Zillow’s new feature has been out for a couple of weeks, and currently there are seven ‘Coming Soon’ listings in San Diego County:
http://www.zillow.com/san-diego-ca/#/homes/coming_soon/San-Diego-CA/
Two of the seven are new-builds listed by the developer, so with five resale listings, we can say that realtors aren’t flocking to the opportunity yet.
The ‘Coming Soon’ listings are getting some good exposure though – the seven have been featured for an average of 8 days each, and are averaging 341 views each!
There are those who poo-poo the whole idea, but this is just the beginning – Zillow is looking to dominate the real estate industry. For starters, they are spending $65 million in advertising in 2014, and already have 82 million unique viewers per month. After a few more years, they will be the go-to website in the consumer’s mind.
They can empower those consumers with new features that are complete – and that’s the problem with the ‘Coming Soon’ listings, they don’t ask enough questions. As a result, the same tactics used with the fraudulent short sales will be in play – buyers who have agents will be told to wait around, and buyers without agents will be rushed to the front of the line.
Zillow could go a little further to making this feature less sleazy in appearance by adding a mandatory questionaire to the Coming Soon agent-inputs. Here are questions to be answered on each listing:
1. Can I see the house today? If not, when?
2. Can I buy the house today? If no, when?
3. Will you pay a commission to a buyer’s agent? How much?
4. If you have multiple offers, when and how will you decide?
We should have the same questions on MLS listings!
It would be helpful if Zillow would also keep a record of how each agent performed, compared to their answers on the questionaire. Yes, Zillow allows agents a testimonial category for clients to leave glowing recommendations, but a timeline log for ‘Coming Soon’ listings would keep agents more honest.
We don’t have to debate whether every new Zillow feature is good or bad, right or wrong – they are what they are. Let’s try to use them in a way that we forward the business at hand.
Excellent spin here:
http://www.geekwire.com/2014/real-estate-group-slams-zillow-coming-soon-feature-company-says-simply-shining-light-homes/
Zillow, for its part, adamantly denies that it is trying to cut the real estate agent out the equation. In fact, Zillow’s Katie Curnutte calls the new feature an “antidote to pocket listings.”
“It shines a bright light on what’s traditionally been a dark, murky practice of pocket listings, where consumers don’t have access to all the available information,” says Curnutte. “Now, we’re turning on the lights for buyers and sellers, which is incredibly important for those in tight markets, like Seattle. Buyers are able to see these homes and make a more informed evaluation of current listings against what will soon be available. And this broadens the marketing exposure for sellers – allowing their homes to hit the market with more momentum — which has the potential to sell their home faster and for a better price.”
Somebody is eventually going to disrupt the current Realtor commission model. If Zillow doesn’t do it because they are scared of the Realtor lobby than somebody else will get funding and do it via a different approach. You just need a critical mass of eyeballs and have some experts that can guide a seller through the listing process. Once you get public acceptance you become the high volume real estate transaction service that can undercut everybody else and still make money.
There will still be a place for some good Realtors that a buyer or seller might pay on a hourly basis to evaluate the property from a expert perspective. But hopefully the con men and shady salesmen get driven out of the business.
Agreed, and as the old school agents hang ’em up, the opportunity will be more accepted/acceptable among the new guard.
Zillow or somebody else could sponsor a DIY library, but I don’t know how many buyers and sellers would be patient enough to investigate.
What is needed is a central command center with expert realtors answering the phone/email/text from buyers and sellers to guide them with the little intricacies of the business, and help put deals together.
Unfortunately this function will get overlooked in the rush to promote/discount the package and it will be rough sledding for all involved.
In the 30 years since buying my first home, the informational side has completely opened up while the transactional side has changed not at all despite Herculean efforts to do so.