Zillow announces bidding for homes on their site

Buying & Selling Real Estate
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Zillow announces bidding for homes on their site

Kevin PolitePro Member
Investor · Decatur Atlanta, GA · Member since 2011 · 612 posts · 232 votes

Zillow announces  Zillow Instant Offers. A Homeowner must upload photos and include additional information about the home. The article says "certain investors" can then bid on the home. Not sure what that means and there isn't any additional information. They also include a real estate agent's CMA. The homeowner can choose either option or decide not to sell. It's only in Orlando and Las Vegas now. Can't see this being good for investors or wholesalers as it gives the distressed homeowner another option. Thoughts?

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Chris MasonPro Member
Moderator
Lender · CA · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 10k+ votes
9y

The Inman article says "The home description then goes to the 15 Wall Street investors."

This is not good news for the mom and pop landlord, for real estate agents, OR for homeowners thinking of using this. 

Also, 9% fee. 

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  • Chris MasonPro Member
    Moderator
    Lender · CA · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 10k+ votes
    9y

    The Inman article says "The home description then goes to the 15 Wall Street investors."

    This is not good news for the mom and pop landlord, for real estate agents, OR for homeowners thinking of using this. 

    Also, 9% fee. 

    3Reply
  • Nick C.
    Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2011 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    9y

    Sounds good for the 15 wall street investors, not so much for anyone not in that circle. 

    0Reply
  • Mo Gold
    Investor · London, England · Member since 2016 · 26 posts · 4 votes
    9y
    Kevin Polite I presume Zillow's strategy is to disrupt this space and thereby ultimately lessen MLS grip on the RE market. No doubt this will close some doors for current incumbents, but will open up new opportunities for this capable of adapting...
    0Reply
  • Vivek Khoche
    Investor · San Jose, CA · Member since 2017 · 343 posts · 102 votes
    9y

    @Kevin Polite - Thanks for sharing! The writing is on the wall, in the digital economy although this is late but certainly will happen. Does not matter if you like it or not Uber , AirBnB, Amazon are not going anywhere.

    Thanks

    Vivek

    0Reply
  • Kevin PolitePro Member
    OP
    Investor · Decatur Atlanta, GA · Member since 2011 · 612 posts · 232 votes
    9y

    @Vivek Khoche coming from a 20-year newspaper background, believe me, I know about needing to adjust to the changing digital world, lol. 

    @Mo Gold 70% of Zillow (and now they own Trulia) incomes comes from agent advertising. Amongst older agents, they absolutely hate Zillow especially now that Zillow/Trulia are profiting off their hard earned listings. A bit of that is their fault because when Realtor.com started there was resistance in putting listing online and charging. So they went up for free. Then Zillow started scrapping and started using the model to make agents pay for their leads.  Realtor.com could have cornered the market 15 years ago, but lost control of their own inventory. Stupid if you ask me, but that ship has long sailed. 

    0Reply
  • Mo Gold
    Investor · London, England · Member since 2016 · 26 posts · 4 votes
    9y

    @Kevin Polite I hadn't realised that Realtor.com was 1st to market and failed to capitalise on the opportunity. Thanks for teaching me a new piece of info...It makes sense. Timing is key. Often 1st to market is not a guarantee, and early leaders come over the top to win. Prime example being the iPod. There were lots of MP3 players, but Apple came to market and the rest is history....

    1Reply
  • Jaquetta T Ragland
    Real Estate Agent · Winston Salem, NC · Member since 2014 · 486 posts · 303 votes
    9y

    Why only certain investors...I wonder if there is a fee behind that.

    0Reply
  • Mo Gold
    Investor · London, England · Member since 2016 · 26 posts · 4 votes
    9y
    Jaquetta Turner possibly they targeting a niche. Proving the concept and model works then they'll widen the net...
    0Reply
  • Matthew Rogers
    Investor · Tempe, AZ · Member since 2017 · 61 posts · 36 votes
    9y

    9% fee. That's crazy if you ask me! I guess this is good for people that want everything now and aren't willing to wait.

    I think this could have a huge impact on Agents down the road if they can reduce the 9% to 6-7%. 

    0Reply
  • Jaquetta T Ragland
    Real Estate Agent · Winston Salem, NC · Member since 2014 · 486 posts · 303 votes
    9y
    Originally posted by @Mo Gold:

    Jaquetta Turner possibly they targeting a niche. Proving the concept and model works then they'll widen the net...

    Good point...it may change later on.

    0Reply
  • Joel OwensBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Real Estate Broker · Canton, GA · Member since 2010 · 15k+ posts · 11k+ votes
    9y

    Aggggggghhhhh sky is falling,sky is falling, danger Will Robinson! lol

    I see all of this crap come out every up cycle. Technology is going to replace brokers/agents blah,blah,blah.

    Some people use it when they think market is hot but then when market cools off and takes more skill to sell these type of doo dads become duds. There is a certain percent of the market that wants cheap but there is a big market that wants service and personal connection.

    I am on the commercial side so it doesn't matter to me.  I can see residential agents some getting weeded out that are mediocre. Many of my friends like me are in the top 20th percentile so we have customers seek us out to become clients on a daily basis. The average broker/agents are not seen as leaders in the market so they tend to get the scraps where buyers make decisions on price and not the relationship.

    Anyone can try to be cheaper but if you gained a lot of knowledge and are constantly learning it is very hard for other brokers/agents to outdo you.  The ones that do not learn on a daily basis might do well for awhile but then later scratch their heads and go (what happened?). You always improve and never get complacent. Those little amounts of small positive daily changes to your business that seem insignificant at the time really become a wide gap of differentiation over time. 

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    2Reply
  • Christine Kankowski
    Real Estate Broker · Temecula, CA · Member since 2014 · 994 posts · 783 votes
    9y

    9% fee.   Why would anyone do this?

    0Reply
  • Rob D.
    Investor · Riverside, CA · Member since 2015 · 280 posts · 111 votes
    9y

    I wonder why anyone would do that too. I'm sometimes questioning why people are still paying 6% commissions. 

    0Reply
  • Ian WalshBusiness Member
    Lender · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2016 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    9y

    Someone is going to tackle this concept and take it to the next level.  Some of the other sites doing it now have made a lot of money with it, but the opportunity here is Google big.  Game changer.  Zillow has the infrastructure and resources to pull it off and take over.

    1Reply
  • Brian Mollo
    Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2014 · 21 posts · 7 votes
    9y

    9% seems excessive, but that can easily be changed, I suppose. Thanks for sharing; I wasn't aware of this. Please share any info on rollout in other cities. 

    0Reply
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