Zillow Confuses Home Buyers Looking at Homes for Sale

We have seller who may be fired quite soon - took him on as a favor. At any rate, he is constantly sending me texts about this and that when he finds something on zillow and thinks it affects his listing. Argh. He's really a barrel of laughs. 

Elizabeth- we have a friend who looked on Zillow and feels certain he could get $$$$ for his home which I'm sure has not been updated since he bought it. He feels certain that's what he can get...no comps, no agent sitting down to talk to him...just Zillow. 

That Zillow information does give us opprotunities to open conversations and talk about the importance of using a local agent.

Elizabeth, had a buyer call me this past week, and said he had been on Zillow looking for homes.  I gave him the public side of our local MLS, and he will have a much more accurate view of our market.

Hi Elizabeth... fortunately, I can usually dissuade my clients from paying attention to Zillow (especially the ones whose homes are valued way lower by Zillow than they are worth today). But it's the "strangers" who call wanting to see homes that are not on the market, were sold years ago, etc. that can be difficult to deal with. I've had some get quite aggressive on the phone with me when I tried to explain how Zillow listings might be misleading. Zillow has, frankly, done a phenominal job convincing the public they are the be all and end all for real estate information.

I've noticed that confusion caused by Zillow among home buyers too, Elizabeth.  And, the confusion also is present with sellers who wonder about zestimates.

Most definitely isn’t the first time that this is happened. I’m almost sure of it for a lot of us as well!

Hi Elizabeth... that's interesting... I've not had anyone insinuate that I work for Zillow (yet). But they have a hard time understanding that Zillow is not their partner to help them find homes, but is actually a marketing company selling ad space to agents.