making it easier and in some cases more accurate”. This integration of property records with listing search engine functionality is what I find the most intriguing and possibly industry-influencing element of the Zillow offering. We will have to see how potent this cocktail proves to be from the consumer’s perspective.
Now I am off to enter all of my listings on the Zillow site, as I have already included all of our listings on Trulia, Edgeio, Propsmart, Google Base, Yahoo!, Craigslist, Backpage, Realtor.com and
many more sites. Jeez, it would just be so much easier (and so much more effective) if the information was aggregated. Then I could get back to representing real people.
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.
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You’re not the only one with the early bedtime … I’ll be adding my two cents. Well, right after I get done entering a property to see what happens.
Kris… the MLS’s at this point do NOT want to cooperate, it is painfully clear (I serve on just one of those MLS Boards that has no intention at the moment of sharing anything).
This is a direct challenge to MLS, and quite frankly it is about time there was a real challenger. Now you may not think that Zillow will go anywhere with the MLS but I think differently. If this caught on and was just a bit more competitve to the MLS it would make me think twice about being a member of the MLS. And that is a much harder decision for an agent to make than it is for a seller to make.
“Hmm… put my home on Zillow for free or pay for the service of an agent that is going to post the listing on Zillow.”
Much eaiser choice for them than for me… but it may not be too long before that decision becomes easier.
It’s easy to answer ‘What has MLS done for me??’ right now. But the real question will no doubt be ‘What will the MLS do for me??’
>>Now you may not think that Zillow will go anywhere with the MLS but I think differently
That should say ‘without’ not ‘with’. My bad.
Todd, If you meant “you may not think” as in “me”, you are wrong. I think this is huge for them and for industry change. I simply meant to say that they will never replace (as in be as comprehensive as) the MLS without the cooperation of the MLS. I think it is time for that cooperation, but I understand why it hasn’t happened and perhaps never will. If Zillow did succeed in replacing the traditional MLS system as the primary listing vehicle, I don’t think that will mean my services as an agent are no longer required, because that is not the only thing I do nor is it even the most important thing I do for my clients. Having said all of this, I think we agree on the subject.
Jonathan, Hope you had better luck than I did. I just spent 45 minutes trying to input one listing and got bounced four times at the final stage. Aargh – Curses. Not to be dissuaded, I will try again after a Chardonnay refill. Guess we still have a few bugs to work out. I am a little concerned (Ardell pointed this out on her Blog) that I had to (gasp) check a box saying swear-to-Gd-hope-to-(whatever) that I am the listing agent. Guess they find me believable, because I was able to proceed to the next step. Still in search of the end game.
It looks like over 2,000 listings will be uploaded in the first 24 hours of Zillow homes for sale. They won’t need “MLS cooperation” heck, who needs the MLS when you can get a superior product for free!
Realtor.com has it coming to them, and this could be their demise – I’m sick of paying their ransom to get inferior quality and service.
Does anyone really believe that Google is going to ignore the opportunity of a national MLS database?
I think it highly likely that Google (or someone like them) will develop a database that is available to sellers and Realtors and monetize it with minimal submission fees (maybe FREE?), then make their money on affiliated services.
Gee, wonder if Google could join all 900 MLS’s to get access to their feeds, buy a major national title/escrow company, buy WAMU, buy American Home Shield, and perhaps a casualty insurance company ~ and provide (duh!) one-stop shopping at bargain rates?
And how hard would it be for them to sell leads to qualified buyers to desperate, starving agents?
Realtors are dinosaurs awaiting slaughter as companies like Zillow, Redfin, Google, etc. plan the demise of their business model as it now exists.
It’s time to WAKE UP, people!
Jim, Agree with you where Realtor.com is concerned. I just paid my extortion money for 2007. I thought seriously about not renewing, but then wouldn’t you know it. We get three serious buyer calls in one week from their portal. Damn them.
Hi Kris,
Fantastic commentary (as always). I’m really enjoying reading your angle on information overload and the Realtor’s (new?) role in deciphering it for their clients — thinking about it some more, our Make Me Move feature probably adds to that complexity.
On listings, we’ve adopted the grass roots strategy because we believe that it’s vital to have a direct relationship and the on-site engagement of the agents and sellers whose homes are sold on Zillow — ours is an audience-driven business. Also, I don’t think IDX feeds could fully populate Zillow’s rich for sale postings — I haven’t seen MLS data that includes stuff like “what the owners love about this home”.
On Zillow getting “all” listings; it’s obviously too soon to tell (after 24 hrs, we have 3,000 — and counting) — but, there’s no good reason why it wouldn’t happen. 100% of listing agents have free access to Zillow but unlike the MLS, sellers can also market their homes for free on Zillow even if there listing agent chooses not to. All other things being equal (which they never are), Zillow actually has a pretty good shot at “all” listings. FYI – Marlow at 360 Digest shares your views on MLS collaboration — it’ll be interesting to see where we are a year from now.
If you are still battling to post your listing, please e-mail me. We’ve been bug-bashing non-stop and the site seems much more stable now though I am still hearing reports of the odd weird behavior here and there.
Thanks again for writing,
David
Typo – “there listings” should be “their listings”. Sorry – I plead lack of sleep.
I do sometimes wish you could edit blog comments.
David,
Thanks for taking the time to stop by and comment. I am getting tanked up on caffeine with the full intent of getting my listings successfully posted this morning, Armed for battle, head down, full speed ahead.
David G frm Zillow -
Well thanks for the sales pitch~!
You know what’s funny…
I work in computers and I’ve seen markets change in the blink of an eye.
1. Stock Broker (gone)
2. Computer Support (gone to India)
3. Software QA (gone to india)
4. Development (gone to India)
Along the way there were very vocal people stating that changes will NEVER affect them. Or that they were indespensible. Surprise Surprise when they found out that reality wasn’t quite what they thought it was.
Moral of the story…
Adopt the new developments and use them to make yourself a better worker. If you don’t you’re (gone)…
Shadash,
Absolutely, one-hundred percent on target. The problem is it will take a lot more than little ol’ me embracing change. The industry as a whole has to, and good luck with that happening (at least quickly).
What MLS doesn’t understand is that once zillow takes the web over they’ll be the one everyone goes to. Much like how Yahoo, Google, or MSN are the main portals people use. Once Zillow is established online that’s the company people will go to.
Even if MLS was to get everyone together and try putting listings online zillow will already have the ball rolling allowing them take over online markets faster.
Here’s what you’ll start seeing Zillow do
1. They’ll start licensing out “Zestimate” technology to smaller real estate online websites.
2. They’ll license out the zillow researched price the house originally sold for. (already doing this for ziprealty)
Zillow is positioning itself as the online “guru” of real estate. As people start seeing zillow “zestimates” and other information integrated in smaller websites It won’t take much for them to go to Zillow directly instead of working with the middleman. (this is what ebay did)
Kris… what MLS has to do is partner with not only zillow, but the Googles, Trulia’s, and the others. This way the info is consistent anywhere a future client may be looking. Let the outside interests battle it out for the consumer… we shouldn’t be in that war.
Now I realize that there is a snowmans chance in the Gobi desert of this happening, but I’ll at least be able to tell the Members that I was right.
So roll over and die is it now, and we don’t get to argue against that?
Dang.
Todd, I think it will eventually go that direction (if the Boards are smart). The big companies (take Prudential) are already feeding their listings to the sites you mention.
Shadash, buying a Chia Pet on ebay is quite different from buying a home. More complex, many more variables in the product, much more personal. Agents are much more than “middlemen”, and I believe there will always be a place for agents in the transaction. No argument, however, that our role will evolve and may eventually be quite different than at current.
John, Huh?
Kris, I completely agree with local mls boards moving in that direction. However, many mls systems are so incredibly far behind these constant changing technological advances, that I believe they will always remain in this position. As GodZillo strikes, many other ideas are sparking and evolving the “at my fingertips” informational archives. Again, agreeing with you 100%…realtors will remain as important as the rest of the big name professionals. There is almost too much information to comprehend these days and a personal touch is always top priority!
Vince, Always nice when someone agrees with me (and getting rarer).
I think the point most consumers have been taking issue with here is our value and long-term survivability as agents in an IT world. Generally, however, I suspect these comments are coming from people who don’t see our value now. I do not think we will ever see a day when the “parallels” some like to draw to Amazon, ebay, etc. will hold water for real estate.