Why I like Zillow and Redfin by ARDELL

[photopress:3ofhearts.jpg,thumb,alignright]I’m still scratching my head as to why agents around the country hate Zillow so much that they want to call it “Z”. Theory is that if they even whisper the name Zillow, they are spreading “the word” and helping it to become even more popular.

Zillow is a system of mathematical calculations, a tool that is easy and fun to use. So isn’t hating Zillow like hating your calculator?

I like Zillow because before they came along, all of the lead generators were about buyers. Buyers went there to look at houses and hit the big flashing “Find an Agent” button and were taken off to never-never-land where the lead generator collected a toll. Buying buyer leads has always been a joke. I can hardly go anywhere without hearing someone talking about buying a house. Every coffee shop, restaurant, the lady in line in front of you at the bank, at least 20% of the people at a barbecue…really. If you need to buy a buyer lead you need to look in the mirror and figure out why you need to trick people into hitting a big flashing button and pay for one. Time to hone up your skills and get a personality.

The innovation of Zillow is that every lead generator has asked that question: “How do we attract SELLER leads?” Even House Values knows that they cannot get enough seller leads, and they can sell them as fast as they can get them. There are more agents willing to buy seller leads from House Values in prime areas, then there are seller leads to go around. There’s a waiting list…I know…I’ve been on it for over a year. Every time they email or call me I ask…you have a seller lead spot available for 98033 or 98034. Answer is always no, but they are trying to sell me something else. Because attracting sellers rather than buyers is something the lead generator industry has been very lax at doing well.

And then comes Zillow. I don’t know what they are selling, but they clearly have the seller’s attention. Did Zillow get an Inman award for that? If not…Zillow now has the ARDELL award for innovation in lead generating sites. Don’t be waiting for the trophy, I haven’t gotten out shopping for Greg and Sharon yet, and you’re behind them.

Kudos to Zillow. Don’t know where you’re running with that ball, but kudos for putting a seller oriented site in play.

I like Redfin, because…

a lot of my past clients who came to me from blogging,

tried them first 🙂

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About ARDELL

ARDELL is a Managing Broker with Better Properties METRO King County. ARDELL was named one of the Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers in the U.S. by Inman News and has 33+ years experience in Real Estate up and down both Coasts, representing both buyers and sellers of homes in Seattle and on The Eastside. email: ardelld@gmail.com cell: 206-910-1000

18 thoughts on “Why I like Zillow and Redfin by ARDELL

  1. Zillow is entertaining and informative in many respects. I enjoy Zillow because it can become tedious looking up tax & lending information at the county site—it’s just not pretty. But, mostly I enjoy mulling through the sold data, that, until Zillow hatched, was not available to consumers online in a meaningful way. The ‘accuracy shmackuracy’ debate: it all depends upon what your objective is. They still don’t have my house “sold data”, so that’s kind of strange being that I’m in their back yard.

    My wife and I particularly enjoyed the interesting e-mails from agents who apparently felt threatened by a Zillow link on our website main page, right next to Rain City Guide, and Realty Objectives. The e-mails seemed to fade away ever since local real estate companies followed Zillow’s coat-tails and posted sold data as well.

    And Redfin, what isn’t there to like about the under dog? Seems like Redfin has been doing more business lately, too.

    Earlier this year I also liked Shackprices.com, particularly Galen’s post on how real estate buyers seem to be turning into buying do-it-yourselfers.

  2. Zillow is entertaining and informative in many respects. I enjoy Zillow because it can become tedious looking up tax & lending information at the county site—it’s just not pretty. But, mostly I enjoy mulling through the sold data, that, until Zillow hatched, was not available to consumers online in a meaningful way. The ‘accuracy shmackuracy’ debate: it all depends upon what your objective is. They still don’t have my house “sold data”, so that’s kind of strange being that I’m in their back yard.

    My wife and I particularly enjoyed the interesting e-mails from agents who apparently felt threatened by a Zillow link on our website main page, right next to Rain City Guide, and Realty Objectives. The e-mails seemed to fade away ever since local real estate companies followed Zillow’s coat-tails and posted sold data as well.

    And Redfin, what isn’t there to like about the under dog? Seems like Redfin has been doing more business lately, too.

    Earlier this year I also liked Shackprices.com, particularly Galen’s post on how real estate buyers seem to be turning into buying do-it-yourselfers.

  3. Excellent Post Ardell. I agree that Zillow is something that needs to be embraced rather than shunned. Zillow is not going away… with a new cash infusion and lots of great PR they are here for a while. Agents always ask us at our training sessions about Zillow and my response is always… embrace them…. if the Zestimate is correct according to you… great. Tell your client that. If it is off, (for whatever reason) let your client know why you think that. Either way, it is great that clients (leads) are checking out Zillow and doing some homework about their property. Zillow is not right or wrong, an agent is not right or wrong… at the end of the day a property is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

  4. The Zestimate of my house is climbing like crazy in the short time since Zillow’s Opening Day. I just checked it again and it’s up almost $100,000 since the last time I checked it.

  5. I like Zillow alot, too. And I find Zillow’s “Value Range” on the “See Home Details” page is always a excellant starting point.

    One angle in L.A.’s softening market: We often remind sellers that buyers are checking the Zillow numbers ~before~ coming to see their property.

  6. Best part about Zillow is they energized the real estate and tech worlds into creating RE 2.0 experiences. They caused people to get creative, the discussions they created caused people to invest in real estate, oh, and their technology is pretty incredible.

  7. Greg,

    Actually Redfin, in principle, deserves the credit for that The industry didn’t respond until Zillow, because of the bucks and national exposure. But clearly if Redfin had the bucks behind them from the getgo that Zillow had…they would have been a stronger influence on the industry as a whole, and their website technology has been and continues to be, superior to Zillow’s, by far.

  8. Ardell,

    I agree that Redfin’s website is great, in fact I wrote a blog saying that they deserved the INman award for innovation, but their model actually isn’t that innovative to me. Just taking offers online? Six years ago I was a broker in San Francisco for Prudential California and we sold the first house ever online. It was a big deal back then but ahead of it’s time.

    I think Redfin’s map is the best online- but the model isn’t that impressive to me. Even if I wasn’t a broker I could tell that it’s a tech company jumping into real estate, instead of the other way around. They are missing key elements, specifically touch.

    In february nobody outside of Seattle even knew who Redfin was- Zillow has been talked about and discussed and speculated about since last year and they hadn’t even launched.

    That speculation and build up and then the enourmous undertaking of gethering and cyphering all that data, and the element that Zillow has more than any other real estate site, fun, is why they have so quickly become, and continue to be one of the most visited sites on the entire web.

    No comparison in my mind, as far as inspiring people to innovate in real estate.

  9. Great post on an interesting topic. I’m involved doing something (somewhat) similar, in the Swedish real estate market, but for commercial properties. However, it is part of an DCF model and should be considered a starting point for ones analysis. Also first of all mainly focusing on multi-residential.

    Anyway, it’s amazing how many people that are obsessed with the ‘frist value’. Doesn’t matter how much you try to explain for them that every single value could be updated by themselfes in seconds for a more correct(?) analyse.

    Thanks for a great blog.
    Stockholm,
    Sweden

  10. Great post on an interesting topic. I’m involved doing something (somewhat) similar, in the Swedish real estate market, but for commercial properties. However, it is part of an DCF model and should be considered a starting point for ones analysis. Also first of all mainly focusing on multi-residential.

    Anyway, it’s amazing how many people that are obsessed with the ‘frist value’. Doesn’t matter how much you try to explain for them that every single value could be updated by themselfes in seconds for a more correct(?) analyse.

    Thanks for a great blog.
    Stockholm,
    Sweden

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