Advice — just when we need it the most
By: David Gibbons, Zillow Director, Community Relations | December 15, 2008
With almost 12 million mortgages underwater, American homeowners are going to be needing some good real estate advice. Today we launched Zillow Advice to meet this challenge. Zillow visitors post 40,000 contributions to the site each day. Many of those are Home Q&A, Real Estate Guides and Discussions. These features now live under a new Advice tab and we are adding local Questions to the list of ways in which Zillow users can help each other.
How to get Advice.
1.2 million agents, lenders and other professionals use Zillow each month. Posting a question in Zillow Advice is the best way to ask them for help
STEP 1. Ask your question. Click on the new Advice tab on Zillow.com and type your question.
STEP 2. Add a category and a location. Indicate “what” and “where” your question is about (e.g. “Moving” or “Buying a Home in Seattle“) Correctly tagging your question ensures that it is routed to a local expert.
STEP 3. Get answers and give feedback. Sit back, wait for answers, and get to know more about the people who respond to your question by clicking through to their profiles. You may want to take note of other questions they’ve answered and whether they’re identified as a Local Expert. And lastly, when you’re satisfied that you have your answer, please indicate which expert provided the “best answer” to your question (ask a question - you’ll see what I mean.)
How to give Advice.
Whether you are simply helpful by nature or a real estate expert by profession, Zillow Advice offers the best opportunity yet to demonstrate your skills on Zillow.com. For buyers’ agents in particular, Advice is the answer to the question; “how do I compete with listing agents for the top spot in Zillow’s directory.”
For real estate professionals, Zillow Advice offers another free way to promote your services to local home buyers and sellers. If you read a few Discussions and Answer a few Questions you’ll get the hang of it quickly. My tip for real estate pro’s is to subscribe to e-mail or RSS alerts for topics and locations you specialize in. And be sure to fill out your profile page so people know how to reach you if they like your advice!
- Stumble it!
- Categories: Zillow
Comments
10 Comments so far
Enjoy this post? Subscribe to the Zillow Blog feed or get updates via e-mail
Zillow.com® Launches Zillow Advice | Rain City Guide on December 16, 2008 1:50 am
[...] Zillow Advice talk by David Gibbons (featured in the thumbnail of this post) on Zillow Blog tonight. [...]
Cathy on December 16, 2008 5:19 am
I cannot believe what Zillow has done to itself. You took something that was fun, easy to understand and navigate, with a lot of community, and turned it into…this. I am bitterly disappointed, as I’m sure many others will be. But yeah, I know, you don’t give a ****. Anyway, you have lost me as a viewer and as someone who has always recommended your site. Way to go!
- Cathy
Jason Tan on December 16, 2008 10:49 am
Wahoo!!! congrats. hope my email subscription features are working…
2 Big 2 Fail on December 16, 2008 11:13 am
David,
Where are the discussion boards? Are they still around or did you guys get rid of them? Please tell me where they are, I can’t find them anywhere!
zillow.com Gives Free Advice | Property Portal Watch on December 16, 2008 5:32 pm
[...] new feature was revealed by David Gibbons, zillow.com’s director of community relations, in a blog post. It is designed to give users access to the 1.2 million agents, lenders and other professionals who [...]
crx on December 16, 2008 6:40 pm
What happened to the discussion on Zillow ? Did the RE Agents take over ?
ARDELL DellaLoggia on December 17, 2008 10:31 pm
hmmmmm David’s usually right on it when anyone mentions Zillow on any blog. Now he’s not answering his own comments on his own blog post?
What gives?
Need Real Estate Advice? Ask it or Provide It | Zillow® Blog on December 19, 2008 9:21 am
[...] Earlier this week we launched a great new way for consumers to get answers to local real estate questions—Zillow Advice. It’s easy, free, and hyper local. [...]
Ending 2008 With a Bang! | Zillow® Blog on January 6, 2009 5:26 pm
[...] information and answers, and we’ve had some great interest in our new Zillow Advice feature that launched in early December. Each day, more than 40,000 contributions are now made to Zillow by our [...]
Phyllis Watson on May 7, 2009 3:57 pm
How does Zillow define their term “local expert”?