Zillow for Realtors ONLY?

Question

A local heavy investor told me last night he received an email from Zillow saying starting May 1st only licensed agents can post for sale on Zillow.  Basically no more FSBO.  Has anyone else heard of this?  If this is true what are the impacts you think it'll have on the investor/non realtor community?

Peter Mckernan · Answer

Here you go! This came from my association. @Nick Watkins @Adrian Smude

Beginning in May, 2017, Zillow Group, which includes both the Zillow and Trulia platforms, has decided to STOP accepting manual listing entries from real estate agents.

What does this mean?

It means that beginning in May, Zillow and Trulia will ONLY accept listings through direct MLS or brokerage feeds. You WILL NOT be able to post listings directly to Zillow independently of your MLS or brokerage.

NOTE: This change WILL NOT apply to the FSBO, Coming Soon, or Make Me Move listing types. You will still be able to enter these manually.

Why the change?

This decision was made by Zillow Group, NOT by CRMLS or your brokerage. Zillow has stated in an interview with Inman.com that they are “making the adjustment to promote the accuracy and timeliness of listings that appear on Zillow and Trulia.”

Peter Mckernan · Answer

Yes, you are still okay with posting on Zillow as FSBO, or manual entry. This does not effect that!

@Adrian Smude

Account Closed · Answer

@David Dachtera

Zillow's Make Me Move is pretty cool.  For whatever reason, there is a lot of demand for homes in my neighborhood and a sale is rare.  So, I listed my house on Make Me Move with a price that was about 20% more than what I estimate its fair market value.  The idea being, if someone was interested enough, they would pay a price to incentivize us to move.  I received many serious inquiries but my wife made me shut it down...  While a bunch of agents reached out to list my home, all showing inquiries were buyer-direct, no agent.  When my wife allows me to sell our home, Ill start off with Make Me Move to avoid paying traditional agent brokerage fees.

Eric E. · Answer

So why am I getting this message when I try to post as FSBO on zillow? :

A listing has been submitted for this address and is currently under review. We’ll let you know when it’s posted.

For more information, please proceed to our Help Center.

Adrian Smude · Answer

@Peter Mckernan thanks for that info and clearing up the incorrect info.

Am I correct to assume an agent that is wholesaling a property would not be affected by this?  In any case it's going to be interesting to watch.

Russell Brazil · Answer

@David Dachtera Never assume that what a person, or group of people do is going to be in their best interests :)

The argument I hear the most is that the boards do not like Zillow because they are providing Zillow with the content for free, but then are being charged large sums of money to sell leads from that content back to the agents. So if they are going to do so, then they want more control over the data being provided to Zillow. It is all about control of the data...and if they are providing the data to Zillow for free, they want control over what data Zillow publishes.

David Dachtera · Answer

@Russell Brazil,

That seems like it would be a shot in the foot to the boards, unless they don't like being buyer's agents. Without the FSBO section, they'd have to go to another source to get FSBO listings for their buyers. As I understand it, when there's no listing agent/broker, their agency gets the whole commission, don't they? Why would they want to forego that and split a commission with a listing agent/broker?

I never understood "Make Me Move", so I can't address that.

Russell Brazil · Answer

Many local Realtor boards have been pressuring Zillow to do this, as well as to do away with the FSBO and Make me move section. It is likely that at least in some markets this will come to fruition since Zillows main source of revenue is selling leads to agents, and those agents control the local MLS and can with hold the idx feed from the MLS to Zillow.

Nick Watkins · Answer

I don't believe this to be true, I asked a partner of mine and he has not seen anything saying it and he invest so much with Zillow his licence plate is Zillow no lie.

Zillow for Realtors ONLY?

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