SURVEY: Zillow Instant Offers Creates Industry Firestorm—Take the Survey and Tell Us Where You Stand

Posted on Jun 12 2017 - 4:23pm by Housecall
#11

With the recent launch of Zillow’s Instant Offers test pilot in Orlando and Las Vegas came a deluge of heated opinions from all corners of the industry. Is Zillow becoming a brokerage? Are brokers and agents being disintermediated? Take this reader survey from RISMedia and tell us where you stand.

In a nutshell, Zillow Instant Offers allows home sellers to directly receive all-cash offers from a group of 15 large private investors, who are either licensed as brokers or use a third-party broker license. Offers will be managed by dotloop, which will connect the seller and the investor. While home sellers are encouraged to use a real estate agent to transact the deal, they are not required to do so.  Zillow Premier Agents are looped in to prepare the CMAs in their respective markets.

One of the strongest opponents to Instant Offers has been the National Association of REALTORS®. As published on nar.realtor, “NAR cannot sponsor or encourage a boycott of Zillow. It would be unlawful for NAR to discourage members from using any product or service provider. Those decisions are made independently by MLSs, brokers, and agents…What NAR can do is the same thing we’ve always done, and will continue to do, in the face of a long line of business models offered to consumers to sell their homes without the use of a REALTOR®: Undertake renewed efforts to remind the public, and to encourage and help members inform their clients and customers, of the value they bring to the real estate marketing and sales transaction, and the problems and risks sellers may encounter in marketing and selling their home without using a REALTOR®.”

Zillow stresses that Instant Offers is not an attempt to circumvent real estate professionals. According to the company, “Zillow Group began piloting Instant Offers as a way to address consumer demand in a way that keeps agents and brokers at the center of the transaction. As with any test, we’re learning a lot and, even at this early stage, one thing is clear to us—sellers need and want professional real estate advocates throughout the transaction.”

What is your stand on Zillow’s latest foray into the real estate space? Please take our brief survey. We will report the results along with further industry feedback in a soon-to-be-released in-depth report.

11 Comments so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

  1. Steve June 14, 2017 at 4:02 pm - Reply

    We in real estate are in the information business. If we give our information freely, then what is our value? We have been paying 3rd parties for our business for so long we think we will never be able to prospect and do real estate without them.
    REALTORS are in a position right now, but not for much longer , to take back control of our own business. All the comments are right! WE HAVE TO GET TOUGH AND PROTECT OUR INFOMATION…….THE LISTINGS !!

    • Steve June 14, 2017 at 4:08 pm - Reply

      We in real estate are in the information business. If we give our information freely, then what is our value? We have been paying 3rd parties for our business for so long we think we will never be able to prospect and do real estate without them.
      REALTORS are in a position right now, but not for much longer , to take back control of our own business. All the comments are right! WE HAVE TO GET TOUGH AND PROTECT OUR INFOMATION…….THE LISTINGS !!

  2. Steve June 14, 2017 at 4:13 pm - Reply

    WE are to moderate.

  3. Robb Breen June 16, 2017 at 12:59 pm - Reply

    I have never supported Zillow. They take information that we have worked hard and paid to gather and sell it back to the ones who created it. When we no longer want to give them our information they have used the courts to force us to provide them our information. It’s time to put a stop to it. This is just another reason they must be stopped.

  4. Karen Crowson June 17, 2017 at 1:01 pm - Reply

    When our regional MLS’s didn’t come together to create statewide or nationwide MLS’s, (some were in favor of such a move, but others resistant) tech companies ceased the opportunity. Consumers want it. As an industry, we can either collaborate to serve the public or allow others to disrupt our business. Maybe this move by Zillow is just the move needed to convince industry leaders to solve the bigger problem.

  5. warren petracek June 22, 2017 at 8:25 pm - Reply

    I have to agree that Zillow has loads of bad information.
    But some people may be drawn to this, like they are to auctions.

  6. Vickie June 30, 2017 at 3:57 pm - Reply

    I am not a fan of Zillow and they have taken it another step further into our pocket book. Zillow takes our listings and sells the leads they generate to other agents not even associated with our listings; basically to the highest bidder. They notably take our listings, they also use the professional photography that we pay for and all of the other information we have provided to the MLS about our listings. Time to tell Zillow enough.

  7. Patti June 30, 2017 at 7:52 pm - Reply

    Zillow is building a better business model and NAR has yet to come up with a business model to compete with them. The internet provides public access to multitudes of information. An educated public would see value in educated real estate professional. Unfortunately the public believes they can buy real estate more easily and get a better deal without an agent (because the Seller isn’t paying big commission fees). Zillow figured out a way to put knowledgeable Buyer with knowledgeable Sellers without the mls. Seller’s easily know what their home is worth because the realtors provide them with comps all the time. Realtors farm areas and provide accurate information to the neighborhoods for free in the hopes of generating business. Call a Realtor and they will happily tell Sellers and Buyers anything they want to know. Real estate is one of the few professions where you give away information that takes years to acquire in the hopes of getting a commission. In other professions people are paid for their knowledge and their time. This whole business model for Realtors is broken and has been for years. The laws affecting Real Estate professionals need to be amended to reflect the times we live in. I hope the NAR spends money on making our business model current, useful and financially rewarding for its members.

  8. Clarence July 1, 2017 at 10:41 am - Reply

    Personal experience!

    I had a small farm listed in College Grove Tn. Zillow posted on their website an estimated value app $100,000 less than the
    list price My sellers called me very upset and asked me how that price ended up on Zillow’s website. I explained to the sellers that Zillow attemtpts to arrive at an opinion of value without personally viewing the property and all of its amenities

    REALTORS spend an enormous amont of time preparing a CMA which includes a personal inspection of the subject property so as to be able to compare the amenities to similar poperties that havs sold.. They sit down with the seller and
    and discuss the pros and cons of their property compared to the comparables sales and together they arrive at a list price
    that should be very close to the fair market value. Without going through this process I do not believe it is possible to arrive at a true fair market value.

    By the way I sold the small farm I referenced above for very close to the list price within the list period.

    I believe that Zillow is currently misleading sellers and will conitnue to do so.

  9. Jan Thomas July 1, 2017 at 10:41 am - Reply

    Zillow needs to stay in their own lane. I too wish that Georgia would come together and form 1 statewide MLS, that would be accurate!

  10. Nadine Barbera July 2, 2017 at 9:39 am - Reply

    I have come across errors in my listing information that Zillow had posted and I had to join Zillow so that I could have information corrected. They don’t have your sold information unless you enter it. Zillows estimates are not accurate. I don’t think we should support there website if their not going to respect us as Real Estate Professionals.

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