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Zillow Adds Social Features to Keep Ahead of Realtors

posted on July 12, 2007


It seems real estate appraisal service Zillow is preparing to take on real estate agents by offering what they’ve so far failed to. While realtors might be making life a little difficult for Zillow, the company has decided to tap into social networks and offer services that I’ve not seen elsewhere.

Here’s what’s been added:

  • Neighborhood Pages – 6500 of them across 134 cities. Packed full with demographic data, neighborhood discussion forums (for all that gossip about the strange family down the street) and photo sharing.
  • Zillow Discussions – Yahoo Answers for home buyers.
  • New Home Page – more personalization options.

With the recent addition of Vanessa Fox, we fully expect to see a Zillow Owners Console soon, with the following:

  • Showings – When was the last time a realtor visited your house.
  • Any errors – the agent tried to show your home, but couldn’t find the front door.
  • Restrictions – a realtor found your home, but couldn’t come inside due to an alarm system.
  • Room analysis – here’s all the rooms in your house, and which ones we consider to be the most impressive aka ZillowRank.

Any others you can think of? ;-)


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  • http://www.stephanmiller.com Stephan Miller

    I like it and wish I had a site like this when I was looking for houses 1200 miles away. The realtor we dealt with was in it for a buck and didn’t respect all of our wishes. Here, I could have done my own research.

  • http://www.lff.com Fitness guy

    I like it as well. I read the article about it concerning the lawsuit with the trade commision. It’s obviously putting a huge crunch on real estate brokers and is only going to get worse with the new additions.

  • http://www.bloggingsystems.com Paul Chaney

    There are those who suggest that this recent addition by Zillow is a move to counter their arch-rival Trulia, which has its own version of social media, Trulia Voices.

  • http://www.bloggingsystems.com Paul Chaney

    Might I add (and I apologize for not mentioning this in the last comment) that most RE bloggers I’m reading aren’t all that excited about it. Greg Swann at Bloodhound Blog goes so far as to predict their downfall, suggesting they lack the ability to really be a category killer. He calls them “ghost towns” that will not be able to generate a loyal following.

    Remains to be seen I suppose.

  • http://www.vanessafoxnude.com Vanessa Fox

    You know I don’t like giving things away early, but I feel there may be a need for the top drive-by comments (people who walk by your house and note that you need to water your plants or mow your lawn), top neighbor comments (so you can find out if you play your music too loud or have a cute dog), and houselinks (a list of where your neighbors are having parties and talking about you).

  • Pingback: Andy Beal noted Search Marketer pokes a little fun at Zillow — The Real Estate Blog Watch

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    @Vanessa – LMAO – and of course, a form to let Zillow know about homes that are artificially inflating their value with the use of reciprocal valuations. ;-)

  • Dean

    I have never been impressed with Zillow as the values they post on houses are enormously outdated and therefore not accurate if you want current values ~ maybe it’s just my neighborhood but houses on my street still show valuations from two owners ago in some cases.

  • http://realtorleads.blogspot.com 4MySales

    Even though zillow has had some difficulty in establishing accuracy in some of the more rural areas of the US, it is turning out to be a great tool. The addition of the area information can only make it better.

    -4MySales

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