We’re Opening It Up!
By: Lloyd Frink, President | December 6, 2006
With those four words — “We’re Opening It Up!” — I am pleased, proud, eager and bursting with excitement to announce that we just launched a major upgrade to our site. Ready? We now offer the ability for real estate agents and homeowners to plant virtual “For Sale” signs on Zillow.com. Since we launched in February 2006, this has been one of our most-requested features and now, agents and owners can post homes for sale on Zillow, for free. Our easy posting tool allows photos to be uploaded, space for home descriptions to be written — including “What I love about my home” — and room for ever-important neighborhood commentary. Agents who post homes for sale can publish their own contact information, upload a photo of themselves, and add links to listings on their own Web sites.
Another feature that we’ve just launched — and I must say this feature has planted a permanent smile on everyone’s faces around here since it was conceived — is “Make Me Move™”. MMM, as we affectionately call it, is our twist on what it means to be “For Sale.” Here’s the concept: Think about a price that would entice you to hand over the keys to your home and move. We think it’s a unique and creative way for homeowners to test the waters and gauge interest in their home, even if it’s not actually on the market. Interested home shoppers can then contact them via an e-mail “anonymizer” to get the conversation started. We’re excited to see what happens by facilitating this type of contact for the first time. We invite homeowners to post a Make Me Move price on their home.
In geek speak, Zillow is moving from “read-only” mode to “read-write”. When we launched in February, our goal was to open up the deep repository of information about every home in America — which had been collecting cobwebs in county courthouses for decades — and then layering our Zestimates on top. Today, we begin our second phase, which means owners and real estate professionals can “write to the site.”
And last, we’ve also launched what we call the Real Estate Wiki. We’ve seeded the wiki with 100+ articles to build a strong foundation, and have opened that up to you, the real estate community, to improve and expand. We’re eager to see what you add, edit and create.
We don’t know how many For Sale postings or Make Me Move postings we’ll get, but we’ll be watching and you can, too. In this world of opening up the Web, we’ve added a “snapshot” counter on the home page so we can all watch how many postings and MMM’s we get. Without a doubt, this is going to be very interesting and we’re ready for the ride. As always, we’re eager for your feedback.
Update (12/7, 4am): Our apologies, but we’re experiencing issues with our website related to the release of the new version of the site. We’re working hard on remedying the situation and we’ll keep you updated.
Update (12/7 4:45am): OK, we’re up and the site is stable. Go post your MMM!
- Stumble it!
- Categories: Real Estate, Real Estate Industry, Zestimate, Zillow
Comments
35 Comments so far
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Jim Cronin on December 7, 2006 12:49 am
With all the talk, banter and bashing of Zillow this past quarter, I’ve wondered, often outloud, “what’s Zillow’s next move?”
I think that opening it up to ‘user participation’ and truly embracing that Web 2.0′ness is a smart move.
The undeniable benefit of Zillow to the real estate industry is the fact the droves of home owners have become curious about the idea of determining a value for their home, online. That rise in traffic is significant. And now the opportunity to advertise current homes for sale within the system will no doubt help homesellers gain exposure for their home.
Here comes the chatter.
Landlord Shmandlord on December 7, 2006 7:50 am
The Future of Real Estate Transactions
I love the innovativeness of Zillow, and especially their new ideas (mainly Make Me Move).
It will be interesting to see how far they can take this. Can Zillow become a one-stop shop for buying/selling real estate, almost like what ebay did to the us…
Future of Real Estate Marketing on December 7, 2006 9:07 am
Zillow Crows, Redfin Stews?
By now, you surely know that Zillow has added virtual for-sale signs to its home valuation site.
Some great commentary by the blogosphere already on this:
Liz Gannes, GigaOM: Zillow Shows More of Its Cards
Natali Del Conte, Techcrunch: Zillow Knows Tha…
Joel Burslem on December 7, 2006 9:09 am
Congratulations to all the folks at Zillow for pulling this off. This is a great step forward for your site. It’s my guess that homeowners and Realtors will be very excited.
Brandon on December 7, 2006 9:25 am
Oh Geez, this is great. I remember the fervor that Ebay’s “buy it now” price feature stirred up with the seller community back in the day. MMM just might do the same thing to a broader audience. It will be interesting to see how quickly the ZLS (*tm) gains critical mass. A bulk upload tool would definitely grease those wheels.
The ticker on the home page is addicting, I’ve eaten up 15 page views in the last minute just watching the # of MMM homes increment.
Bryan Starbuck on December 7, 2006 9:42 am
Zillow will Replace some Real Estate Agents
I think Zillow will try to replace the MLS and create an efficient market to sell houses (In my humble opinion). Zillow’s CEO and leadership built Expedia and they replaced travel agents with Expedia. I think they may end up
Drew M from Zillow on December 7, 2006 10:54 am
Jim, Joel, and Brandon-
Thank you for your compliments. I think I can say we are just as excited as you are (maybe more so).
Seth Woolley on December 7, 2006 12:27 pm
Can we get past the flash?
The features sound nice, but I’ve got a Dual Opteron x86_64 linux box here which Adobe has refused to support to get flash working.
I couldn’t even install flash without cross-compiling a 32-bit toolchain to build its requisite libraries.
For all us people who don’t want to use flash for the security issues it has had, too, can you please provide some way to get to the Zestimates and charts.
I took a look at Realestate.com, and they’re catching up. Right now I am restricted to using their site. It’s a whole lot buggier (though the prices seem to be more reflective of real market values in areas where I’m interested in), but at least I don’t have to worry about the flash hurdle.
Dave Gooden on December 7, 2006 1:54 pm
Hey guys - congrats on the successful roll out of phase 2.
I guess my question to you is this…Will these listings always be free?
Can you guarantee me that if I list properties on Zillow.com you will not roll out “small fees” in “phase 3″ with fee increases in phase 4?
Before I provide you with my valuable content, I just want to know if this is something you are willing to guarantee.
Thanks in advance for your reply - and again, congratulations on the brilliant execution.
Dave Gooden
LakePlace.com
Drew M from Zillow on December 7, 2006 1:55 pm
Seth-
I apologize for the difficulty you are having and realize that some people do not have Flash installed on their computers. Our Zestimates are available via our API on a number of sites that do not rely on flash–the most notable being Yahoo Real Estate (http://realestate.yahoo.com/Homevalues). Does this help?
David G from Zillow.com on December 7, 2006 2:16 pm
It’s David G from Zillow.com
Dave Gooden -
THANKS!
We have no plans to charge for postings on Zillow. We have built a web page for most homes in the country, and our strategy is to open that up to input from the community. Being able to post content for free is at the core of this strategy.
How we do make our money is through ads. On that, we’re working on an ad product that will allow you to easily promote a local business on Zillow. Watch this space.
Seth -
We need the Flash to do the maps. Drew’s suggestion will work for Zestimates but not for sale postings. More importantly though, how do you watch YouTube?
Chris on December 7, 2006 3:03 pm
IE 7 says your RSS feed is invalid.
Reference to undeclared namespace prefix: ‘o’.
Line: 399 Character: 207
Dave Gooden on December 7, 2006 3:29 pm
@ David G.
Thanks for the reply David. I apologize if it seems that I am splitting hairs, but I would just like a “non-politician” answer to my question. It is a big decision for a brokerage like mine to provide/feed content to another “for profit” company.
I understand that you “have no plans” to charge fees for listings…
Is it safe to assume that this means you cannot make a guarantee at this time?
I understand that it is difficult to make such a promise…but I am asking you to either (a) make a guarantee that you will never charge for listings - or - (b) state that you cannot make this guarantee.
I apologize for puting you on the spot - but I think it is a fair question…and this is what the blogosphere is all about.
Thanks in advance.
Dave Gooden
LakePlace.com
Athol Kay on December 7, 2006 4:11 pm
Grats guys.
You win the Internet.
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy on December 7, 2006 4:14 pm
Zillow This, Zillow That: Or, For the Love of Pete, Enough Already!
.
One of my favorite bloggers and all around cool chick Maureen Francis asked this in a comment today:
Are you intentionally the only RE blogger in America NOT talking about zillow today?
And actually, I did intentionally plan to not writ…
Athol Kay on December 7, 2006 5:07 pm
Okay serious question.
The sold data for my own house is off. We paid $290k 6/1/06 and it’s recorded as $580k and this screws my entire neighborhoods zestimate.
Whats the fix?
Landlord Shmandlord on December 7, 2006 5:21 pm
I was initially going to write a comment, but it turned into a post on my blog = )
You can see it here:
http://www.landlordshmandlord.com/2006/12/07/the-future-of-real-estate-transactions/
David G from Zillow.com on December 7, 2006 6:08 pm
Dave Gooden -
That’s OK. What I can tell you is that we have no plans to charge for posting your listings — now or in the future. Your listings are yours to add or remove from Zillow. I’d encourage you to try it out — if you’re not happy, you can obviously take them down.
Athol -
THANKS - it’s good to finally put a face to your name. Incorrect sold data is a nasty bug that can originate in our vendor’s data aggregation process. Please send me the address [davidg at z]
Shmandlord -
THANKS - fantastic post. Nice blog!
Pine Needle Lawn on December 7, 2006 6:28 pm
Hello World - Zillow Rolls out Phase 2
I normally do not get into discussions about the real estate world on this blogbut I thought I would take a few minutes to discuss my thoughts on Zillows announcement.
Today Zillow announced that they are opening up the site to brokers, a…
Dave Gooden on December 7, 2006 6:49 pm
David - thanks for answering the question (cough, cough).
Anyway, I think that Zillow is a great site with a great bunch of people behind it. Your customer service and outreach is beyond reproach. I have no doubt that Zillow will be the #1 real estate (general real estate - cough, cough) website on the Internet.
Jay Thompson on December 7, 2006 8:10 pm
Nice work Zillowites! (Zillowers?) You guys are freaking marketing geniuses.
I’m still struggling with why so many agents fear Zillow. I mean, I can understand those that are not so swift. But what do great agents have to fear.
Matthew Filler on December 8, 2006 1:05 pm
You have made the zillow comps screen almost useless by removing the building square footage and lot size. I know you can click on each comp to see it, but if there are more than a few (67 for my house, for example) then that is worthless. I need to look for the most recent applicable comps. I am glad to see more comps listed, but some are too poor a match on bedrooms, baths, or square footage, or too old. I need to pick the best 3 out of 67. I can scan a list to pick these, but I can’t click 67 times and back 67 times to do it.
Sorting by date seemed like a big improvement, as did popping up the link immediately, but it is nullified by deletion of square footage from the list. Lot size in the list was also very helpful in some cases - in some cases it marks a comp as not really comparable. The $/SF on lot size is only relevant for raw land, so that could go for most of us. I don’t mind clicking on the comp once I have a few real comps pre-selected, but one can’t click to find if it is a real comp - that data needs to be visible.
I tried to send this in on the feedback screen, but when I press submit, it just hangs. At least it didn’t wipe out my text, and I was able to stop and go back to it. I am using IE7.
Drew M from Zillow.com on December 8, 2006 4:20 pm
Matthew-
I apologize for the trouble and thank you for the feedback. Can you please e-mail me your browser and operating system details (drewm at z) so I can try to diagnose the cause?
ariella on December 10, 2006 12:29 pm
when zillow is going to be
international?
i wish we could have such a great
site here in israel
Drew M from Zillow on December 12, 2006 8:59 am
Matthew-
I have an update for you. I spoke with our developer that built most of our comps interface and he told me this issue is caused by one of two things:
1)If you were using a browser window that was not at least 1024 pixels wide, then the lot and building size columns won’t show up. The columns automatically filter themselves to fit inside your browser. Please make sure you have your browser as large as possible when viewing Zillow.
2)The columns will not be shown in some counties where we have very little data coverage & zero data in those columns. We thought it would be a better user experience if we didn’t show columns that were primarily empty. Let me know what county you are searching in & I can determine if this is the case for you.
Hopefully this is helpful.
Ron on May 4, 2007 1:37 pm
When will you begin to support the Safari browser?yet
claudia frick on June 8, 2007 7:23 pm
i cannot find comps for my house. i found them three weeks ago. when i did find them earlier today, no price and no value per square foot. There should be an easy way to find them.
Malok on June 25, 2007 2:02 pm
Kudos on the improvements. Glad to see you are staying ahead of the pack and setting the standard for everyone else. Thumbs up!
Layla on July 18, 2008 7:20 am
Glad to hear that you’re business is prospering. Best of luck with the new developments.
Tired on July 21, 2008 6:50 am
I think the only problem I have with Zillow is the complete lack of a proper customer service outlet to have problems corrected. Using the Home Facts forum or any other one is a hit and miss and you can be completely ignored. They last time I had a problem, I had to file a BBB complaint to get it fixed. Now I have a new house that is shown on a street that does not even match the address and whose home facts do not match the County records and no one answers the request to correct information. Even the smallest worst websites have 1-800 customer service numbers. Now I am going to have to file another BBB complaint to get Zillow to fix the information on my new house.
Kimberly on September 7, 2008 12:27 am
I completely agree with ‘Tired’!! Who do you call? I want my info BLOCKED to the ‘average joe’ that may live around the corner. I KNOW it’s possible as when I was looking at properties and used this site as a tool, a real estate agent had ALL the home info blocked. I couldn’t access any part of it. I WANT TO DO THIS NOW!!!, and there is no one to ask, and no number to call. E-mail? ANYTHING! HELP! Maybe the BBB will work. I’ll try that next. And to top it off, when I ‘Claimed’ my home, they only listed my partners name, and not mine. WHY is that??? Where on earth did you obtain that info?? And incorrect for that matter!!! I am SO frustrated with the site…ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Betina Foreman on October 8, 2008 3:05 pm
I like Zillow because it helps potential buyers and sellers get a grasp of the difference in values from one neighborhood to the next. I also like the “Make Me Move” feature. Keep doing a great job!
Betina
Realtor Austin Texas
RH McIntyre on February 24, 2009 1:34 pm
I have been trying to reach someone at Zillow, to correct their records. Zillow, is showing our home information with another house picture. That price seems to be close to right. If you google earth and get the picture of our house, the price on it is off by at least $400,000. Please make contact with me so we correct this problem. Your error, could be very costly to us.
Thank you,
RH McIntyre
Mark 1 on August 22, 2009 7:33 am
That’s great news, good to see you moving forward with new products.
John on August 24, 2009 9:33 pm
I think it is great news. Please visit http://www.laroccaproperties.com for more real estate advice and information.