Answers (10)
- Dunes ..
- Contributions:3688
Ok..but I still think what you posted that I referred to is a Bunch of Crap
Whoever else looks at all this can decide for themselves..I'm OK with that
and I don't do Searches on/at Zillow but I do at Realtor.com
Whoever else looks at all this can decide for themselves..I'm OK with that
and I don't do Searches on/at Zillow but I do at Realtor.com
- Pasadenan
- Contributions:26042
I'm sorry I mis-interpreted you Tug of War.... In that case, it is obvious that you should contact David to do your searches for you, as David has indicated that Zillow has "nothing to offer", and that the "only" use for Zillow is for people to find Realtors. But if that was the case, they might as well go to Realtor.com instead and just forget Zillow.
And IMHO, perhaps David should start by taking his own "advice" and stop using Zillow and do his postings on Realtor.com instead?
And IMHO, perhaps David should start by taking his own "advice" and stop using Zillow and do his postings on Realtor.com instead?
- Dunes ..
- Contributions:3688
I wasn't responding to the Question.. I was responding to you posting this
"Zillow "scrapes" NOTHING! The "listings" are only what agents and owners "post" or "syndicate! " when David was obviously refering to the Zestimates and not Real "Listings" submitted by Agents/Owners
Which led to some more of your Expertise Sharing
"Sure, David has NO "listings" on Zillow. But that just means he doesn't want to SELL anything on Zillow, which means he is only trying to find clients, so that he eventually MIGHT sell something, and get a commission.
If an agent is going to post on Zillow to try to gain clients, but refuses to post their listings on Zillow, you probably want a DIFFERENT agent"
Which imo is a bunch of crap
"Zillow "scrapes" NOTHING! The "listings" are only what agents and owners "post" or "syndicate! " when David was obviously refering to the Zestimates and not Real "Listings" submitted by Agents/Owners
Which led to some more of your Expertise Sharing
"Sure, David has NO "listings" on Zillow. But that just means he doesn't want to SELL anything on Zillow, which means he is only trying to find clients, so that he eventually MIGHT sell something, and get a commission.
If an agent is going to post on Zillow to try to gain clients, but refuses to post their listings on Zillow, you probably want a DIFFERENT agent"
Which imo is a bunch of crap
- Pasadenan
- Contributions:26042
"They get, purchase, acquire Public Data then do their Secret Formula Zillions of Data points thing and place what looks like a Listing amongst the Real Listings placed by Agents/Owners" -
The question was not about "zestimates", but was about "searching listings". And the searches on Zillow don't allow searches for properties that are: 1) Not for sale, 2) not recently sold, 3) not for rent, 4) not "make me move".
Yes, you can search the "not for sale" with Google's advanced search, but that is an entirely different issue.
Of course the public records data comes from the public records via 3rd party data collection companies that are paid for their work, and that specialize in that service in their local areas. It has been that way for decades. City planners have tended to rely heavily on such services.
The question was not about "zestimates", but was about "searching listings". And the searches on Zillow don't allow searches for properties that are: 1) Not for sale, 2) not recently sold, 3) not for rent, 4) not "make me move".
Yes, you can search the "not for sale" with Google's advanced search, but that is an entirely different issue.
Of course the public records data comes from the public records via 3rd party data collection companies that are paid for their work, and that specialize in that service in their local areas. It has been that way for decades. City planners have tended to rely heavily on such services.
- Marsha Umansky, "UmaRealtor"
- Contributions:33
You will have better filters in Realtor.com site, but once you know where you want to be, find yourself a good local agent. No matter what site you look at, you will not find all the information a good professional would have at her/his disposal. Best of luck to you.
- sunnyview
- Contributions:26843
There is a post from Spencer Rascoff about where Zillow gets it's listings that might be useful. The reply is about 18 months old now, but at that time he answered a similar question about "scraping" saying
"That's actually not correct. Zillow doesn't scrape any sites. We get our listings from feeds that come to us from thousands of brokerages and listings syndicators, and we run those feeds daily."
I don't know if it's the same now or not, but from what I can see Zillow listings seem to still be mainly feed driven.
"That's actually not correct. Zillow doesn't scrape any sites. We get our listings from feeds that come to us from thousands of brokerages and listings syndicators, and we run those feeds daily."
I don't know if it's the same now or not, but from what I can see Zillow listings seem to still be mainly feed driven.
- Dunes ..
- Contributions:3688
"Zillow "scrapes" NOTHING! The "listings" are only what agents and owners "post" or "syndicate! "
You can play the semantics game & act indignant over using the words "scrapes"/"lists" all ya want but it does not change the Truth contained in the Comment...
"Zillow scrapes public tax data and "lists" homes"
They get, purchase, acquire Public Data then do their Secret Formula Zillions of Data points thing and place what looks like a Listing amongst the Real Listings placed by Agents/Owners...how many of those done that were not submitted by Agents or Owners?
What is there more of ?...
"Listings" in the "Listings" or Not "Listings" that look like "Listings" placed there by Zillow
You can play the semantics game & act indignant over using the words "scrapes"/"lists" all ya want but it does not change the Truth contained in the Comment...
"Zillow scrapes public tax data and "lists" homes"
They get, purchase, acquire Public Data then do their Secret Formula Zillions of Data points thing and place what looks like a Listing amongst the Real Listings placed by Agents/Owners...how many of those done that were not submitted by Agents or Owners?
What is there more of ?...
"Listings" in the "Listings" or Not "Listings" that look like "Listings" placed there by Zillow
- Pasadenan
- Contributions:26042
By the way, if you do need "boolean logic" for more complex searches, you can use a "google advanced search" and set your search domain to:
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/
Google does "crawl" over 100 million Zillow home details pages regularly to build those indexes to match those complex searches.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/
Google does "crawl" over 100 million Zillow home details pages regularly to build those indexes to match those complex searches.
- Pasadenan
- Contributions:26042
Zillow "scrapes" NOTHING! The "listings" are only what agents and owners "post" or "syndicate"! Sure, David has NO "listings" on Zillow. But that just means he doesn't want to SELL anything on Zillow, which means he is only trying to find clients, so that he eventually MIGHT sell something, and get a commission.
If an agent is going to post on Zillow to try to gain clients, but refuses to post their listings on Zillow, you probably want a DIFFERENT agent.
Yes, there are other "filters", including the "keyword filter" that searches the text of the listings for those items you might desire. But no "boolean logic" presently for the keyword filter, so you may need to do several different searches and combine them yourself. You can also save the searches for recall and for auto E-mails for new listings that meet the criterion.
Though you can search for "HOA", most agents don't include that, and it will not help at all for "no HOA". You usually can tell if there is an HOA by the type of development. Condos will almost always have an HOA. Secured development communities also will have an HOA. For the latter, you usually can tell visually from the satellite images. On the other-hand, if there are no "development walls" around the area, and no restrictions on which streets go through, and no consistency between the appearance of the houses, it is highly unlikely to have an HOA.
For northeast side of San Antonio, just zoom and pan the map to the desired search area.
Not sure what you mean by VA? If you are referring to "close to VA hospital or services, you will need to manually check those distances yourself. If you mean available VA loans; there should be no restrictions on those, and your mortgage loan officer should be able to assist you there. Try clicking on the "mortgage rates" link at the top of the page and request some anonymous loan quotes for your specific circumstances.
If an agent is going to post on Zillow to try to gain clients, but refuses to post their listings on Zillow, you probably want a DIFFERENT agent.
Yes, there are other "filters", including the "keyword filter" that searches the text of the listings for those items you might desire. But no "boolean logic" presently for the keyword filter, so you may need to do several different searches and combine them yourself. You can also save the searches for recall and for auto E-mails for new listings that meet the criterion.
Though you can search for "HOA", most agents don't include that, and it will not help at all for "no HOA". You usually can tell if there is an HOA by the type of development. Condos will almost always have an HOA. Secured development communities also will have an HOA. For the latter, you usually can tell visually from the satellite images. On the other-hand, if there are no "development walls" around the area, and no restrictions on which streets go through, and no consistency between the appearance of the houses, it is highly unlikely to have an HOA.
For northeast side of San Antonio, just zoom and pan the map to the desired search area.
Not sure what you mean by VA? If you are referring to "close to VA hospital or services, you will need to manually check those distances yourself. If you mean available VA loans; there should be no restrictions on those, and your mortgage loan officer should be able to assist you there. Try clicking on the "mortgage rates" link at the top of the page and request some anonymous loan quotes for your specific circumstances.
You should not be searching on Zillow for actual available homes for sale.
Zillow scrapes public tax data and "lists" homes. They then apply an algorithm to the tax value, which has nothing to do with market value, to arrive at their highly inaccurate Zestimates.
Google "Zillow Zestimates are inaccurate" and see how many blogs and articles you find.
If you are in the market for a house or condo, find a good local Realtor or Realtor website with a true MLS search feed that will list actual properties for sale.
Zillow scrapes public tax data and "lists" homes. They then apply an algorithm to the tax value, which has nothing to do with market value, to arrive at their highly inaccurate Zestimates.
Google "Zillow Zestimates are inaccurate" and see how many blogs and articles you find.
If you are in the market for a house or condo, find a good local Realtor or Realtor website with a true MLS search feed that will list actual properties for sale.
Are there more 'filters' that are available to narrow my search?
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