Special offer
Home > Blogs > Jill Murty, Realtor - Orange County, CA > Jill Murty's Orange County, CA Real Estate Blog
bookmark_border

If you want to live forever, be a lease listing on Zillow

By
Real Estate Agent with Movoto DRE #01485322

If you want to live forever, be a lease listing on Zillow

 

Your lease listing is leased....or is it?

 

Once my lease listings are leased, they remain in Active status on Zillow well after I've updated the MLS.  Zillow shows the listing has been updated, but it continues to show as Active.  Why?  I'll never know.  Zillow's "ZenDesk" (customer service) ignores me.

 

I go in and manually cancel the listing and send an email to customer service, the "ZenDesk".  I explain that it's frustrating to consumers to waste time inquiring about listings that are not available.  I go on to explain it's a waste of my time to contact the prospective renters to let them down.

 

Canceling the listing manually should be enough, right?  Nope, not on Zillow.  A couple of days go by and the inquiries are coming in again.  I cancel the listing again and expect to do so every couple of days until who knows when?  I had to cancel a previous lease listing 13 times before it went away.

 

Since the Zillow ZenDesk ignores me, I think my only option is to bend the ear of the next Zillow salesperson who calls to sell me "high demand zip codes in my area that will not last".

Posted by

 


  



 

Nearby properties for sale


Powered By RealBird.com



Comments (14)
Subscribe to CommentsComment

Submit
Show All Comments
William Feela
WHISPERING PINES REALTY - North Branch, MN
Realtor, Whispering Pines Realty 651-674-5999 No.

Why deal with 3rd party sites at all?  If we get the public to understand taht the besst place to search is through PROFESSIONAL sites, we don't have to buy our leads.  The will come directly to us.  

 

It also meks us look un-Professional when they find our listings as active only for us to tell them that it was sold months ago.   WE look like the incompetent ones.

Apr 06, 2015 06:25 AM
Jill Murty, Realtor - Orange County, CA
Movoto - Laguna Niguel, CA

I agree.  Our listings are syndicated, so I live with it.  I think the broker has to choose to syndicate all or none of the office listings.  I don't think it can be per agent.

Apr 06, 2015 06:34 AM
Shuchi Agrawal
Kanam Realty Group/Kanam Commercial - Flower Mound, TX
Serving Dallas / Ft. Worth

This is funny and so true... I've had so many people contact me about houses on Zillow that never get updated to show current status.  Come to think of it, it could be great strategy for both Zillow and agents to have lease listings on the site forever - the more pages, the longer the duration the more potential you have of someone seeing it and perhaps a phone call or enquiry, maybe the higher your website ranking... - it's probably by design (and not a bug :) ).

Apr 06, 2015 06:42 AM
Jill Murty, Realtor - Orange County, CA
Movoto - Laguna Niguel, CA

Shuchi Agrawal - It could certainly be a lead generator if you want lots of lease work.  I'm happy to do leases, but it's a small part of my business.  I don't tend to chase the lease leads.

I hadn't considered website ranking.  You make a good point.

I have my doubts that Zillow designed the site to give free lease leads to agents by keeping lease listings active indefinitely, but I can sometimes be an enthusiastic skeptic.

Apr 06, 2015 06:55 AM
Frank Rubi
Frank Rubi Real Estate, LLC - Metairie, LA
FrankRubiRealEstate.com

Jill, I have a few customer I wonder if they will ever find a home. They will not take my advise and leave those site alone. 

Apr 06, 2015 07:17 AM
Jill Murty, Realtor - Orange County, CA
Movoto - Laguna Niguel, CA

Frank Rubi, MBA - Some consumers are convinced that Realtors are holding back information.  One day, consumers may realize the most accurate and up to date information comes from us.  It can sometimes take a while to build that trust.

Apr 06, 2015 07:22 AM
Hannah Williams
HomeStarr Realty - Philadelphia, PA
Expertise NE Philadelphia & Bucks 215-820-3376

Jill Murty, Realtor  Funny you should mention ..I still get calls on a rental I had 2 years ago in Bakers Bay  I kind of laugh now as this development rarely has rentals and usually the people are really rude

Apr 06, 2015 07:29 AM
Jill Murty, Realtor - Orange County, CA
Movoto - Laguna Niguel, CA

Hannah Williams  - I guess these things linger on the Internet for a very long time.  Bummer about the rude people calling.  No wonder they can't find a a rental.  

Apr 06, 2015 07:38 AM
Laura Allen, Lake Tahoe - Truckee Real Estate for Sale TahoeLauraRealEstate.com
Coldwell Banker Realty, Tahoe City, CA (530) 414-1260 - Tahoe City, CA
Tahoe Real Estate Agent Helping Buyers and Sellers

Jill Murty, Realtor - Just one more example of the mega sites trying to hold onto listings that are no longer active.  Hope the next sales person that calls you to sell you another zip code can fix the problem!

Apr 06, 2015 07:54 AM
Jill Murty, Realtor - Orange County, CA
Movoto - Laguna Niguel, CA

Laura Allen, Lake Tahoe - Truckee Real Estate for Sale www.TahoeLauraLuxuryHomes.com - I always advise the salesperson that we cannot discuss the (very slim) possibility of me purchasing zip codes until the issue I'm having trouble with is addressed.  They may onto me by now.  I haven't purchased a zip code yet....

Apr 06, 2015 08:30 AM
Rob Thomas
Prestige Homes of The Tri Cities, Inc. CALL....423-341-6954 - Bristol, TN
Bristol TN-VA & Tri Cities Agent, ABR, GRI, e-Pro

Seems like enough people would realize the unprofessionalism of these sites and use them less and less!

Apr 06, 2015 08:39 AM
Debbie Reynolds, C21 Platinum Properties
Platinum Properties- (931)771-9070 - Clarksville, TN
The Dedicated Clarksville TN Realtor-(931)320-6730

Yes it is frustrating and I have just decided to treat it as a prospecting opportunity to help the callers. Who knows they may even be able to buy.

Apr 06, 2015 10:40 AM
Jill Murty, Realtor - Orange County, CA
Movoto - Laguna Niguel, CA

Rob Thomas - I did have a guy call me today to check on a listing because he's aware the accuracy on these sites is terrible.  

Of course, the listing that showed as available on the site was not available.  The caller was not surprised.  I think a lot of people don't realize they can work with a Realtor and make the process a whole lot easier.

Apr 06, 2015 11:19 AM
Jill Murty, Realtor - Orange County, CA
Movoto - Laguna Niguel, CA

Debbie Reynolds - You make a good point about looking at it as an opportunity.  I have created property searches for a lot of the people who have inquired, but about 45 people have contacted me and I can't turn leasing into a full time job.

I always think about partnering with someone for the lease leads, but I'm not sure how to handle it if the renters become buyers.  Whose client are they if I hand the leased lead to another agent?  What if one of the agents goes to a different brokerage?

The last time I handed a lease lead to an agent, I wasn't really happy with the way they handled it.

Apr 06, 2015 11:28 AM
Back to Top
Rainmaker
400,356

Jill Murty, Realtor - Orange County, CA

Profile
BlogHome Search
smartphone949.355.5321
Contact The Author

Service Areas

  • Laguna Niguel, CA
  • Orange County, CA
  • Mission Viejo, CA
  • Laguna Hills, CA
  • Aliso Viejo, CA
  • Capistrano Beach, CA
  • Dana Point, CA
  • San Juan Capistrano, CA

Recent Posts

View more Recent Posts   arrow_forwards

Featured Listings

  • itemOffered", itemscope="", itemtype="http://schema.org/Residence" address itemprop="address" = limit_text(blog_entry.full_address, :limit => AgentsHelper::SIDEBAR_POSTS_MAX_CHARACTERS).html_safe
  • itemOffered", itemscope="", itemtype="http://schema.org/Residence" address itemprop="address" = limit_text(blog_entry.full_address, :limit => AgentsHelper::SIDEBAR_POSTS_MAX_CHARACTERS).html_safe
  • itemOffered", itemscope="", itemtype="http://schema.org/Residence" address itemprop="address" = limit_text(blog_entry.full_address, :limit => AgentsHelper::SIDEBAR_POSTS_MAX_CHARACTERS).html_safe
  • itemOffered", itemscope="", itemtype="http://schema.org/Residence" address itemprop="address" = limit_text(blog_entry.full_address, :limit => AgentsHelper::SIDEBAR_POSTS_MAX_CHARACTERS).html_safe
  • itemOffered", itemscope="", itemtype="http://schema.org/Residence" address itemprop="address" = limit_text(blog_entry.full_address, :limit => AgentsHelper::SIDEBAR_POSTS_MAX_CHARACTERS).html_safe

What's the reason you're reporting this blog entry?

Are you sure you want to report this blog entry as spam?