True Gotham

Some very exciting things are happening at Zillow. For those of you who read TrueGotham regularly, you know that I have given the team at Zillow both praise and criticism in the past. Today, more praise as they continue to improve their site and progress toward a more efficient and complete information portal that will also serve to improve the tools (like the Zestimator which I have criticized) that the site provides as well.

In addition to opening up the site for agents and owners to post property listings including descriptions and photos for free, they are also providing a new tool for the seller who simply wants to "test the market" by allowing them to set a "Make Me Move (MMM)" price that would motivate someone to move from their home only if they could sell for a specific price. This is a beautiful (and efficient) way of distinguishing the motivated sellers from those who aren't so, and it still gives buyers and sellers more options and transparency in a currently inefficient marketplace. I'm becoming a believer in Zillow as they work toward fine tuning their products and cooperating with both the public and the real estate community to open the flood gates on information. I remain skeptical about the cooperation that they will receive from the real estate community as many don't want to see this
type of information made public. That said, I happen to believe that future government regulations regarding disclosure of information to the public are going to favor Zillow.

Again, for the agents out there who think this won't work, I suggest re-thinking the way in which you do business because the day is coming where most property information is going to be available in a public forum. Interpreting and navigating this information is going to be the primary task of the new generation of real estate professionals. Of course many already provide this service, but for those who rely solely on providing information to their buyers and/or sellers, the game is changing... and fast!

UPDATE: In playing with this more, I just uploaded a listing with photos, etc. In general the process was impressively user-friendly. But an error message prevented the listing from actually going public. And, much more importantly, the zestimate and comporable properties were so unbelievably innaccurate as to be entirely useless. (A $2 million three bedroom came up at a fraction of the size and cost.) So, while I think this is a great idea, there are clearly still some kinks to work out, at least in New York.

UPDATE: I got in touch with Zillow about the problems, and they have been super-responsive. Should be fixed soon.

Douglas-
This has proved to be one of the nastier bugs we've found today-THANK YOU for notifying me of the issue. Our engineers have diagnosed the problem and we should have a fix to our live site tonight. If the problem persists into tomorrow, please send me an e-mail. Thanks again.

Thanks Drew. Appreciate your prompt response and will keep you posted on my end.

Douglas-
I just confirmed that I can view the posting from my computer. Thank you for sticking with us.

Thanks Drew.

One last thing...somehow, not all of the pictures I uploaded are appearing, but instead there are 2 of several of the pictures? Again, I must say that I like the direction Zillow is going and look forward to a greater presence in Manhattan.

Do you have any objection to an inaccurate zestimate appearing beside your list price? Would your client?

Do you suppose that buyers might bypass your listing if the gap between your list price and the zestimate is too great? Would they take the time to inquire?

David G of zillow has informed me that the zestimate will remain in any case, & be displayed beside the list price in the general results page (SERP), seemingly despite any owner or agent objection.

Does transparency of information justify the publication of inaccurate estimates of value? I submit it does not and that an owner, or their agent, has a right to enjoin inaccurate opinions of value it has not solicited, especially if it may hinder a sale. IMO, transparency of information (factual data)should not encompass an AVM "opinion of value", where there is no examination of the property.

Given that Zillow admits to zestimates being flawed in some/many cases & merely a starting point, what justification would support a faulty starting point of value sitting beside a property listed at a realistic market price? [to rebut the argument that the owner does not know FMV, assume he has gotten 5 appraisals & 5 CMAs and together with an experienced professional knows his list price is closer to reality than the guestimate)

PS Look forward to meeting you at Inman.

Looking forward to Inman as well.

I hear you loud and clear regarding the zestimate! Huge glitch that must be addressed before the real estate community and even direct sellers for that matter will want to list on Zillow.

You will notice that I only have this one property listed on Zillow as basically a test run of the new service. I found the interface isare friendly but I nor my seller are pleased with the terribly inaccurate zestimate next to our property. That said, I'm not terribly concerned at this point since Zillow has such a long way to go before they are a force in NYC. We simply aren't concerned because we don't think anyone in this area is searching for property on Zillow yet.

See you next month.

Douglas-
Sorry, I lost track of this thread--glad I revisited. We have a couple fixes going into our hotfix tonight. If your picture issue persists into Wednesday, please send me a quick e-mail and I can look into it.