Have you ever had a client say "But Zillow said my house was worth.........."
When we ask this question at RainCamp, it's not uncommon for more than half the hands in the room to go up. I have a little secret for you all.....Zillow isn't going anywhere soon, so it's in your best interest to understand how to deal with that question and establish yourself as the expert, instead of Zillow.
Zillow is a marketing company, their stated goal is to connect real estate agents with consumers so they can get a professional opinion of the value of their home (That's my interpretation of their goal, Brad can clarify if I missed it by a little bit). The 'Zestimate' is not the actual value of a home, it's an estimated value based on a variety of factors, none of which is the professional expertise of an agent that knows the in's and out's of a market.
But, since Zillow is attracting massive numbers of consumers every month, many who are interested in the value of their home as they think about selling, as a real estate agent, you need to understand the 'Zestimate'. You need to understand what tools they provide you to help get the consumers expectations in line with what the market is doing. You need to understand that you can no longer afford to be unable to address the "But Zillow said my house was worth......" comment.
(you need to understand where on the site it is that they show their average error)
Here's another little secret, Zillow has a bunch of other tools that real estate agents can take advantage of, for free and we'll get the scoop on those as well.
My guest on Friday at 12:00pm Pacific Time (3pm Eastern Time) for Rain Radio will be none other than Brad Andersohn, the new Industry Outreach Manager at Zillow. Brad was previously the community manager here at ActiveRain and he has been helping real estate agents market their business for over 20 years.
Brad's also happens to be a good friend of mine, so you can expect me to pull no punches while we chat about Zillow, how Brad is adapting to his new role and how much he misses talking to me on a daily basis (You'd better say you miss it Brad!).
If there are any questions that you would like me to ask Brad, please leave a comment here and I will do my best to get as many of your questions answered during our 30 minute chat as I can. You can click the button below to be reminded about our chat on Friday and we look forward to having you join us.
(and maybe I can get him to tell you why he, Jon and I are dressed in those ridiculous robes in the photo above)
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