Well, well, well. So Spencer M. Rascoff, CEO of Zillow lists his home for sale and of course the listing shows up on his site. But there are a few interesting observations to point out, and I couldn't believe this so I had to do a little double-checking and it seems that it is all the truth.
You see, Spencer listed his home in July of 2015 for $1,295,000.00, no big deal right? Well the “zesti-estimate” for this home displayed on his site at the time was $1,626,772. Wouldn’t you have loved to have been in the room for the conversation Rascoff had with his Real Estate Agent? There were two successive price reductions all the way down to $1,138,900. Here’s the best part, are you ready for this? It actually sold on 2/29/16 for $1,050,000.00…$576,772 less than his sites estimated value! Folks, you can’t make this stuff up.
As I was checking out the numbers here I noticed some other problems, for example. Redfin has the current property value at $1,301,601.00, up $255,601.00 only about 60 days after it sold, really? So he listed it for $1,295,000.00 and had to drop the price about $250,000.00 to $1,050,000.00 to get it sold, but Redfin says it made that value up in two months?
Why do consumers go to these third party sites? The short answer is because the vast majority of Real Estate Agents do such a poor job at offering real value to consumers. The longer answer is that it’s Big Business. These third party “portal” sites are spending millions on advertising and making millions off the backs of Consumers and Agents that succumb to their “easy” way of getting leads by doing the work for them. It has become a vicious food chain. The vast majority of consumers believe that these are legitimate Real Estate Sites, they are not. As Mr. Spencer M. Rascoff said himself in an interview on October 12, 2014; "Were a media company, we sell ads not houses, were not a brokerage, were not an mls, we sell ads.”
I think it’s really a shame that the system wound up like this. Too many bad agents that don’t offer any value and advertising Portals that act like they’re in the Real Estate business, no wonder we have to work so hard to get the internet consumer to engage with us.
If you need, or you know someone who needs honest, professional Real Estate guidance through the home buying or selling process, we are here to help. Please contact us today for a free no hassle consultation…“Fifteen minutes with us could save you thousands of dollars.”
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