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With their Q3 earnings out, Zillow says their focus moving forward is on their “Super Agents” who pay at least $5,000 per month for leads.

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"Zillow Focuses on Super Agents"

  1. As an agent, YES, I am soooo ticked off with zillow. I receive zero leads from my listings which my local MLS allow to be on zillow 's site. My broker is alrady paying zillow to have us a premier agents, yet it makes no difference. I absolutely hate how this is done. Thank you for enlightening us

  2. The beauty of any qualified buyers making an offer on a listing that closes, the listing agent gets paid. No different than what has been experienced in the past. This is simply a new avenue for a listing agent to provide exposure for their listings. Yes, there are premiums paid for prime locations just as there are with all forms of media; best locations going to party with the desire to invest in the most expensive locations of media.

  3. Dan says:

    Zillow lied to me. They called and said I could “buy out” the number of impressions in certain zip codes I was interested in. Convinced me to spend $1000 a month. A couple days later called and offered to an agent in my office 90% of the impressions in the same zip code. That agent told me about it so I told my zillow rep, who said that agent was confused because I had already bought out that particular zip. The agent went back to HIS zillow rep and told him who said I was the one who was wrong. My zillow rep said he would investigate.
    Finally The two zillow reps connected and gave a strange explanation that they were selling exposure on different positions, which is something they didn’t understand. I told them it was deceptive business practices and wanted to speak to a manager. In the middle of this now. This company is corrupt.

    1. Dana Stone says:

      I experienced the same

      1. Tere Rice says:

        Ah Zillow Land constructed by a Harvard Grad with an Economics degree to get 40%+ of your commission. Interesting we are seeing the RE model change from the standard RE Brokerages to Flat Fee Brokers so we can afford to spend thousands on Zillow. What you are seeing is the model of RE Agents who now belong to a team and you pay the Team Leader a percentage or a referral fee. Either way you are now working for less than minimum wage. I think once RE Agents realize their ROI with Zillow is less than adequate as a buyers or seller source, Zillow stock will drop. Remember most sales people are sociopaths are driven by the greed of the almighty dollar. Stop and do the Math, Z doesn’t really pan out for a decent ROI. All it does is keep you busy trying to find a valid lead. Z is Lookie Losers Haven! Maybe 1 out of twenty contacts are viable. That’s a lot time spent weeding out the good from the losers. The easiest person to con is a con, don’t be fooled Z is over priced! After seven years of advertising with Z I quit after they insisted I need to double my monthly for half the views! I passed!

      2. Tere Rice says:

        These are not Super Agents these are TEAMS!!!

    2. Tere Rice says:

      WHAT IS AN IMPRESSION? Please define what a Impression is? What a waste of money Wake Up RE Agents the Emperor has no clothes on. The Wizard has no power to send you Viable Buyers with an “Impression”!

  4. Rob Aubrey says:

    There is no evidence that publishing your listings on an unregulated site actually benefits the seller. In fact there is evidence that shows the contrary.

    The largest unregulated site claims 80 million visitors per month. Seeing how approx 400,000 homes sell per month, that means about .5% yes a half of a percent of the visitors are buyers.

    So there is evidence that homes can take longer to sell, simply because the agents that are responding to the calls don’t know anything about the property, their goal is to move them off that property. Those agents are called the carousel of incompetence.

    Here is a survey done by a brokerage

    When our surveyors asked if the agent was the listing agent:

    1) “No. I am not.” 21%
    2) “Yes.” 45%
    3) “Why do you want to talk to the listing agent?
    They only work for the seller.” (or some permutation of this) 32%
    4) Other Responses/Unclear Responses 3%

    Troubling that 45% of the agents on the Unregulated Sites choose to lie to consumers, huh?

    So in my not so humble position to actually put a seller’s property in that situation would be more of a violation of your fiduciary duty.

  5. I'm not a super agent. Only have been spending $500 per month. Zillow dried up on September and now I know why. Cock suckers haven't sent me a lead in 2 months. I knew something was up. Their response when I asked why I went from receiving a couple leads per month to zero leads per month was " spend more money" . Scam! I want to sue, but who has time. ZILLOW IS NOW A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY. SPREAD THE WORD.

  6. Tim Young says:

    This discussion is going on in virtually every industry. Whether it’s Expedia.com, Uber, Amazon.com or Google – technology has changed the way that consumers buy things. The long-held notion among real estate agents that the details regarding our clients’ properties are confidential and to be shared only with prospects that may buy directly from us is foreign to the consumer. We are at war with our own clients if we insist on putting our interests ahead of theirs in this manner. If NAR had not been afraid to undermine co-op brokers they would have built Realtor.com like Zillow, but instead they built it to accomodate the real estate establishment who wanted to pull the ladder up behind them and retain control over the money stream. Other forces, spurred by the advancement of technology have responded to consumer demand while our industry, as a whole has not. Every agent can afford Zillow or any other online real estate portal including Realtor.com. The income produced by online lead generation coupled with diligent follow-up is several multiples of the amount that “super agents” invest, so why would you not add this to your business if you have the time?

  7. John Falto says:

    I have been duped by Zillow! I have been on and off Zillow three times (yes, third strike and you are out). Every time I came back it was because the trainers were saying it and yes, all eyes seemed to be on Zillow. At one point this last time, my rep said I could get 100% share and they were not selling "impressions" anymore but that it worked like an auction. So I paid what was supposed to get me 100% coverage and was I flooded with leads and calls? Nope, and just two months later I saw that I was not in the 100% position because some one had paid higher (but I was never informed so this is an auction where the Zillow rep in in command). So as to have at least access to Zillow and a presence there, now instead of $1000 a month, they only get $100 and I plan to go even lower soon. As angry as I can be with Zillow and all the trainers that said I had to be on Zillow, my anger is actually more one NAR and Realtor.com (yes I know that it is owned and operated by a third party vendor). A Zillow page has more information on it, than my own MLS and Zillow has pumped a huge amount of money into consumer brand awareness. When I started my career as a Realtor back in the 80's, there was a survey done where consumers were asked what name comes up when they hear the word "real estate) and Century21 came up. Now if the same survey was done, the response would probably be Zillow. NAR dropped the ball on this one a long time ago and has not done anything to take command of the market share of consumer eyeballs. Zillow has been weakened by the lost of ListHub but listings are still being put on their website. Now is the time that NAR can gain that market share from Zillow. Will it happen? Most likely not. Unfortunate for us.

  8. Don Rushing says:

    That I'd a very good point about the listing agent getting paid when ANY buyer's agent brings a buyer. The remainder of your comment however seeks dilute the unsavory business practices of Zillow's sales reps lying to agents by telling them they will get leads regardless of the amount they pay monthly to Zillow. It is not that black and white. And it is a deceptive business practice.

  9. Don Rushing says:

    That "is." Not, that "I'd." Auto correct!!!

  10. Sal Arlia says:

    "Share with the cost of their loan officers" WHAT? Isn't that illegal? Marketing agreements are going away finally!

  11. Here's how to beat Zillow. Simply sign on as a $150/mo "Premier Agent" and focus on getting listings, listings, and listings. Once you get a listing, Zillow will give you exclusivity for YOUR OWN listing through their Premier program. This means you will be the only name, face, and contact info that shows up next to your property. There won't be 3 or 4 faces with pretty stars next to the listing you worked so damn hard for!
    When focusing on listings, don't focus on getting the million dollar listings, especially if you're new to this game. When attempting to get listings, focus on the nice, mid-priced properties (where the majority of people, aka "normal" buyers) are searching. The big dogs with fancy shmansy homes have their buddy agents. Plus, it's a numbers game. More people looking are looking at mid-priced homes, so you'll get more people hitting you up to see your house. Then, when your house is under contract, you can work on your "Sorry, that house is under contract, but I can show you other houses…" speech.
    Make sure you stage your listings, too. For $150 you can get a staging consultation, or as I call it, "deep intervention," so your clients show off their house properly. The stager can also be the bad guy who tells your clients everything you already told them (but that they ignored or dismissed). Get yourself a pro who knows what she's doing and sounds authoritative. If your stager is not leaving sellers with a laundry list of changes and in a pool of tears, they're probably not worth a darn.
    If you're particularly foolish, like me, you'll have a warehouse of staging furniture and you'll offer free staging for each listing. But that's a ton of work, and you must have an eye for what photographs well. That brings me to another topic: If you aren't hiring a professional photographer, stop reading and get out of this business. Really. Unless you are only dealing with foreclosed properties, if you can't cough up $150 for real photos and a virtual tour, you're an idiot. Photos can make or break a listing. Good photos & staging result in higher prices and faster sales.
    Furthermore, when listing a house, remember that you are selling yourself to the neighbors of that listing just as much as you are selling the house to potential buyers. Sure, you might get an occasional "saw your sign" call, but equally important is that other potential SELLERS nearby see your cool sign, your open houses, and that "PENDING SALE" rider within a week or two of putting it on the market.
    Seeing that rider will get other potential sellers to take notice and maybe jot down your name and number. Then, you can get more listings, more buyers, more zillow calls, more sellers & buyers, and then–if you're like me–you'll be in the top 2% of agents in your area in just 2 years in the biz, have ZERO time for friends, children, and your husband will divorce you. But hey, you made money off Zillow!! Congrats!

  12. Don Rushing Zillow Sales reps drop the phone when you ask them.. " What is my ROI?" (Return On Investment) With all the agents around the country using Zillow you would think one smart sales rep at Zillow would track the numbers of their clients(reatlors). Oh my gosh… actucally use legitimate sales techniques to close a potential client!!!?? For Example: 3 month time period. Joe/Jane Realtor paid $500.00 per month for zip code, received 35 leads. Of those 35 leads he/she set 10 appointments getting 3 listings and 1 buyer agreement. Of those 4 contracts 3 closed. Do you know why they can't do that… I do. Because the numbers would show that but for only a small pecentage of agents the return is not worth the investment.

  13. Ironically, REALTOR.com (which is not owned by NAR) works the same way. Listing agents don't come up next to their own listings unless they pay to do so. There is little difference other than Zillow is dominating the space. It would sure make alot more sense for NAR to own it's own site that promotes listing agents next to their own listings and stop feeding the others who don't have our best interests in mind.

  14. Ernie Behrle says:

    I have basically same stories as those who wrote before me. It has always been my claim that Zillow catered to the super agents in my area. That's why I spent money on Trulia and Realtor.com. Both produced decent leads for what I could afford to do. Now I'm afraid Trulia having been purchased by by Zillow will kill those leads. Zillow doesn't care about the thousands of smaller independent agents such as myself and only caters to the mega agents. I have no animosity towards those agents at all but wish they would stand up and support the industry as a whole.

  15. The reason Zillow is catering to super agents is two-fold. 1) Smaller agents tend to cancel their spending all the time so Zillow has to constantly re-sell it and 2) a vast majority of agents never follow-up in a timely fashion (or at all) creating a sub-par experience for the customer on the site. So Zillow wants to make sure the consumer gets a very good agent to help them (because if consumers leave, agents will quickly follow) so guess what?- That means the successful agents that can afford to buy zillow impressions (not to say that there are not good agents who are not successful but generally successful agents are good). It also helps that the more successful agents don't cancel zip codes all the time. Its a win for the consumer (the get the best agents), seller (exposure for their home), Zillow ($$), and the successful agents that can afford it (ROI). The key is to get in a zip code (ride out the slow impression times like right now), increase your conversion rate (training) and slowly keep buying in more zip codes over time. You also need to stand out among your fellow agents with high number of reviews, past sales, and a great profile. Is it difficult for a new agent? Sure. But everything is. Just takes time.

  16. Co-marketing isn't that. Lenders pay for exposure to buyers just like the agents do. Their impressions are just a portion of the realtors impressions. Not a marketing agreement between a lender and an agent, it is between zillow and no direct referral $$ go from a lender to a realtor for any specific lead.

  17. I've have been saying this for years. Zillow is making their money off our work product. When will the real estate industry wake up and stop paying them to sent your, our, their leads to other agents.

    If this was any other industry we would be laughed at for giving our competion such freedom. What a shame.

  18. Realtors using Zillow prove to be the dumbest in our profession ever, they use your intelectual information (listings) to generate business that they then in return sell back to you, They are not licensed nor do any real "work" -someone please start a 'Realtors against Zillow' alreay

  19. Sounds like fraud to me.

  20. ASB says:

    I have been advertising mortgage rates on Zillow since they were a start-up and the clicks / leads were free. After they went to a pay-per-click model the ROI was good and the clicks were cheap. After the raised the cost of the clicks the ROI was still good and my spend was $30-35K per year. Recently they changed from per-click to a per-lead model with a “good” lead costing close to $200 each. On this new model Zillow can suck $2K from your account in a matter of hours and the leads are the same leads I was paying $14 per click for. No ROI there. The way I see it my spend would have to go to $150k per year for the same results. Not willing to give so much of my money to them. My spend has gone elswhere and my results and ROI are just as good. I personally know two other mortgage brokers who cancelled their spend with Zillow. I think they want to go after the big spenders and squeeze out the little guy. It should not take long for the big spenders to figure out their ROI is not working. My two cents.

  21. Larry says:

    Wow, I’m seeing a lot of Zillow hate. I don’t really see the issue here. Zillow has used their marketing expertise to drive the consumer to their site. You post your listings to get eyes on the property…. and your face in front of the buying and selling public. You pay an advertising cost to do this. I’m not seeing the evil. You could just have easily posted your listing in a newspaper or print media….and have a buyer end up calling a different agent. Look…If it works and you make money….continue. If it doesn’t….then stop using them. And do your own ROI. It’s not rocket science.

  22. DENNIS MASON says:

    I only have one question for everyone….What happened to doing a good job for your client and getting a referral or two off of every deal ????…Remember “Word of Mouth advertising” is always best….I have never lost a referral to someone else and they are more receptive to do what you ask them to do to get their transaction completed quickly and move on to the next referral…and then after time you become part of their family….Waste of Money

  23. Lance Owens says:

    It could be stopped at the MLS level, if agents banded together and required all syndicated listings to be branded by the brokerage whose listing it was – the shoe would be on the other foot and Zillow would be the one held hostage. What are they going to do? No show your MLS listings. Come on agents, lets work smarter, not harder. Zillow would be allowed to place ads next to the listing, but it would clearly state whose listing it actually is.

  24. I agree! It makes no sense for agents to pay for to be seen by their listings. If all agents would stand up to these big companies….they would be paying us to put an ad next to our listings. What would happen to them if our syndication stopped?

  25. Mike Walker says:

    Should Zillow be paying the homeowner / listing agent / Broker for placing the home on Zillow? For each click? This would be a cost of doing business for Zillow. Super agents & Super agent brokers are you listening? If super agents are the current life line for Zillow, how long before the super agents decide on a super new format! Control the listings, control the syndication, control the playing field. This could be the beginning of the end for Zillow or just the beginning! And then we have those pesky associations and MLS's that seem to have their own life line attached to the Zillow wagon. Zillow reps are out and about making nice with MLS and Association decision makers. Hmmmm….maybe Zillow will become a Broker one day and the super agents will simply pay Zillow instead of their current Broker? The Times, They are a Changin'……

  26. Sandy Ayala says:

    We have no choice, our listings are given to Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com and a host of other companies at a national level. We have discussed this topic a lot in our office, but the only way to stop it is for the entire brokerage to opt out which hurts our clients.

  27. Monte Mohr says:

    My team sold 242 units or 60 mil last year and we refuse to use Zillow. I'm with many of you that have shared. It seems obvious to me that those agents that are paying Zillow are funding their own future demise. Any other business would be laughed at for not recognizing that simple fact.

  28. Suki Sodhi says:

    As a listing agent, what source do you know to get better exposure for your listings than Zillow/Trulia/Realtor.com? They deliver thousand's up on thousands of potential buyer's your listings. Let the agents who decide to buy leads from the Big 3 buy them. Your concern should be delivering a qualifed buyer for your seller and I think the Big 3 help in that effort.

    If the Big 3 weren't promoting our listings on such a large natinal platform what would listing agents being doing? How many agents would pay thousand's of dollars to promote their listing the way the Big 3 do for us? Put it on the MLS? Put it on your Facebook page? How many buyer's would you really reach?

    The Big 3 are actually taking doing the tedious tasks most agents don't want to do like providing ownership history of a home, gathering community data and school stats. Agents can now focus on being agents. Buyer's are telling us the home they want becuase they found it on one of the Big 3. All we need to do now is negotiate & write offers and make sure we guide the deal through to closing while protecting the client's rights. What's wrong with that exactly?

    No one says you have to buy leads. Go generate your own, no one is stopping from that. You'll have to market somewhere if you're building your business systematically and want closings with consistentcy.

    Don't get so focused on what the Big 3 are doing "to us" and look at what they're doing "for us." Don't complain just for the sake of complaining because everyone else is doing it. Think about what I said here.

  29. Ron Aguilar says:

    Way to go Carrie!

  30. Dan Walters says:

    I market my listings on Zillow but not my services (beyond the basic profile); that is, I'm not "Premier" anymore. I see some risk in how much power agents are giving Zillow/Trulia and foresee possible issues down the road if/when Zillow starts wanting more control. This could be in the form of commission or service agreemetns on leads that go through them (i.e. Zillow leads only pay 4% or something like this). I'm not sure if I see Zillow as a competitor as much as a vendor that doesn't seem to be looking out for my best interests. As a service to the public, it's fine (if often inaccurate); as a service to the agent, it doesn't seem to hold its value.

  31. Rolf Cosmo Anthony Class action? I'm IN!! I just can't seem to find an attorney looking for PRO BONO! Let me know when and where! I'm in

  32. anybody doing Zillow long form for mortgage leads?

  33. Yes! I wholeheartedly agree.I wish NAR kept control of that domain. It's not much more than a poor man's Zillow now.

  34. Nancy Elliott says:

    No one has mentioned “the video” that you do with your client. The one that’s on the first page of your Zillow zip code site. If it’s on there, I missed it. My Zillow Rep sold me an expensive amount of “impressions”. I purchased the heavy amount in order to get a video produced that had my client give her thought’s on what it was like working with me. I bought the maximum amount of “impressions” to insure I WOULD BE THE ONLY AGENT to have this video for the ENTORE ZIP CODE. THIS IS WHAT THE ZILLOW REP. TOLD ME.
    Yesterday, I read something fm “the Zillow Team” that the video’s would be “rotated?” Did anyone get that same impression? I’m waiting to hear back from the Zillow Rep. It would help if an agent could tell me this first hand. If this turns out to be true, this video rotation with other agents, then I’m going to stop paying Zillow and bring it to small claims court. I have spent thousands and have received a few lousy leads. It’s been a month trying to get the video “right”. I just received the final product. I have been paying for it since the “get-go”. 1)Please tell me if you know anything about this video ROTATION? Thanks! 2) Buying % of the zip code impressions and a few mo.’s later ….it’s less because Zillow has “restructured” so you are essentially buying the same thing you purchased to begin with. Your experience’s with these issues please!

  35. Nancy Elliott says:

    Please take off. Need corrections sent too early

  36. Nancy says:

    Has anyone heard about the” Zillow Agent Video” being “rotated” with other agent video’s IF YOU BOUGHT IT WITH EXCLUSIVITY?
    I was told by my Rep. that if I purchased more “impressions” in my zip code, I would be the ONLY ZILLOW AGENT( IN MY ZIP CODE ) TO HAVE A VIDEO.
    Yesterday I read something from Zillow that pretty much said the opposite. I purchased the maximum amount of “impressions” according to my Rep. To keep this from happening. *I need clarification from another agent.* I texted my rep. last night with the above question an asked for an immediate response. Haven’t heard back as yet. Any one with expertise on these 2 subjects? Need ASAP!

    To be completely candid with my fellow agents…. I have gotten nothing but bum leads from Zillow since I started with them several mo.’s ago and I’m spending in the thousands.
    I only signed up for this gig for “protection”. I hope I didn’t make a costly mistake by believing a Rep. from Zillow. If so? Small claims court is in my immediate future.

    I am now finding that they seem to have “restructured” the zip code. They are now selling parts of the zip code, that I have previously purchased to newer prospects? I hope I’m wrong. Your thoughts?

  37. Jay Arbizu says:

    This sounds like a commercial for zillow…First the best agents are in flux all the time in terms of who is number one or who closed more volume or sides this year vs last year or this month vs last month. So I don't think a consumer is necessarilly getting a good agent via zillow. In fact a lot of agents that are offering quick response to zillow leads are part of a larger team and nothing wrong with that, however, a lot of teams will bring on new agents just to fill a spot that calls consumers back right away-again not necessarilly the 'best' agent.
    2nd is sellers getting exposure to their homes. As far as I am aware (and these are NAR stats so maybe a little one sided but…) about 90% of buyers and sellers are using the MLS to purchase and sell their homes (zillow only gets what is on the mls or fsbo-maybe a few other smaller sources but I'm not sure). So actually the MLS is the source that offers the most exposure. zillow counts in clicks per month and their count is some number that is multiple times higher than the number of sales made nation wide each year. So in terms of number of clicks, maybe they are number one but in terms of actual buyers and sellers they are way over inflated.

    And your job is to sell your client's home not get it the most exposure. So agents will say that it takes 10-20 showings to sell a home, so why would it be a dis-service to sell my client's home with only 8000 people being 'exposed to it' (which is roughly the number of agents in my area who sell about 89% of all listings in the area)?

    3rd is agent ROI. For me I spend way less than $60k per year on my entire business budget, not just my marketing budget. And I do use Listing Booster (shout out! or conflict of interest to this article?) at $12/year. Based on super agents spending $60k per year on marketing with zillow, I would have to close 10-15 houses a year to cover this cost plus another 5-10 to cover my other business expenses. I would have to close 25+ houses just to start seeing some ROI. I'm way in the black with my current budget before getting close to break even on a zillow budget alone.

    I feel like there are plenty of good agents that don't want to spend any money with zillow even though we can afford it. In fact, I think my quality of life would suffer dramatically if I had to be chasing down/calling/staying at the ready for every zillow lead that may or may not be ready to purchase now or 18 months down the road. In short, I don't agree with these 3 points or with zillow as some sort of saviour that will help consumers separate a good agent from a not so good one.

  38. They have been calling me over and over and over to sign up for the program.

  39. Brian Phillips i may try it, you pay oper lead, and the elads have to complete a 9 question sheet.

  40. First of all sounding like a commercial for Zillow doesn't make it any less true. Since there are four spots available there is a very good chance the consumer is getting a good agent if they actually choose. As those four spots become filled only by the top agents over time (as is Zillow's stated goal) then yes they will all most likely be good agents. Right now no because poor agents show up sometimes but Zillow will be discouraging those agents from renewing. It is true that teams often hire new agents but new agents with the right attitude and work ethic. If not they are off the team. Plus teams provide them training have support from assistants for lead conversion, transactions, etc. not to mention mentoring and involvement by team lead on any transaction needed. They are not the same as a new individual agent on their own. As for the MLS exposure that is simply not true…at least not in high grow areas such as Houston. Here HAR is one of the biggest MLSes and the 20th ranked portal in the U.S. but you would be suprised how many buyers come through zillow. Not only that but a large amount are relocating and they don't even know what HAR is. So they go Zillow or Realtor.com. If Zillow was not that important for exposure then the MLSes would just withhold their listing and solve the whole problem. But they don't because they know homes get exposure there. HAR was actually one of the first MLSes last year to provide a direct feed. If they are willing to do it (and believe me HAR is all about HAR and clicks to its site) then there is a reason. Selling a client's home is about getting the most exposure. You never know where that buyer will come from. Otherwise agents would just put the home on the MLS and not spend any of their own money to advertise it anywhere else. Why put in homes and land magazine, why do facebooks ads, make sure it is on the portals, do home houses, or anything else if the MLS is all you need. A common misconception many sellers have which makes all agents seem the same when some do much more marketing than others. As for ROI yes to spend the money on zillow to see your return. I don't have a problem spending 150k a year on zillow if I get $350K in earnings (and we use Epropertysites from Agent Marketing which is similar to Listing Booster just without the lender as well). We use all avenues to generate leads or market a home. You don't personally chase down, qualify, etc every lead. That is why you have a team. And Zillow now has agent assist which does a lot of that for you. We can agree to disagree on any of these points but prove is in the results and we are one of the super agents Zillow is talking about since we spend over 20k a month on them. And we are one the best in the area as well having moved to the area 7 years ago starting the business over from nothing as an individual to becoming the 14th most successful RE/MAX Team in TX for the 3rd quarter. You can spend a lot of money but if you are not good you won't get the referrals, reviews, and continued results that allow you to be successful on zillow in the first place. So if you stand out by being good and are willing to buy impressions you will be successful on zillow.

  41. Tom Clancy says:

    I've never bought a Zip Code and I never will…….. When they call I just say no….. When they ask why, I say "Because you add no value", They are just a middleman that jacks up the cost of doing busine$$. Just before I hang up I do say there is one thing you could do for me…
    "Stop getting in between me and my customer!!"

    It's a huge business, but the fact is that Zillow/Trulia etc. would not exist if we did not give them our listings. Which we do for free !?!? So the ultimate insult is when they call us and want us to pay, or should I say buy back what we gave them………. NOT A CHANCE IN HELL !!!

  42. I have experienced the same result. I purchased leads through Trulia, which was then purchased by Zillow. I thought I might get more activity then, the complete opposite. My answer, look for another alternative.

  43. All of these comments are interesting and I am not a fan of Zillow, at all. However, the underlying problem is that our industry is changing. We, as agents, used to spend our money on print ads and now that the print industry is no longer an effective way to advertise, where do we go? We are being told the Internet, which leads to sites like Zillow, but this is not working either. It feels like we are in a transition time (like 8-track technology) where the "new" way to advertise our listings effectively that gets the buying public to respond to us has not yet been created. Obviously, we have money we want to spend on marketing, but it needs to actually bring buyers to us.

  44. Sam Gerardi says:

    This happened at Realtor.com & Trulia prior to Zillow. Go to your MLS board and initiate pulling your data. There is no need for Zillow, and now that Realtor.com is not a NAR entity we should not give it favor either. At leastimpliment distribution rules to non-local IDX feeds & brokers that the Broker and agent with phone are prominentaly displayed, AND no advertising adjacent to property detail pages and print-pages. NONE. It is the borker's (YOUR) data, take it back and they go away.

  45. Tere Rice says:

    SUPER AGENTS my A$$ these are Teams or Brokers paying $6k a month or more! Who then turn over the leads to agents for a high referral fee! That sweet spot for agents gets smaller as Z’s money appetite grows!

  46. David Butler says:

    Couldn't the listing agents add/post their name and phone number to the photos of the homes they list? That way when zillow shows photos of the homes the listing agents info appears?

  47. What is the turnover on the booze wall behind you? Is that for just two people?! 🙂

    Zillow is investing heavily in growing its sales/marketing and tech development and ridiculously high percentages of gross revenue. $130 million worth last quarter. If they peeled that back 25% they'd show a healthy profit. Their negative bottom line due to investment in sales and marketing is inconsequential at this point, especially as they sit on a $500 million pile of cash.

  48. Tere Rice says:

    Super Stupid Agents LOL!

  49. darrell says:

    my Zillow results are awful and they direct leads on my listings to other Agents and I pay over $700 monthly. wonder when a class action suit will be filed

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