In today’s technological age, almost all industries have shifted their operations online, and real estate has not been left behind. Hundreds of websites and online platforms have been launched, designed to provide a link between realtors, property owners, buyers and sellers. And Zillow is one of such platforms.
While Zillow may have been originally launched to provide a link between property buyers and sellers, it has gradually evolved to generate leads for paying realtors. At the same time, buyers heavily rely on websites such as Zillow when they are looking for a house to buy while sellers use the platform to determine the current value of their homes. And this has created several problems.
Inaccurate Information
One of the main reasons that realtors hate Zillow, is the issue of inaccurate information. And this issue also affects buyers. For instance, a buyer may come across a house listed on Zillow, which aligns with their budget, personal preferences and locations. However, that same house may have been sold weeks or months ago, but Zillow never bothered to update the listing. Sometimes, Zillow fails to update this information intentionally for one main reason. The more listings they have on their site than their competitors, the more realtors that they will attract. And this means more advertising money for them. Sadly, it’s the realtors’ reputation that is usually hurt due to these issues.
Also, Zillow will knowingly engage in false advertising, in an attempt to drive traffic to their site. For example, a realtor may list a house for sale on Zillow. Zillow will then go ahead and indicate that this house is up for foreclosure. Unfortunately, the realtor doesn’t have the means to correct or fix this information. As a result, some potential buyers will avoid such houses, since most foreclosed homes are in extremely bad shape.
Another issue associated with Zillow is their online estimate or calculator, popularly known as Zestimates. Zestimates are algorithm-driven appraisals, designed to provide users with a cost estimate of a certain property. Unfortunately, these estimates are highly inaccurate. According to information published by economist John Wake, Zillow estimate error can be as much as $14,000. And you don’t even know whether the property has been undervalued by $14,000 or overvalued by $14,000. In most cases, the houses are usually overvalued.
You may be probably asking yourself how Zillow’s Zestimates can be so inaccurate. Well, the value of a house is usually determined by various factors. In short, no two properties are the same. Therefore, using the same computer-driven algorithm to determine their value is a wrong approach, which explains the inaccuracies. For instance, houses listed on the Zillow website are in different locations, have different amenities, different square footage and such factors.
Even if two houses are sitting on the same property, they will not cost the same, unless they are exact replicas of each other. Therefore, the only way that you can determine the actual value of a house is to have inspectors go on site, and assess all the aspects of the house. The problem is, most sellers are not willing to do that. They just use Zillow’s online calculator and then use the figure generated as the sale price of the house.
Greed
Zillow knows that realtors are to pay top dollar so that their listings can reach as many potential customers as possible. Therefore, they have found a means of pressuring realtors into entering expensive advertising contracts, so that they can have access to information that they already own. For instance, if the property agent agrees to pay the exorbitant advertising fee, Zillow will promise to direct leads to them. The problem is, Zillow will also promote other agents alongside those who have paid top-dollar for the advertising.
Also, a single listing will have several realtors, which will end up confusing the buyer. Therefore, as much as you may have paid top dollar for Zillow to push leads your way, you will also be competing with other agents who may not have been registered on the platform. And as a result, you may be tricked to pay even more money. As you can see, it’s a never-ending cycle of greed and trickery. Zillow, by their own admission, have also conceded that they will advertise and promote anything that comes their way. They don’t bother to check whether the listing information is accurate or not. And this shows that they are just after advertising revenue.
Theft of Intellectual Property
As a realtor, you have to invest hundreds of dollars, if not thousands, to promote your business on various channels and platforms. You will have to invest in videos, photography, virtual tours, and flyers, among others. Considering that you’ve paid for these marketing materials, they explicitly belong to you, and no one else. The problem is, Zillow usually takes or extracts this content from various platforms and then uses it on their website. And they do so without safeguarding against theft and duplication.
With time, this same content will eventually find its way to other sites like Craigslist, where real estate scams are rife and highly prevalent. Considering that this content contains personal details like descriptions of the property, property address or even contact information, it’s the realtor who will be held accountable if there is any scam and not Zillow. At the end of it all, the realtor or real estate agent may end up with negative reviews, which may eventually lead to loss of business, just because Zillow didn’t safeguard their marketing materials against theft or duplication. Unfortunately, there is nothing that realtors can do about this theft of intellectual property.
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