Sara Bonert's Real Estate Internet Marketing Blog (Zillow Industry Relations Manager))

If You Are In the San Francisco Area on 2/25

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:04:46 -0600

Please stop by and meet Spencer Rascoff, the COO of Zillow. He'll be hosting an educational event wherereal estate professionals can come learn more about Zestimates and how to use Zillow in their business.

The event is free and coffee and light refreshments will be served.

Please click here to RSVP and learn more about the event.

What: Zillow A to Z: From Advertising to Zestimates, Learn How to Make Zillow Work for You

When: Thursday, February 25, 2010 from 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM (PT)

Where: Hilton San Francisco (Union Square) Room: Yosemite C on the Ballroom Level

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Raincamp in Dallas (And On Twitter Everywhere!)

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:59:12 -0600

I had the privilege of attending RainCamp New York in January. It was a room full of people where you could actually feel the energy in the air. At breaks people were literally buzzing with information they'd just learned. This is on top of the awesome networking opportunity to meet fellow Rainers.

Because we were so impressed with the event, Zillow wanted to be involved in a bigger way. I am happy to announce that we will be a sponsor at the Dallas event. (I am unhappy to say that I won't personally be there, but we'll send someone else you'll be sure to love and I am going to do my best to be at the next one).

What I learned at the New York Camp to get you ready for the Dallas Camp:

1) Bring your lap top and get a seat up front. There are tables and power outlets to ensure that you'll be juiced the whole day. There will be wireless access available, so you can surf with the Speaker. I think this greatly enhances one's ability to digest what is being said when you can play along.

2) Bring lots of business cards. I think it would cool to have cards specially made for the event with the same picture on them that is on your Active Rain profile and an URL for your blog with your blog title. You may know someone very well online, and this would help make the connection IRL (in real life).

3) Get signed up with Internet services ahead of time. Even if you don't know (YET) how to use them, you want to at least set them up, so you'll be ready to go when the speakers start talking about them day of. Start with: Twitter, Facebook, ActiveRain, Zillow, LinkedIn.

4) Twitter - I know a lot of you don't get Twitter - or don't want to. But do at least do this - I think it'll help Twitter click for you and will enhance your enjoyment of Raincamp. Get your account set up at Twitter.com. Download TweetDeck (free). In the left upper corner, click the magnify glass to open a Search box. In this box type #raincamp and enter. This will launch a column where you can monitor what people are saying throughout the day. You can even check this out before the show, to start meeting people pre-event. (If you don't want to download Tweetdeck, go to search.twitter.com and enter #raincamp.)

Have fun at the Dallas event! If you can't make it, I'd at least encourage you to follow the #raincamp tag on Twitter, so you'll be in the know when Raincamp makes it to your town!

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White Paper Finds Nationally Foreclosures Sell At 72% Of Market Price

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:33:16 -0600

I often get asked, does Zillow account for Foreclosures when calculating a Zestimate? Short answer: no.

However the long answer is very interesting. Recently Zillow released a white paper where we looked at the question of if Foreclosures constituted a distinctly separate market from non-Foreclosures. This paper was born from this debate where some thought there were so many Foreclosures that they were the market; while other argued that Foreclosures have characteristics that caused them to sell lower than at market value.

The white paper itself goes into a high level of detail about methodology and data points used, but I'll skip to the results here. Our data found that the answer to this question is YES, they are distinct markets.

Of course, real estate is local so the numbers vary across local metros, but the trends held relatively the same.

Nationally the average ratio of Foreclosure prices to market value is 72%. This is against the assumption that non-Foreclosures sell at market value, or 100%.
It appears that more Foreclosures in an area do lead to a smaller gap between Foreclosures and non-Foreclosures. However, there is rarely less than a 20% discount for Foreclosures.

Based on the data, it indeed did find that Foreclosures sell for substantially less than non-Foreclosures, meaning that you can't compare two like houses when one is in Foreclosure and the other is not. Two conclusions were drawn at the end of the study.

1) The difference in these two markets is the reason why we can't include Foreclosures in our Zestimate calculations. We also don't use them in factoring our Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), or the trend information you find on the Local Info tab of the site. Interestingly, this is a key reason why our ZHVI is currently down 21% from its peak compared to Case-Shiller Home Price Index (which does include Foreclosures) which is down more than 30% from its peak.

2) These findings show that it is inappropriate to include Foreclosure sales data when appraising non-Foreclosure homes. Adjusting for the condition of recent Foreclosures, as well as the Seller's motivation in the Foreclosure situation, sounds great in theory but is ultimately complex in practice. Especially given the Appraiser has likely not been inside the homes being used as comparables for the subject home.

Download the full report - Price Differences Between Foreclosures and non-Foreclosures

Video recap with Dr Stan Humphries, Zillow's Chief Economist

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Want Friends and Followers? Quit Talking About Yourself!

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:11:52 -0600

I love reading Dan Zarrella's blog where he uses data from 60,000+ Twitter accounts to report on trends.

Today's revelation: "Accounts that have more followers do not tend to talk about themselves much."

While interesting because it has data to support this claim, I couldn't help but think - doesn't that apply in the real world too? How many people are attracted to those who opine on and on about themselves?

Once again, another example about how 'in person' actions that give you desired outcomes are examples of how you should act in the social media world as well.

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Price Differences Between Foreclosures and Non-Foreclosures

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:05:51 -0600

Zillow's Chief Economist, Dr. Stan Humphries, has called foreclosures and non-foreclosures two distinct markets - a comment that set off some debate in a previous blog post.

That debate prompted us to delve further into the issue, and today Zillow released a white paper called "Price Differences Between Foreclosures and Non-Foreclosures." It turns out that, in most markets, foreclosures and non-foreclosures do indeed constitute two distinct markets, with previously foreclosed homes regularly fetching much lower prices than non-foreclosed homes with similar attributes.

Here is the full paper:

Via Spencer Rascoff (Zillow):

Zillow's Chief Economist, Dr. Stan Humphries, released the following white paper today analyzing foreclosure home sales. I think you'll find it very interesting.

ZillowResearchBrief_ForeclosureDelta

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How To Edit The 'For Sale' Status Of A Property On Zillow

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:45:10 -0600

I just got off the phone with a woman who couldn't figure out how to take a property she had sold off of Zillow. So I thought I'd do a quick video on the subject in case anyone else was having a similar problem.

So that is how you remove your own listings. One thing I should have added to the video is, if you ever see a property, that may not be yours, still online when it should not be - flag it! There is are light gray flags all over the site. Click this and describe the issue. Doing so triggers an email to our Customer Service team.

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I Am My Own Zillow Testimonial - Zillow Found Me A Renter!

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:29:02 -0600

I have two rental properties in Florida. Needless to say, it has been a tough 3 years for us. One property is furnished and can be rented short term. In 2009 it had the absolute worst rental history. There were months when it wasn't even rented for a single night, which had never happened in the 6 years I've owned it.

In December Zillow announced that we were adding Rentals to the site. I figured I could give up 3 days of Starbucks in exchange for paying $9.95 to advertise the property on the site for 6 months. On January 3^rd, I added the Rental Unit to the site. I am happy (and SO relieved) to say that I just got a call from my property management company, and I now have a Renter in the unit through May 17^th. I have never had someone rent the unit for that long of a term.

Thank you Zillow!

Because the Rental search on the site is so new, Rentals aren't something that we are known for yet. However, the I think the landlords who are getting on the site now are benefitting from being some of the first few listings. If you do a search for Rentals in Ft Walton Beach, FL, where my unit is located, mine is the only one that shows up.

Warning, shameless property plug coming...

If you ever vacation in the Ft. Walton Beach/Destin area and want a waterfront, affordable place to stay that has a pool, Internet, and kitchenette- please consider my furnished vacation rental unit.

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VERY Cool (And Helpful) List Of Technology Companies

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:01:04 -0600

1000Watt Consulting has put together a guide to real estate technology companies. The guide contains 350 links, broken down into 30 categories. Company categories are broken down into sections like: marketing, IDX solutions, listing syndication, analytics, mobile applications and more. The company plans to continually update the list, and there is a link to contribute new content.

Link to the 1000Watt Index

"It's to help you find vendors, competitors, partners and/or just plain-old cool stuff ... Think of it as a 30,000-foot view of all things geeky in real estate," Burslem said in a blog post about the guide's release.

I love the technology that allows the user to rearrange the page to their liking. (would be a cool on an Agent or Broker website....)

Very cool! Thanks 1000Watt! Definitely a great page to Bookmark!

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With Twitter Think 120, not 140

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:21:55 -0600

One of the big reasons social media is so powerful is the potential for what you create to go viral. An example of this power is when these artists had a bad experience on United Airlines, wrote a funny song about it and now has been viewed 7,403,573 times on YouTube, in 6 months.

On a much smaller, but potentially more relevant scale - think about your Tweets. Often Twitter is used to broadcast information. Ideally all of your followers see this message, and ReTweet (RT) it to their followers, and then their followers RT it and so on - creating a viral marketing effect.

On Twitter, you are allowed 140 characters to broadcast your point. Let's say I wanted to be RTed. My Twitter handle is @sbonert (8 characters) and the RT in the retweet is 2 charectors, plus a space. So for someone to simply hit the RT button and rebraodcast my message as is - I need to allow for 11 characters, or my message can be a maximum of 129 characters (140 - 11- 2 -1 = 129). If it is any longer than that, it demands that the RTer edit my main message which requires work, and could be a barrier to being RTed. Furthermore, if you wanted it to be RTed a second time, you need to consider room for the third Twitter handle as well.

Here is example of what something getting RTed twice would look like, so you can see these extra characters in action:

RT @mikesimonsen: RT @rachnicole: @sbonert I always had a hard time w/some of the boundary lines. Wicker Park vs. Bucktown?

You can see how the extra handles and RT charecters can add up and eat into your alloted 140.

Moral of the story: If you are hoping something gets ReTweeted - Try to keep the Tweet under 120 characters. Make it easy for people to spread your love.

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Interesting Information On How Google and Twitter Could Interact

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:26:26 -0600

Google Ranks Real-Time Tweets Based On Followers?

Over the last couple of months there have been many announcements that social media (ie Tweets) will start working their way into search results. There haven't been a lot of details on how exactly this is going to happen, but if you were still looking for that one more reason to get on Twitter, this could be it.

Last week Technology Review magazine interviewed Amit Singhal, who leads development of Google's real-time search, on the topic. The article is titled, How Google Ranks Tweets.

Here are some interesting excerpts:

"..in the social context, the number of people following someone is similar to the number of links pointing to a page. We know Google ranks web pages on the number and quality of those links (amongst other factors). It is not just about the number of Twitter followers, but also figuring out who the "reputed followers" are. You earn reputation, and then you give reputation. If lots of people follow you, and then you follow someone-then even though this [new person] does not have lots of followers, it is equated to a popularity contest."

"One user following another in social media is analogous to one page linking to another on the Web. Both are a form of recommendation. As high-quality pages link to another page on the Web, the quality of the linked-to page goes up. Likewise, in social media, as established users follow another user, the quality of the followed user goes up as well."

"Google uses a 'signal in the noise' methodology to figure out if and when to show these results. He also explained how hashtags in Twitter might be a signal of a lower quality tweet. Hashtags could serve as red flags to lower tweet quality and attract spam-like content."

This is really interesting information. It reinforces the message that Social Media instructors always try to teach, that isn't all about the number of followers you have, but the quality of those followers. And to get quality followers, in comes back to content, and tweeting quality information.

One way to gauge how well you are doing this could be to check in with the site www.Klout.com which looks at your followers, the information you are sending out, and how well you engage with your follower base.

This will be an interesting topic to continue watching. But at the end of the day, I think the main strategy should be similar to blogging. There are some slight things you can do to improve the search engine ranking of your blog posts. But at the end of the day your content is for your readers and the decisions you make on what to write should be for them. When you start writing to gain systems, you risk losing your voice and style and potentials readers. Blog and Tweet what you are passionate about. You readers will benefit, and eventually that will work its way to Google.

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Zillow Advice Can Get You Listings Too!

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:27:48 -0600

Nicole Borsey, of the The Property Network, got two listings from answering questions on Zillow Advice about REOs/Short Sales in her area of Stamford, CT.

Learn more about Nicole at www.nicolehelps.com or visit her Active Rain profile.

Or you can watch this video to learn more about Zillow Advice and how you can subscribe to learn when people ask questions in your area.

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Zillow Local Traffic Numbers for December 2009

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:42:12 -0600

Once again, here are local traffic numbers for you. Overall ttraffic was a little down in December to 7.4 million unique users, but that seasonal dip is normal for us.

Also, check out this post Zillow 2009 - A Year In Review if you want more stats.

Dec 2009 - Zillow Local Traffic Numbers

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How Would You Describe Twitter

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:33:24 -0600

A post on the Social Media Marketing Institute's Blog recently asked people to make up an analogy to best describe Twitter (without using the word 'network').

Here is my best shot:

You go to the NAR Annual Convention. There are 500 booths. Each with different conversations happening at each booth at the same time. Some of it could be considered just noise, as you don't care about those companies/products/services/latest news. Some of if could be considered good information, as you do care. You chose which booths you want to pay special attention to. At the convention, you may run into people you know and catch up with them while walking around. Also, as you are walking around, you'll naturally hear other people talking to each other in the aisles.

- The convention = Twitter
- The conversations happening in the individual booths that anyone can join in = Thread or themes tied together by a hashtag (#)
- People talking to each other in the aisle, while everyone walking by can publically hear them = @ replies
- People who go behind the booth curtain for a private conversation = Direct message or DM

- When you exchange business card with someone = "Following" or giving permission to connect

Anyone got any other ideas?

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Pictures From Our Trip To Paris, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Rome

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:49:57 -0600

Last year my husband took some time off and went on a fabulous trip to the Middle East (thank you Hilton and Delta loyalty points). For Christmas I made my husband a photo book on Shutterfly of the trip. It took HOURS, but it was worth it to have all of our memories organized. Enjoy! If you are ever going to any of these areas and want some travel tips, let me know!

(This may take a few moments to upload, it is a large book, 79 pages! Yes, I am THAT person on trips that has to have 10 pictures of everything.)

Click here to view this photo book larger

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Zillow 2009 Year In Review

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:43:14 -0600

It was another record breaking year for us at Zillow and it is our hope that the increased traffic and enhanced functionality translated into more business for you as well.

Overall, usage of the site grew 57% year-over-year, with an average of 8.2 million unique users a month.

Other milestones include:

37% year-over-year growth in page views in 2009.
3.9 million for-sale, rental and Make Me Move listings are posted on Zillow today, up 43% year-over-year, as the result of more listings feed partnerships with brokerages and Multiple Listings Services.
In December 2009 Zillow launched Rental Listings and Search, enabling anyone to post a home for rent on Zillow, and giving home shoppers the option to search both homes for sale and homes for rent. Nearly one million of Zillow's monthly visitors are exclusively renters, with countless others searching both types of homes simultaneously.
The Zillow iPhone App has been downloaded more than 870,000 times since its launch in April 2009, quickly making it the most popular real estate app on the iPhone. Over 2 million homes are viewed on the app each month.
Consumers submitted 550,000 loan requests on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace in 2009. Of those requests, 46%, or 253,300 were for refinance loans as mortgage rates reached record lows in 2009. Lenders responded with more than 10 million custom loan quotes during this same period. To date, more than 7,000 lender ratings and reviews have been submitted by borrowers.
171 U.S. newspapers began using Zillow's search and listings technology to power their real estate Web sites in 2009, including The Tampa Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Spencer Rascoff gave the following statements to the press about the year: "2009 was a wild year for real estate, with continued home value declines, government intervention, record low mortgage rates, and an enormous amount of consumer uncertainty about what the future holds. As a result, people flocked to Zillow for information and advice. Uncertainty always benefits information providers, and 2009 was the year that Zillow solidified its place as a clear leader in providing millions of people with real estate information."

"It also was the year we saw a real shift change in how people consume and find real estate information. Within just eight months of launching our Zillow iPhone App, it's been downloaded nearly 900,000 times and over 2 million homes are viewed via the Zillow iPhone App each month. It's clear to us that more and more people want Zillow's real estate information on location, while touring neighborhoods and homes, and we expect this trend to magnify in 2010."

These two statements certainly described reasons for our usage and growth. But they also play right into a real estate professional's business. 1) You need to be the go-to source of local information when people are ready to transact and 2) It is time to start seriously thinking about a mobile business plan.

All the best in 2010!

Click here to see Zillow local traffic numbers for your area.

[i]Source for unique users (monthly unique visitors) and page view data: Omniture.

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Happy Holidays! Start The New Year Off With A Fresh Profile!

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:51:05 -0600

After all of the hustle and bustle, the holidays are finally here. Traditionally there aren't a lot of people out touring homes this week, so it gives you some time to take a breather and get caught up on office duties, while sipping egg nog.

If you haven't taken a look at your Zillow Profile lately, now would be a great time to go back and freshen it up or fill it out with more detail. About 3 months ago we added the ability for you to link to your blog, facebook page, twitter account or linkedin profile. You can write a full description about you, including links to your favorite blog posts or website.

If you don't yet have a free Profile, there are four big reasons why you would want to create one:

Uploading your photo to your profile makes your photo also show up on all of your listings.
It bascially becomes an online resume for you, as you can add marketing text about yourself.
Your profile will automatically be included in the Directory (for free).
*NEW* Registered agents get period listing reports as to how their properties are performing on the site.

It is very important to register using the SAME email address as the source which syndicates your listings. We match the email address on the listing to the email address on the profile to know to match them up.

There are many other ways you can promote yourself on Zillow, but to do so, creating a profile is the first step.

Happy Holidays everyone. Thank you for everything I have learned from you in 2009 and I wish everyone a fantastic 2010!

Did you hear? Zillow now has Rentals on the site!

Need help using Zillow? Check out our video training library!

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Rentals and Featured Listings Changes Announced On Zillow This Week

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:58:16 -0600

This week Zillow made a couple of announcements that I have been busy answering questions about all week, so I thought I'd make a quick video response about: 1) Rentals on the site and 2) Featured Listing and manual listing change. Please either click on the links above or watch the video below to get more information about these two new announcements.

As always, let me know if you have any more questions.

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New Privacy Options on Facebook- How Much 'Face' Do You Want To Put Forward?

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:37:28 -0600

Recently Facebook expanded the options available to users to better control who they allowed to see what information on their Facebook page. I encourage you to really think though what policies you enact on your page to correspond to your goals of using the site.

Are you just using Facebook to interact with your close Friends and you post very personal information? Then you may want to consider setting your privacy options high, and only allow people you've personally let into your sphere see your information and photos.

Are you using Facebook to communicate information about you, the real estate professional? Then I would recommend being more lax on your settings by allowing people you might not be connected with to see a lot more about you. For example, if a potential client types your name in a search engine, you want them to be able to learn more about you, even though you don't yet know each other.

You can also do a combination of these two. For example, people can see your Brokerage name and Profile picture, but not any photos you've uploaded.

How do you control this? Log on to Facebook. Mouse over the Setting Options in the top bar, and click into Privacy Settings then Profile Information. From there your be walked through a series of options.

As a real estate professional, which usually means you want a pretty public persona and to be highly accessable, I would recommend people are at least able to see your profile picture and some basic information about you. You just need to decide how much "Face" you want to put forward, and now Facebook allows you many more options on how to do this.

I am basically an open "Book" - with very public settings. However, I don't post anything that I don't care if everyone, including people I don't know, saw.

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Featured Listings on Zillow - Major Change To The Site Starting Today

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:11:23 -0600

There are two big product changes on Zillow today. The first is the addition of Rentals to the site, which I blogged about here. We are very excited to now have this functionality available to both Agents and home shoppers.

The second change has to do with listings that are manually added to the site, or don't come to Zillow via an automated feed. If you are one of the few who do this, please pay close attention to this post.

Starting today, in order to post a home for sale on Zillow, you can either buy a Featured Listing for $9.95 for 180 days, or if you have 50 or more listings, you can send us a listings feed, for free. Featured Listings are sorted to the top of search results for a particular geography, and receive 6 times more views than non-featured listings -- ensuring that those who are paying us receive extra exposure and extra potential for success on the site. As with all Zillow listings, the agent can still add unlimited photos and a detailed property description.

A big reason we made this change was improve the quality of For Sale listings on Zillow. Specifically, we found that listings manually added to Zillow have a higher occurrence of outdated information, which can lead to a misleading experience for consumers. We believe this change will eradicate much of this outdated information, as there is greater incentive for a paying advertiser to maintain accurate and updated information on their listings.

Currently, only 3% of Zillow's 3.6 million For Sale listings are manually posted (1% are FSBO, and 2% are FSBA) so this change impacts only a very small number of listings. The remaining 97% of our listings come to the site from listings feeds, which will continue to be free.

So as a recap, all manual listings on Zillow are now Featured Listings. It costs $9.95 for 180 days (basically 6 cents a day) and includes:

Featured placement at the top of the search results, generating 6xs more views than a basic listing
"Featured" designation in the search results and on the listing page
Ability to upload unlimited photos
A detailed property description
All contacts will come directly to you

And of course, any Agent who currently sends Zillow listing via a feed also has the option to upgrade to a Featured Listing for this low price!

Post a Featured Listing here.

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Zillow Announces Rental Listings!

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:14:21 -0600

I have an investment property in Florida. In the last three years, twice I’ve listed it for sale. Twice I’ve ended up renting it. Twice I’ve relied on my agentto help me with the decision making that took me down this path to simply get the home occupied. It is a big reality that today’s real estate market is forcing many people, like myself, to wear the landlord hat because of market conditions.

Today I am excited to announce that Zillow is expanding its marketing services to not only include homes FOR SALE, but now also include the ability to market homes as being FOR RENT.

Zillowhas always been a little different than other real estate sites because our foundation is a data base of ALL homes, not just homes that are currently on the market. Today we have about 93M property records on the site, with about 3.6M of them having been flagged as being for sale. Because of this, we get people in all stages of home ownership, from renting to buying to owning.

According to the U.S. Census American Housing Survey 2005, there are 34M rental households in the US, with 53% of rentals being 4 units or less and 30% being single family homes. And when we look at the 8M+ people that visit Zillow each month, nearly 1M of them are exclusively renters with untold others “on the fence” on whether to buy or rent.

So what is Zillow’s new product?

Zillow offers a Featured Rental Listing for just $9.95 for 180 days. Featured Listings are sorted to the top of search resultsand receive six times more views than non-featured listings.
Rich rental listings can be created with unlimited photos and detailed property information, and you only have to post this information once for up to 180 days.

How will people find my Rental Listing on Zillow?

Of course we’ll have the standard search, but we couldn’t just stop there.
Zillow has built the industry’s first search by monthly payment– allowing users to simultaneously search for homes for sale and for rent based on a monthly payment they can afford. (monthly payment on homes for sale will be calculated using that day’s mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage rate, assuming 20% down)

Zillow’s goal is to help people make intelligent and informed choices in all stages of life – whether they are renting, deciding whether to rent or buy, shopping for a home today, refinancing, remodeling or just dreaming. With the addition of rental listings and search, we are giving our users another tool to help them throughout their decision making process.

Click here to experience the For Rent search on Zillow.

Announcement on the Zillow Blog.

Post a home for rent.

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Social Media Marketing - Be Where Your [Future] Clients Are

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:41:27 -0600

I just got back from a Real Estate Bar Camp in Atlantic City, and like so many conference I attend lately, social media marketing dominated the conversations. A lot of talk revolves around: how can I get Twitter followers, how can I get Facebook friends, how can I get LinkedIn contacts. Then talk ebbs into, are we just talking among each other [ie real estate pros] or are we attracting people who will actually transact with us? Good question!

These are definitely important considerations and things that need to be thought through in a social media plan (here is my personal plan). But a dimension of social media less discussed is, instead of thinking about how you can attract people to your brand, why not go out to where the people you want to connect with are already congregating. Both are important sides of the social media play.

For example, we all know how much the general public loves Zillow. And these people are asking thousands of questions a day on topics easily answered by real estate pros. So while writing a blog post about the $6500 tax credit is great, you can augment your social marketing sphere by answering questions on this very topic within Zillow Advice. This is a place where thousands of people are already going for answers, and many people will see your responses, thus helping to build an online reputation for being helpful.

Since I know we don't have time to constantly be on the lookout for questions to answer, my advice is to subscribe to be emailed whenever a question is asked with a particular keywords that you set up is included. For example, I am emailed whenever someone asks a question with the words "Wicker Park" in it, because that is my ‘hood and love contributing about it.

It only takes a few clicks to set up and is free. Here is a two minute demonstrations on how to subscribe to keywords on Zillow Advice:

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NAR's 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers Report Released

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:03:29 -0600

Last week, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, an annual survey about the home buying and selling process. There were over 9,000 respondents from around the US. The report contains tons of detailed information on the demographics, behaviors, experience of consumers in the housing market and some very interesting FSBO data (116 pages worth!). Here are some highlights. If you want more detail, it is definitely worth buying the report, Realtor member pricing is $25 or download for free.

The number of first-time buyers increased sharply last year to 47% from 41%.

90% of buyers used the Internet to search for homes, 76% did so frequently. I don't think this surprises anyone.

Searching online was the very first step in the buying process for most buyers, even before contacting a real estate agent. Interesting to look at how this breaks down by age.

On average, buyers spent 2 weeks searching online before contacting an agent, big opopportunity here for agents to connect with buyers who haven't yet chosen representation.

Most buyers (44%) found their agent through a referral from a friend or relative, but 10% of buyers found their agent online.

Yes, the Internet was used more often as a source of information, but check out who is the most reliable as a 'very useful' source!

"Honesty and trustworthiness" was the most important factor cited when choosing an agent.

This is just a small portion of the information that is available in this report. I highly recommend spending some time downloading the report and go through it yourself. You could come to interesting conclusions when making 2010 business decisions.

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Quarterly Homeowner Confidence Report Shows Levels Vary Across The Country

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:26:13 -0600

Each quarter Zillow tracks Homeowner Confidence by conducting a survey, along with Harris Interactive, to gage homeowner sentiment about the value of their home. When we started 6 quarters ago, perception and reality were quite far apart. But each quarter homeowners have come closer and closer to realizing that values have dropped nationwide, and the spread has narrowed.

However in Q3 of 2009, perception and real estate markets were literally all over the map. People in the Northeast were overly cynical about home values, while those on the West coast were overly optimistic.

From a national standpoint, when asked about their own home's value over the past year:

25% think their home's value has increased
26% think their home's value has stayed the same
49% think their home's value has decreased

In reality, 72 % of U.S. homes lost value over the past year, and 22% of homes increased in value. That's fewer homes declining versus Q2(83%), and a smaller Misperception Index of 10 (vs. 13 in Q2 and 17 in Q3 2008). A Misperception Index of zero would mean homeowners' perceptions were in line with actual values.

Here's a breakdown of homeowner perception vs. reality nationwide:

So what does the general public think about the future of their real estate market? The vast majority of homeowners - 84% - believes their home has reached a bottom and will not decline any further. Specifically:

41% think their home's value will increase in the next six months
43% think their home's value will stay the same
17% of homeowners think their home's value will decrease

There is a lot going on with housing right now, both organically in-market and with government stimulus, so it is hard to predict with any certainty what the future holds.

As Zillow's Amy Bohutinsky, Zillow VP of Communications put it - "Overly optimistic homeowners? Probably. Confused homeowners? Absolutely. And I don't blame them one bit." This is why it is so important people have professional representation to help interpret what is happening locally and maybe, to certain degree, even help look forward.

Curious about home value trends in your neighborhood, please visit Zillow's new and improve Local Info tab to see dynamic home value charts and neighborhood make up stats.

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Getting To The Top Of The Directory On Zillow

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:27:27 -0600

This question came in from Karen Alterson a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Surf in Rockville Centre, NY. As it is a pretty common question, I thought I'd answer it on my blog, so multiple people can benefit from the answer.

Dear Zillow,

How do I get my name on the list of Realtors? And how do you get to the top???

Karen,

First of all, to get on the list, you simply have to create a free profile. All profiles are included in the Directory. To make sure you come up appropriately, make sure you completely fill out the fields like areas you specialize in and your marketing text. In the upper right hand corner, you'll see the Register button.

Helpful videos:

How to activate your account

Creating a free profile

With regards to sort, helpfulness and contributions to the site are big factors in determining the order.

Each listing and photo you add to the site are considered contributions. Also, in case you don't have listings, answering questions in our advice section are contributions. Also, once you contribute enough advice, you can be considered a Local Expert or All Star. You can sign up to receive emails whenever there is a question in your area to answer.

Helpful videos:

Zillow Advice overview

Becoming a Local Expert

Becoming an All Star

Hope that helps!

Sara

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Understanding the Internet Buyer (NAR Convention Speech)

Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} (Zillow) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:20:36 -0600

In case you missed Spencer's presentation at NAR, he posted all of his materials and video here. If you get a chance, I highly recommend spending some time watching it. There are some great statistics on how people are using the internet.

Via Spencer Rascoff (Zillow):

Here is my presentation from the NAR Convention in San Diego, "Understanding the Internet Buyer". If you ever want me or someone from Zillow to present to agents in your office (in person or via webinar), please let me know.

Here's the video. It seems to crash the Firefox browser when I embed the video, so you'll have to watch it over on ustream.

Understanding the Internet Buyer

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