Zillow Polls: Whimsy, Sprinkled with Worry

If you’re a regular visitor in Zillow Discussions section or the neighborhood pages (here’s the Seattle neighborhood page - navigate through the breadcrumbs to find yours), you have probably noticed a Zillow Poll that appears on the right-hand side of the page. Or maybe not. It’s fairly discreet and is apt to fall into that thing called “page blindspot.”

When we launched Zillow Polls this past July (hats off to Software Design Engineer Jarret Falkner for developing it), it was not given the pomp and circumstance we normally give other big feature announcements such as Make Me Move or Home Q&A or Post for Sale. Rather, it was just kind of rolled out quietly, by Jarret and a few others. Zillow employees helped kick it off with some poll questions and answers and then the idea was to have the community contribute. Did they ever. We launched with 29 Zillow-produced polls and we are now up to 279 polls — mostly from real estate professionals and the community.

Flavor of Zillow polls:

There are polls created by agents and real estate professionals who are trying to get a handle on what people want:

• “What do you look for in a Realtor?”
• “How do you shop for a mortgage?”
• “What is the biggest deciding factor when deciding your next Neighborhood?”

… or, those that are whimsical:

• “What is the hottest interior paint color this season?”
• “Do you, your family and guests remove their shoes when entering your home?”
• “How do you feel about the home you own right now?”

… and worrisome:

• “When will the housing market rebound?“
• “When will it be a sellers market again?”
• “How do you feel about the local real estate economy?”

Creating a poll is easy and it can be targeted according to your ZIP code. So, you can create a poll that is specific to Chicago or Boston or Miami or your hometown. Or, you can create one that is applicable to everyone and it can be seen nationally.

Want to take the pulse of the people? Go ahead and suggest a poll. You will get attribution for your poll idea and it helps build your profile.