ZILLOWS "HOSTILE TAKEOVER" OF HAMPTON AND MANHATTAN BROKERAGE--FAIT ACCOMPLI!

ZILLOWS "HOSTILE TAKEOVER" OF HAMPTON AND MANHATTAN BROKERAGE--FAIT ACCOMPLI!

For all of you out there who have read my MANY articles about the stated goal of Zillow when they opened their doors in 2006, you can say you knew what would happen---you can even say you were warned!

The goal? To "put all brokerages out of business"! Now, their message is: "Pay up, or Go Out of business"

In 2018, Zillow bought out Streeteasy in Manhattan and a local database here called HREO which included the Realnet database for our local internal real estate system.

Very quietly the deal was struck and by the time we found out about the purchase, Zillow was in full control of all the information needed to run ALL real estate brokerage businesses here in the Hamptons and in Manhattan. 

Now, if you STILL think it is a figment of my imagination that Zillows mission and stated goal was  to "put all brokerages out of business", just read the article attached here:

HAMPTON BROKERS LASHOUT AT ZILLOW OVER BUGS IN NEW LISTING SYSTEM

We have been left with a portal on the public website (Out East) with no Town data, no sales information that we might be able to use as we look for our own leads and listings!

Here is the email I sent to all the agents and managers here in the Hamptons after I read the article:

"Out East" is a public website--we are "Joining" it or registering in it as if we are just another part of a public search. I believe this is intentional. I know what Zillow is up to as do most of you if you have any awareness of the current state of real estate.

In my humble opinion, they have no intention of making a real estate agent friendly system that we can use to get important data in our research as we rent or sell properties. The reason I believe this is that Zillow has always wanted a "workaround" to real estate brokerage--they want us to disappear, not thrive! Its the sole reason they bought out every shred of our listings databases--they want to control how much we know so that they can force us to pay for anything else that is more critical to doing real estate business.

EXAMPLES:

• Zillow bought out Google Maps "Birds Eye View" so that we no longer had access to vital aerial information that we can share with the public, our clients and customers. Now, if you noticed Out East has no satellite views that can be used by an agent to help a buyer see a neighborhood--so that is out the window.

• Also, there are no links to internal Town data, trades, weekly sales data by Village, town or city as we had on Real Net. These are just a few of critical research materials we all need to get our own leads for listings and buyers!! DATA will no longer be ours to use--unless we pay them for it!

• Every effort is being made to disempower us in our own profession--that way we will be forever grateful to get that data from Zillow AND WILLINGLY PAY THEM FOR THE PLEASURE OF GETTING BASIC STATISTICS THAT WERE AT OUR FINGERTIPS ON REALNET!

I have watched, blogged about and reported on the antics of this company since they were formed in 2006. I have bored you all to death with my articles about Zillow. Nothing is surprising to me when I see what they are doing--they do NOT want us to survive this change... Want to know about this company? Simply Google "Zillow anti-trust lawsuits" and you will see what they have done to the public and to real estate agents--and they have succeeded because they have a HUGE lobby in Washington and the courts are on their side--as are those agents who still see fit to pay them!

Good luck to all of you!--and to those who willingly "Pay-to-Play": It is all on you for being complicit in their efforts to destroy brokerage...

Thanks for listening! Paula

Real estate is the slowest it has been snce 2009! Zillow does not know the real estate market and its vagaries--It is a certainty that Zillow does not know what is happening with real estae at the moment--they don't know the ups and downs of real estate and I think they may even be struggling financially since the slowdown has affected the revenue from agents who "Pay to Play"!

So, much like a wounded animal, they are proceeding to the kill! 

The new listings platforms are unusable as stated in the Real Deal article and so it is with real fear and frustration that this real estate community has joined forces and begun the work to regain our footing--maybe even work together to get around what Zillow is doing with our information!

Brokerages may not all close up at once, but you can bet there are small, Mom and Pop firms that will close immediately because of this "takeover". In Manahattan there have been closures and one merging of two well established firms to try to overcome the effects of the sale of Streeteasy to Z.

This complicated situation has left all of us breathless--we have had the wind taken out of our sails (and sales)!.

But I feel vindicated in having written and blasted all my annoying emails as I filled in my fellow agents and brokers over the years.

The surprising thing to me? I feel somehow guilty that I was NOT able to convince  my fellow agents and brokers of the coming doom; that I was unable to give them enough information to turn their heads...to be able to see the danger in using their website.

And most of all, I feel terrible that I was unable to convince them that PAYING the BEAST is the absolute nail in the coffin for brokerage!

Many of the agents in my company are still paying Z a lot of money, as the sinking ship slips below the surface!