We’d Like to Show Your Listing
Posted on May 27th, 2007 by Jonathan Dalton
Normally, I like these phone calls. I like them even more when they’re followed by an offer a few hours later. But yesterday, I received a phone call asking if a property I had listed in Westbrook Village was available to show.
There only was one problem - it wasn’t my listing. In fact, the only two places where my name and the home were linked were on my Westbrook Village site’s IDX feed, and on Zillow where I had reported the home as being for sale (with the listing broker’s name prominently displayed, per local rules.)
Why the agent never looked in the MLS, not just to find out who the listing agent was but also to provide some details of the home to their client, I have no idea. I’ve often said the idea of Zillow or some other Real Estate 2.0 company creating a national MLS falls apart if only because real estate professionals don’t have any use for such a site.
But now, presented with evidence that an agent is (likely) using Zillow as their primary source …
Nah. Still doesn’t make sense.
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Buyer spends 2 hours a day looking at real estate porn. Sees cool house on Zillow. Sees your face and number on the same page as the house. Tells buyer agent they want to see the house and gives them your number…
Buyer agent has X number of things to do today and will print off MLS sheets on Tuesday for the showings on Tuesday. Buyer agent complies with reasonable request from her client to get a showing on that house. Buyer agent calls you…
-Athol
Almost … except it was for a same-day showing.
The worrisome point is that even with the notice it was someone elses listing, the buyer just assumed you were the listing agent.
Is it just as simple as “My Name, My Face, My Number, My Listing” in the minds of a decent portion of the general population?
Even if you have a disclaimer, some people just won’t get it. I’m not sure what to do with that.
Athol: Zestfully Zestifarm! How many unengaged buyers are out there that might call Jonathan to see that listing? We are seeing a huge paradigm shift in this business, and it is not going where it has been pointed. The lesson here is to make Zillow part of your listing marketing strategy, to protect your listings if nothing else.
-Tom
I dunno, the big Z came out - guns blazing saying that they were going to take out brokers alla Expedia and travel agents. Then they have fallen flat on their face - sure they have real estate porn: inflated house values reminiscent of the fake silicon you see in real porn. But just like real porn - you go back to the real thing when you go home. My point: Zillow has no listings inventory, all they have are what we all know - owners that want to see an inflated price on their house, this does not help anyone. There whole value proposition is shot to #$&#@ because they can NOT do the one thing they push - give an estimate of property. So now they need to go and get brokers to “name their listings” and advertise for a penny. Gimme a break. I won’t give them a red cent, let them squander their millions of VC funding and go broke. I put my money in sites that deliver on what they promise and sites that have clear black and white agreements with what they will do with MY - MY listing information. Did the MLS go in there and list that house? NO. I DID. In NYC the MLS is useless, we are maing TONS of money here - wake up Brokers of America dump the MLS and go for it on your own. Use Trulia, Craigslist, Postlets and Google and forget this other Zcrap.
Craigslist is a horrible dumping of garbage for the most part. Trulia gets it’s feed from the MLS from brokers that allow it in Connecticut.
Zillow did change it’s tune from it’s first unveiling that is true. My own feeling is they are go after the appraisal industry with some sort of franchised appraisal business.
-Athol
I’ve sold one house off craigslist, but the format makes it a needle-in-a-haystack proposition. I’ve also now received two calls off Zillow.
Athol’s right about Trulia, which also applies to Google. C21 has a contract with both.
Much of what can be done on Zillow is free, aside from the time it takes to enter. And again, real estate is local. In a lot of cases out here, their estimates aren’t too far off the mark. Some help a home’s cause, some don’t.
I’m not sure scrapping the MLS is the best answer for the consumer, to be honest, as the presence of the MLS and the local MLS uploading listings to Realtor.Com and other sites via IDX provide a fairly comprehensive list of what’s available.
We may make more money without it as we’d be a lot more limited in what we see, but I don’t see where that benefits the public at all.
Well even the DOJ thinks the MLS act in the interests of the consumer and reduce the costs of the transaction. The DOJ actions certainly don’t seek to disband or break up the MLS, just to enforce universal access to it if you’re the the business.
Given the choice between nothing but the MLS to sell a house, or everything else possible to market a house, I’d take the MLS every time.
If the MLS didn’t exist we’d have a flat out drag race to create one.
-Athol