rumor floating around that they are preparing to go public... fyi.

i hate zillow and all of the other sites like them. they sould pay the agent for the photos taken and used. without agents, they would not exist. do agents benefit from them? no. if it were not there, an agent would need to be contacted for the information that the agent provided.

If the MLS didn't allow it to be syndicated...goes right back to the local boards

My listing agreements are now asking a series of yes/no questions. I can get more specific, but one of them is Does seller allow this property to be used in internet AVMs?

Check NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO my friend. Check no.

I think this is what we are talking about.

i have the same on my listing agreement. only downside is that i would be the only property not on the stinky sites. everyone checks yes. it would hurt my client if they checked no.

only way that it would work is if the mls took away the option of sharing the information with sites like zillow and trulia.

lol...they act like an mls. they call me and ask me if i want to be featured for x per month.

realtor.com is hte same with enhanced. they should pay me for the photos.

I understand what you are saying estatereal, but the flip-side of that coin is: do you really want every single person that browses your listing contacting you? Sure, you get a chance to feel them out a bit and can push other properties that may fit their needs, but I feel sites like Zillow at least manage to filter out some of the "window-shoppers" before they ever waste your time.

On the contrary, Zillow does not police the syndicated listings, if they go pending or sell they stay on, just as many other websites do not. You also loose all rights through the syndication to Zillow and others. I wasted more time fielding calls about old listings selling as far back as a year and less than three months from prospects who only wanted that property. I dont have the very best telephone skills but I try and I certainly am not the worst in trying to convert them to another property with similar characteristics but after one a week or more of this from Zillow, after a year I quit automatically uploading to them from my website. There are plenty of other RE search engine sites that have a better handle of doing things and provide the exposure for client.

In fact I have found having a searchable IDX link does not give me any advantage at all on my website so I canned that over six months ago since I do not show other realtor listings. I have had no negative feedback and saved some money to place elsewhere in the marketing plan to buy a color printer for brochures left in my listings.

Zillow has been busy lately with increasing revenue streams. Listings were free, then $10, now $40.