Zillow Founders Humbled By Real Estate Industry

(the article that I originally linked to in this post is gone, but here is the archive of it)

 

I’m not sure what they found so humbling? It seems to me that they are moving rapidly toward their ultimate goal of selling ads to real estate agents, companies, and other associated businesses. I don’t like their data, it is too unreliable. So for now I will not be adding them to my website as they now allow agents to do. If their accuracy increases I certainly will, but right now I would prefer not to put out bad data.

I think that their business plan is brilliant. Drive consumers to their site, and then sell ads to the real estate industry. Make no mistake the ads you see in the home magazines, and the newspapers will dwindle, and agents advertising dollars will move more and more to the internet. The majority of ours is there now. The two most common places real estate agents receive inquiries on properties are the internet, and yard signs. Print media represents around 3%, yet most agents spend 90% of their marketing dollars there. If you are a seller where would you want it spent?