Why Zillow Is So Important in the Real Estate Industry

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This week, Zillow is flying me out to San Antonio to spend time with their executive team, meet their CEO, and share some ideas. I’m so thrilled for this opportunity! Zillow is a great company, but many people in our industry love to hate Zillow. Today, I’d like to address this concern.

I don’t understand why Zillow receives so much negative attention in the real estate industry. Everyone loves to say that Zestimates are off by 7% to 10%. I think the average Realtor’s list price is off by even more than that. I took over a listing this week and my list price was 33% below the market analysis that the previous Realtor had done. 

You can complain about Zillow all day, but our industry is constantly changing, and we need to embrace sites like Zillow and Trulia.  It wasn’t long ago that travel agents were saying no one would use Travelocity or Expedia, but those two sites have taken over the travel industry.

Zillow brings some tremendous changes to our industry. The days of flyer boxes, just listed or just sold postcards, and open houses are nearly over. We sold 260 homes last year and I think we only did only two open houses for properties that specifically needed them. You can keep doing open houses if you want, but my agents would rather have a buyer in the car who will make a purchase in the next 30 days or go on listing appointments. 

Zillow is changing our industry and I’m sure I’m going to come back with some great ideas. I want to point something out about online leads. I know that Gary Keller recently said something along the lines of, “Your online lead return is -38%.” I couldn’t disagree more with that statement. 

Online leads are important. Zillow is important. If you buy online leads, that’s one important aspect of your lead generation. It’s just one more source to fill your funnel with an unending supply of leads, and you can never have too many leads for your business. 

Open your eyes and see that the real estate industry is shifting. If you have any questions about today’s video or if you are interested in joining our team, just give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!