The author doesn’t mention that the investor-bought homes will be resold, giving realtors ample opportunity to sell a renovated home….for higher commissions. If you ever hear me leading any national effort as a 50-year real estate veteran, stick a fork in me.
INSTANT OFFERS is a new program by Zillow that leverages the credibility of Zillow to help sophisticated investors buy homes from unsuspecting consumers at thousands below market value.
For years, Realtors and consumers have tolerated inaccurate Zillow “zestimates.” This was Zillow’s entry into the actual real estate business and should have been stopped cold at the time. These online valuations (no one sees the home) consistently mislead consumers about home values, making it harder for Realtors to help buyers and sellers make good decisions.
Now Zillow’s “Instant Offers” encourages unknowledgeable home sellers to sell directly to profit-driven investors at below market value. This program mesmerizes home sellers into acting without consulting a Realtor, attorney or appraiser.
Instant Offers is a costly, misleading program for the public and a stab in the back to Realtors who fund Zillow. It’s a lose-lose program for everyone (except greedy investors). It reduces home seller equity while diminishing Realtor income.
It’s time to draw a line in the sand. Years ago when Zillow introduced “zestimates” NAR should have demanded that Zillow stay out of brokerage services or risk losing MLS IDX feeds and Realtor advertising.
Now Instant Offers is a clear intrusion by Zillow into real estate brokerage, a move that needs to be stopped before it gains traction.
The StopZillow.com petition website and Stop Zillow LinkedIn Group were formed by real estate attorney, Huffington Post writer and 50-year real estate veteran Greg Hague to insist NAR keep Zillow out of brokerage to protect Realtors and the public.
The first petition is simple and clear: warn Zillow to discontinue Instant Offers or risk losing the MLS IDX listing feeds and Realtor advertising.
Read the petition to NAR. If you agree, please sign online. That’s it.
Your information will not be shared or used for any other purpose.
After signing the petition you will receive a weekly email update about the progress with NAR and Zillow.
Greg Hague, The Real Estate Maverick
The wimpy swipe at Zillow by NAR:
https://www.nar.realtor/articles/zillow-instant-offers-what-state-and-local-realtor-associations-need-to-know
Not sure if this is slightly off topic, but I’ve seen several flips in the neighborhood recently where an investor buys and puts back on the market within 2 weeks at 150k-200k over the sales price. How or why doesn’t that lower the comps and affect the value if values keep going up?
I see legal issues.
Agreed, and NAR already said they don’t want to touch it because of legal issues.
But the petition drive does show the dissatisfaction of realtors about the lack of effort by NAR or anybody within the industry to create a better widget. We let Zillow have a 10-year uninterrupted headstart, we sold off our only attempt, realtor.com, and after NAR invested 8-figures into Upstream, they are re-thinking the whole package.
Everywhere you look, you can see the realtor business being destroyed….from within.
The NAR is way behind the future. They collect millions and millions of dollars, have economists and lobbyists on hand. And just keep pushing the old model.
The NAR should have been first to come up with and automated futuristic method of dealing with Real Estate.
The reality is this automation is not going away.