Zillow has made great strides into the real estate industry and is slowly chipping away. It is clear that they have been educated as the the realities of the business and are realigning themselves for going public. I don't care what they say or do... their end-game is to try to reduce costs to the consumer at the expense of agents.

One morning you may wake up and found that Zillow has flipped the switch and is now one of your biggest competitors. Here is how they may do it:

1.) They become licensed in every state and become members of every MLS. They have the means to do this especially if they go public.

2.) Their data (which is much maligned for being innacurate) is now suddently dead-on, and consumers can now find all the up-to-date comparable info/sales info they need to search for homes, do a cma, etc.

3.) They offer free or very low entry-only services staffed by a call center. They have one or two reps in each area to deliver and set up signs, take pictures, etc. They may also set up their own buyers agency firm with rebates to buyers.

4.) Since the industry wants to accept referrals, they send referrals to local agents for income. They may use the Homegain model which pits agents against one an other to compete for business on a rate basis.

5.) They use existing on-line services for drafting contracts, negotiation, counter-offers, etc. They capitalize on this for mortgages, insurance, title, etc. Advertisers want to use them more and more because they get web traffic.

6.) They appeal to the consumer directly and make them more empowered in the transaction. They use their technological expertise and size to stay ahead of a fragmented industry where agents can't agree on how things should work.


Comments?

I know of some robot agents (they are like ATM's) who probably will work for them.
Sincerely, this business is just too emotional not to have a belly to belly relationship with buyers and sellers. It might be ok for investors who only think of their bottom line, but most residential customers demand much more.
p.s. and where on Zillow will the buyer know that the seller contributed $15k toward down payment and or closing cost? It's not there and only will show up in the MLS.

The net is a great place to get educated, but I don't see it replacing the agent in the field. How many people who visit websites sign up with true and accurate information? Not a lot. On the net, we prefer to remain anonymous. Would I want to give all my information to a company that is known to sell that info to advertisers?

I've picked up several buyers who went to websites for real estate needs, got referred to a agent, and found out the referred agent was lousy. The word gets around and trust goes down.

I do think Zillow does represent a new form of competition online and most people don't understand that. However, I don't know if I see it going down like Broker describes. There was actually just an article on how Z is giving up all of its brokerage licenses accept for two states.

I think they are content with taking your listings and selling them back to you. I just wish companies and MLS boards would wake up and stop sending them IDX feeds.

yes, zillow gave up most of it's licenses but they can always get them back very easily. in an 'up' market things will be different.

the consumer has ultimate control over our industry - as well as special interests.