Zillow is poised to take over the home-selling business, and it seems to be just a matter of time.  All they did was to produce a dynamic website that gives the viewer all the vital information about a property, and then advertise it.

Our local MLS was recently revamped, and you’d think the new version might be similar to Zillow.  After all, Zillow has trained the consumer on what data the internet can provide, and they now have 82 million unique users monthly.  Shouldn’t any MLS provide something similar?

Our MLS has a public side: https://www.sandicormls.com/ but the first property I looked up still shows as an active listing, even though it was withdrawn from the MLS on July 2nd.  Whoops…..consumers know they can get more accurate data elsewhere.

Agents can email listings directly from the MLS too – except we’re sending them to the same consumers who are already hooked on Zillow and other websites to provide all the pertinent data.

Beyond the basic data, how does our new MLS compare to Zillow?

If you need room sizes, then the MLS is for you. Otherwise, Zillow is the superior website – and it’s not close.

Some of the data is withheld from MLS listings due to rules.  For example, listing agents can’t advertise their open houses in the remarks to protect the buyer agents from worrying about their client might go direct to the listing agent.  But Zillow doesn’t mind – they allow open house info in the remarks AND they show the open house schedule underneath – which is great for buyers and sellers.

Our MLS had their last gasp at trying to compete with Zillow, but there is no comparison. Zillow gives consumers what they want – a thorough review of the important property data – and agents need to adapt.

All Zillow needs to do now is to create a sweet little agent-matching website for consumers.  Home Depot has a good prototype with www.redbeacon.com and if/when Zillow creates one like it to help consumers select a good realtor, then they will own us.