I know of no one that is active in the real estate market that is unfamiliar with Zillow, so I'll skip the intro altogether.  If somehow you are unaware of Zillow, well then I guess go here; www.Zillow.com.

Anyway, why do I love Zillow?

I love Zillow because in a giant swing of it's mighty blade, technology has both leveled the playing field - and simultaneously separated the "knows" from the "know-nots."  Every person on this site, (or any adult reading any site for that matter) could probably give numerous examples of instances where technology "hath given and taken away."

For instance; ATMs.  I have very clear memories of my parents collecting my brothers and me from school and rushing off to "get to the bank before they close."  Technology made it possible to get to our money 24/7.  And it also created a way for banks to bill us for that convenience.

Wal-Mart - I remember when we actually needed a grocery list. Not anymore - we can pick up whatever, whenever and almost wherever.  Technological improvements in supply logistics improved delivery and thus created a bigger demand.  It also made it acceptable to work late and delay that grocery trip because the goods where available 24/7.

I remember an agent getting together listings to show my wife and I what would be our first house - with an MLS book that weighed a ton with Polaroids stuck all over it.  It's much different now.

And there are probably thousands more, maybe even tens of thousands of examples.  But for everything technology improves, there is a downside.  Even if you can't see it immediately.  Whenever there is an successful improvement in any facet of our work/business/life you can be sure of one thing - "the way we used to do it" just went out the window.

But Zillow I think it different.  Zillow is one of a kind ( I know it has competitors but for right now it's the one to catch, especially with new funding) and it's amazing the impact it has on homeowners.  I think it's impact is the exact same one gets when they Google an item for research; we feel smarter, we know something now that we didn't know before.  We "learned something today."

And who doesn't like feeling smarter?

With Zillow it's the same thing.  They "learned something today."  Mister and Mrs. Homeowner learned what their house is worth.  They learned what their neighbors house is worth.  And more importantly, they just learned that, wait for it....

"I don't need a Realtor... I've got everything I need right here on my desktop!  Honey, don't call that Realtor! We can save..." 

And they're off.  Now their mind is racing trying to figure out, "6% of...." and walk and talk at the same time.  Now, while their eyes are wide open and the room just got brighter, they're talking about how much they're gonna save (while deep down they're both planning a much-needed vacation with their savings) and what this will do for their savings account.

I love Zillow. 

But because I'm not a Realtor (yet) I see this from a completely different perspective.  When I talk to people that are in foreclosure this site ALWAYS comes up.  Every time.  No matter what the race, the income bracket, the years of school completed, the marital status, every time they say "You know, my wife (husband) was on the internet last night and..."

If I had a nickel - and you know how the rest of that line goes.

Well my Zillow stories can probably be matched case for case with anybody on this site.  I'm sure mine are no worse the Realtors trying to explain to a frustrated FSBO why their home isn't selling.  However, in my case I love Zillow because it actually helps me in my job explaining some very harsh realities to my clients.  Or maybe they're not my clients but they're just testing the waters with some questions or they have an offer they want to validate by getting a second opinion.  Either way, I love Zillow because even though it can sometimes be very difficult to watch somebody realize that it might not work out the way they planned - at least they know.  They took the time, they did the research and found out for themselves.  I just pointed it out to them.  I didn't give them a collegiate level course in macro-economics (which is actually fascinating to me) or use big words to confuse them.  I simply showed them what they were already looking at from a different perspective.

I showed them WHY Zillow says their house is worth the "range" it offers.  Somewhere in this "range" is where their house is priced based on averages.  This isn't the price it will sell for, this isn't the price you should start with.  This is the "range" that your home "could" sell for.  This is it's price "range", not it's value.  Price is determined by the market, value is determined by the individual.  A bottle of water is priced at 1.19 at a convenience store.  But if you have a headache, you have aspirin in the glove compartment and you just need some water, the value of being able to stop, buy the water, and now your headache is slowly disappearing - what's the value of that?  Way past 1.19 if it's a bad headache.

But Zillow is both a great improvement, (it brings a little better understanding to the marketplace) and it sets up some challenges for my industry (it makes some -not all- people think they know more, but they really understand less).  But I'm all for these type of sites.  I'm a firm believer that the more you can educate your customer, the easier your job will be, the happier and more confident in you they will be and they more likely they are to return.

And hopefully "they learned something today."