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Zillow Premier Agent - Opinions please? - Worth the cost to buy a zip code?

By
Real Estate Agent with Keller Williams Consultants Realty 2001002071

Hi all I hope you're all well!

Quick Question:  Has anyone used Zillow and paid to become a premier agent for a specific zip code?  

Any good or bad experiences?

How about any opinions on the customer service / Realtor friendliness of Zillow? 

Thanks in advance!

Ryan Reynolds

Keller Williams Capital Partners Realty

(740) 972-2731

Comments (121)

Anonymous
3 yead Zillow Agent

Jay.. Thanks for the note.

I have been in contact with my new rep on a few occasions. It's just not a fit for me. I contacted my old rep by email and my new rep responded wanting to know why I reached out to the previous one... she said it wasn't protocol but, she would have him get in-touch with me.. never happened. I could not imagine telling one of my long term customers they must work with one of my agents or buyers reps after working directly with me for years.. I would loose that client.

Since I have tried a few avenues (asking the new rep if I could be repositioned with my old rep and reaching out directly to my old rep and having my new rep question my reasons).. it seems like I have no options.. not a good way of doing business.. I have increased my annual spend constantly over the years to a tune of over $12,000. My new sales agent does not understand my needs or my business model, our communications and personality styles are like oil and water. I find her nice enough but, condescending.. she talks as though I am an inexperienced new agent who needs to be directed. Every point I make with regard to my business model and how I have grown my business with Zillow/Trulia is discounted with something like "you should have never... you may have in the past but... etc..." ugh! I am not knocking her as a person but, it seems as though she would be best served with Agents who haven't yet advertised with Zillow/Trulia. Given my spend and my several years with both Zillow and Trulia I would think she would have had her boss contact me after expressing my discontent and after reaching out to my previous rep. I now feel if I make that call, I will only be told this is the way things are and I am stuck with her.. this would make our working relationship even more tenuous.

Zillow/Trulia is really missing the big picture on this type of revamping with agents and reps who have worked hand in hand to make the relationship a "win-win" for both Zillow and the Agent. When you have long term success with a client it's not normal that you undo it; Instead of looking forward to seeing my sales rep name show up on my caller ID to discuss open zip codes or buying more in some of the ones I have, now when I see my new reps name I just avoid it and let it go to voicemail. This definitely isn't helping your company or mine increase revenues.

Lastly, I teach monthly classes on how to use online marketing and how to specifically working with Zillow and Trulia and have referred agents to my previous rep. I wouldn't entrust sending any of the students to this new one.

Oct 27, 2015 12:36 AM
#103
Anonymous
Read the whole thing

I wanted to put this out there as my perspective and observations. I am not including contact info because I have no interest in what the Zillow ambassadors here have to say (reasons are below). Again, this is my personal opinion/ perspective so take it with a grain of salt but I will try to be as honest as possible.

I started my online advertising with Trulia a few years ago, before they were bought out. Leads were hit or miss, but I was getting contacts and when I finally honed my follow up technique and processes, I saw a huge jump in the amount of people that I retained.
I quickly realized that to be successful, I needed to buy out 100% of a zip code which I did. This helped immensely, and business was booming (4-5 solid leads a month that would all close on a $500 per month spend).

Because this was successful, I eventually decided to try something similar on Zillow. Due to the way the zip codes were sold, I could not buy 100% of one, but did manage to get about 40k impressions per month locked in for a reasonable price (or so I thought based on what that should have brought in). Get everything set up and we're live!

5 Weeks go by and I've managed 2 whole contacts despite the 45k impressions I actually received, one of which was another agent, and one who had a simple question about a property her agent had showed her. In the mean time, I managed to get 8 new good leads from Trulia in the same time frame. On less impressions. For less money.

So I called my Zillow rep, who despite what others experienced actually was responsive. But they couldn't offer any insight and essentially told me that I needed more reviews. Other than that, they had no additional instruction.

After two more weeks, and no new contacts, despite my now more complete profile, I canceled.

Fast forward a while, and I decide to give Zillow another shot along with my Trulia advertising. Well now they have completed the merger, and it seems all advertising is done through Zillow, though you get the added benefit of being featured on both sites. I thought that was awesome!
It turns out that my preferred zip code was sold out, but after working with my rep, we settled on one that gave me a minimum of 45k impressions for about $1100 per month. Not what I wanted to spend, but after talking to the rep, it seemed like a trivial amount for all the business I was going to get. I said ok.

Now, some people complain that they are getting crappy leads. I'm getting what amounts to none. So far in the first month, Zillow /Trulia has delivered a whopping 20k MORE impressions than they promised me, and I've gotten a grand total of 4 leads. Two leads were agents, one was for a property that was so horribly misrepresented I have no words. The address was wrong, and the property was 6 miles from where the buyer was looking. I resolved this after getting the MLS number and showing the real listing to the buyer, who ultimately did not want to work with me because of the inaccurate data I was "representing" despite my explanations that I had no control over what appeared on the site.
The final buyer is someone that I am working with, but has no concept of the buying process, and has wanted to buy 3 properties yet will not get pre-approved. I admit that this is more on me than Zillow, but this is the only real lead I have ended p with for 65k impressions.

Now, what confuses me is that for doing the EXACT same thing on Trulia (before the merger) and Zillow, I received immensely more business and leads with less than half the impressions and monthly spend.
I mentioned this to my rep who told me that I needed a more complete profile (it was about as complete as possible) and reviews, something that I do have already, and that I needed to wait. Statistically, I should be getting (according to their ROI calculator based on the 45k impressions) 31 contacts per month. I'm receiving way less than that for way more impressions.

So what the heck, I'll try upping my game, and work on my profile. I call my rep to pick his brain, and the conversation essentially ends with him telling me that he doesn't know what to do and that "he'll cross his fingers for me."! And then proceeds after much pressing, that it may take up to 6 months for me to see some sort of uptick in contacts.
Funny that Trulia worked and worked well before the merger without any ifs ands or buts.

I will be cancelling, and focusing my ad dollars on far more effective routes. If others have had great experiences, then good for them. For me, Zillow / Trulia is truly a waste of money.

TL;DR:
Zillow / Trulia delivers far more impressions than I was supposed to get, but there are no leads. Rep has no idea what I can do other than completing my already complete profile and getting more reviews, and that "he'll cross his fingers for me". Rep also says it could take 6 months or more to see anything (at a spend of $1100 a month).

Nov 03, 2015 12:17 AM
#104
Ralph Wright
First team real estate - San Juan Capistrano, CA

My personal experiance:

I signed up last Nov. on a 6 month contract then after one month of a couple junk leads i requested for more impressions. The rep sent me a docusign for a 12 month contract. My mistake is that i signed it without reading it thoroughly. I never wanted to extend my existing contract. I only wanted more impressions to hopefully gain more leads. Now i am stuck with them. I recently confronted the rep on this. He said he has no record of the conversation and that i am the one who requested the extension of contract. I feel totally misled and duped. There is no support at all.

So far after almost 4 months all junk leads and when you finally speak to an actual live person about homes they never call u back. I have tried everythin they suggested: follow up within minutes, drip campaign, send them mls
Listings, etc etc. i believe my mortgage lender partner has received more leads than me by mistake. Pretty laughable.

If you have plenty of spend money to burn and several listings then its a possibility to gain a few more leads from zillow but if I were to do this all
Over again i would not.

I am currently in a BBB dispute with zillow and with Amex due their salepeople making false promises to gain more leads.

I would not recommend zillow to my worst enemy.

Feb 16, 2016 05:07 AM
Brad Andersohn

While I am no longer a Zillow employee, I can say that I'm sad and apologize you had this experience Ralph. If you're interested in generating leads at around $14-$16 on average per lead, let me know and I can tell you about the "making it rain" program. This might help you make up some of the costs you're incurring on Zillow. 

Feb 16, 2016 05:37 AM
Jay Thompson
Zillow - Seattle, WA

Ralph Wright - Jay from Zillow Group here. This isn't the experience we want anyone to have. I've escalated your billing concerns to our Director of Agent Care. I'd also love to talk to you about maximizing your success with the Premier Agent program. My email is JayT@Zillow.com, please feel free to contact me at any time. I'll also try giving you a call tomorrow (Feb 17).

Feb 16, 2016 08:51 AM
Ralph Wright
First team real estate - San Juan Capistrano, CA

Thank you everyone for the response. 

 

I have voiced my concerns with a few zillow employees recently but havent heard or felt any support. Just all repetiveness and people tryijg to upsell me. I have joined coaching calls, posted advice, linked my main website to

zillow set up a feed, asked people

to review.  I am at 89% on my profile.  Service first is my motto.  Anything that is recommended.

 

Last call i have received has been Jan 26  

 

Today, i am already fed up. I made a second complaint via bbb about the contract length issue. 

 

At this point, i am already hopeless and just want to end my contract without any early termination fee. 

Feb 16, 2016 09:11 AM
Jay Thompson
Zillow - Seattle, WA

Ralph Wright - I'm not going to try to sell you a thing. I'm not is sales and couldn't sell you something even if that's what you wanted. Feel free to shoot me an email with some times that are good for you if you want to chat tomorrow. Again it's JayT@Zillow.com Would love to talk to you. 

Feb 16, 2016 09:39 AM
Ralph Wright
First team real estate - San Juan Capistrano, CA

Thank you. I apoke to my rep and we came

up with a resolution. 

Feb 17, 2016 03:48 AM
Jay Thompson
Zillow - Seattle, WA

 

Good to hear, Ralph, and thanks for letting me know. Feel free to reach out at any time if I can ever be of help to you.

Feb 17, 2016 04:01 AM
Chad Deihl
Keller Williams - cell: (559) 892-0549 - Fresno, CA
residential home specialist in the Fresno vicinity

Hello!

Just adding my 2 cents here.  Consumers are more saavy than ever these days and will look at the agents name that is displayed on their screen and check their reviews/stars.  If you don't have any, they'll skip to the agent that does... wouldn't you?  I know I would.

So, coming from someone newer to the industry, I am going to request that my buyers leave me positive reviews, foster more attention over time and garner a little notoriety in my area before forking over all that money.

The one major drawback that I see for Premiere Agents, is that many Realtors can pay for a zip code and have their name displayed... and if it is a very popular zip code, you may have to refresh your screen 5+ times before your agent names pops up!   Now, on Realtor.com, advertising there they cap each zip code to a much smaller agent count, I believe 2 or 3 maximum, everyone else is put on a priority waiting list.

I suggest waiting until you have some online reviews and show up on some Google searches for your ara before forking over the big $$$ - it just makes sense.

The website that I am using now and really love the layout is this one:

http://www.homeasap.com/chaddeihl

(except that I cannot customize the url - but its a nice perk to having the Facebook IDX Home search app)

Feb 23, 2016 03:03 PM
Bonnie David
Quantum Real Estate, Inc. - South Lyon, MI

I have been a significant paid subscriber for Zillow for a number of years. In the past, I did receive a good amount of leads that my team converted to closed transactions.  However, Zillow became more diluted with more agents and changed their format a couple of years ago.  At that time, I even had a co-sponsor, a mortgage broker who had someone on staff to immediately take action on any inquiry.  It was not profitable for the mortgage broker so he quit after a year.   I noticed my closed sales from Zillow diminished significantly so I just recently bit the bullet and quit my paid subscription.  I seem to get more hits from my website for clients.  However, I do get listings as a result of Zillow because sellers go into the map section and can see the number of sales in my market area.  I have had a few sold listings as a result of that. I believe they are posted once a client submits a review.  I still like Zillow, it's a great source of information.

Jun 20, 2016 06:15 PM
Cari Patterson
VANCE ELLIOTT REALTY - Austin, TX
Real Estate Broker Austin Tx San Marcos Kyle Buda

Thank you for all these great comments about Zillow Premiere Agent. I just joined and wished I had read these prior. I have had similiar results so far with renters, and junk leads but it's early. Fingers crossed, I have my first showings this week off of a lead from this weekend. 

Aug 23, 2016 02:50 PM
Jay Thompson
Zillow - Seattle, WA

Hi Cari Patterson - Jay from Zillow Group here. I'd be happy to have a chat with you about getting the most from the Premier Agent program. Have a few ideas/suggestions that may be helpful.

You're off to a great start with showings after only a couple of  weeks in the program. Good luck with them!

Please send me an email with a couple of good times to call, and I'll be happy to help. Just need 15 minutes or so of your valuable time. JayT at Zillow.com
Or feel free to call me at 206-757-4224. If I don't answer, I'm in a meeting. Just leave a message and I'll get right back to you.

Aug 25, 2016 04:25 AM
Anonymous
joey

Anybody have similar issues with Zillow or Trulia?
-virtual fraud in my personal experience. Watch out if you're paying for to be a premiere agent or whatever each site calls it. You pay $150 -$350/month to supposedly protect your listings so you are the only agent showing up on your own listings (or at least a portion of them), yet every other time (like 50%) I go into verify that's the case -none are protected. You go through the whole thing with them... sorry technical glitch, temporary etc. total bs. They're double and triple selling identical listing leads and to agents, not protecting your own listings on their site as promised.

Don't even get me started on the whole puchase a zip code non-sense -additional fee's per month for the truly worst garbage -they'll send you the same $14,000 foreclosure lead over and over. Buyer beware if you are paying zillow or trulia a monthly fee to get "leads" watch out.. you may get a lucky lead here or there, out of pure luck -but as far as zip codes go, mostly they'll send you a lot of garbage to make their stats look good. Can't believe how many thousands of dollars we have given them over the last couple of years with little or no accountability from them. Can't even tell if they're purposely lying about some of their issues or just don't really know. By the way -when you pay for a zip code -they're not referring to some sort of pricing chart. they're literally just trying to figure out how much you'd be willing to pay.

Oct 12, 2016 06:00 AM
#115
Jay Thompson
Zillow - Seattle, WA

Hi "joey" - Jay from Zillow Group here.

There are a couple of things in your comment that confuse me. 

"They're double and triple selling identical listing leads and to agents"

We don't sell leads, we sell impression-based advertising. It's the consumer that chooses which agent to contact, not us. So we can't "double and triple sell identical leads to agents." That's simply not how our platform and products work. The consumer picks an agent, fills out a short form, and that form goes only to the agent selected by the consumer. 

"they'll send you the same $14,000 foreclosure lead over and over"

See above. We don't chose which consumer contacts you, the consumer does. If you're getting the same contact over and over (which would be odd) then it's the consumer sending it over and over. 

"but as far as zip codes go, mostly they'll send you a lot of garbage to make their stats look good."

Again, we don't send you anything unless and until the consumer chooses to contact you. Sending you "garbage" certainly wouldn't help anyone's stats. 

"Can't even tell if they're purposely lying about some of their issues or just don't really know."

We're certainly not purposely lying. We're a $7 billion publicly traded company, we wouldn't get very far lying to anyone. Not only that, but my co-workers are some of the most dedicated, ethical people I've ever worked with. From the brand new lowest-level employee to the C-suite, no one here is lying to anyone. And I'm 100% confident that should that happen, anyone doing it would be out the door. 

"Can't believe how many thousands of dollars we have given them over the last couple of years with little or no accountability from them."

Since you've commented anonymously, I can't look up your profile or account in order to give you any specific advice. If you'd like to email me ay JayT (at) ZillowGroup (dot) com, I'd be happy to offer some help. I talk to agents every day that are very successful with their Zillow Group advertising. I'd also encourage you to reach out to your Business Consultant for help and advice, take some of the free training courses we offer, go to one of our events, and take some of our free webinars

There are lots of tools and systems in place to help you be successful. Please contact me if you're interested in getting some help or have any questions. 


 

Oct 12, 2016 06:47 AM
Elizabeth Jimenez
Morris Williams Realty - Orlando, FL
Always going beyond

To John Morra:  I don't mind working with buyers, how do you get them from Craiglist?  Thanks for any info.

Jan 07, 2017 05:33 AM
Anonymous
Diana

SAVE YOUR MONEY!!! Don't sign up for the Zillow Premier Agent!!! Unless you already have a stronger online profile on Zillow (you must have the largest number of 5-star Reviews and the largest number of recent sales in that area), THE PROGRAM WILL NOT WORK! It's the biggest rip-off! The get agents to sign up thinking they will improve their market share, but the bottom line is you will not get the opportunities that a more seasoned agent will get.

Jan 09, 2017 09:09 AM
#118
Jay Thompson
Zillow - Seattle, WA

Hi Diana, Jay from Zillow Group here. While there is no question that a strong profile is helpful, your claim that one has to have the most five-star reviews and the largest number of recent sales in order to be successful simply is not true. I talk to agents, every day, that are seeing tremendous ROI on their Zillow Group advertising, and they are nowhere near the top when it comes to reviews and past sales. 

Jan 09, 2017 09:27 AM
Anonymous
J. James

I just got burned off this program. Unfortunately the person who I though was going to help me turned out to be anther shark with no customer service orientated skills whatsoever. She even had the audacity to laugh at me when I asked to speak to someone higher up. Its a damn shame that this publicly traded company is getting filthy rich off all the new agents blowing their savings before they get booted from the industry.

Mar 07, 2017 05:38 PM
#120
Anonymous
Eva kamal

For those who’ve had no problems with ZILLOW (yet) I have news. I was a premier agent for a good while, under contract, got enough leads that I had to sometimes switch my phone off! Needless, the leads NEVER panned out. I get a call that now the minimum payment needs to be at $500 and I won’t get any exposure at the amount I was at. I agreed to the prorated amount to get to the $500. The $96 never came out of my account, the leads stopped COMPLETELY. My exposure was zero. I thought my account was closed for not meeting the “Minimum requirement”. When I emailed, I got a one liner answer “we’re waiting till it's your billing cycle to make the change” In the meantime, no exposure, no leads. Not one call that I used to switch my phone off to I STILL got charged my usual come billing cycle. EVERY MONTH THEN ONWARDS! When I called I was told my manager was on vacation for 2 months!?!?!? Guess what? Still fighting that battle. It’s been almost 3 months now. Think twice!

Jan 07, 2018 07:36 AM
#121
Jay Thompson
Zillow - Seattle, WA

Hi Eva - Jay from Zillow Group here. Our billing deptartment will be reaching out to you. They are out until 5am (Pacific) tomorrow, but I'm having Customer Support start the help ticket today. Someone from Support will reach out to you today if they need any information (they may not need to contact you to initiate the ticket).

 

Jan 07, 2018 10:47 AM