Putting our Realtor 2.0 Money where our Mouth is.

I recently celebrated my 2nd Z-anniversary. After two years in constant discussion with homeowners, agents and brokers I’ve formed a few opinions about the future of real estate.

• Is the real estate game changing? Yeah, I think it is!
• Are Realtors part of that picture? Absolutely! Local expertise and hard work are essential to buying and selling homes!

So, what’s changing? The revolution in real estate is that people want to play a new role in their transactions. Buyers want to search for the homes they’re interested in online. Sellers want to be involved in marketing their home. Owners want to track their home’s value. Consumers are asking smarter questions. The revolution in real estate is about empowering customers with knowledge, information and service. Realtors who understand this phenomenon are capitalizing on it. Let’s call them Realtor 2.0. It’s much more than a niche; it’s a response to a revolution in customer thinking. Realtor 2.0 is swapping fridge magnets for blogs and it’s working. They’ve stopped buying leads and they’ve started receiving them – for free – by helping consumers in online communities.

At Zillow we’re meeting consumers’ need for information and Zestimates are just one example. We’re committed to introducing consumers to agents who can answer their questions. When we launched there weren’t too many Realtor 2.0’s to be found. Today, more than 100K agents have created profiles on Zillow. 40K agents now have blogs on the Active Rain website so it’s not a stretch to imagine that there could be well over 100K real estate blogs today. Many Realtors generate most of their business through social media marketing.

In 2008 we are increasing our bet on Realtor 2.0 and I’m excited to announce that the Bloodhound Blog Unchained conference will be brought to you by Zillow. Bloodhound blog is read daily by thousands of real estate professionals and is arguably the most influential blog read by real estate insiders. The blog’s written by Realtor 2.0 for Realtor 2.0. From May 18th to 20th the bloodhounds are hosting a conference that will distill the best practices for profiting from the revolution in social media and real estate. BHBU is also possibly the only Mortgage 2.0 conference of the year with a separate track dedicated to loan officers and mortgage brokers. If social media is part of your marketing plan for 2008 I recommend that you get to Phoenix for this event. Conferences are a great networking opportunity but I’m convinced that you will leave BHBU with much more. Click here for more information. I look forward to seeing you – in Phoenix in May – and helping consumers on the web and on Zillow.