Zapped By Zillow

THe best way to handle an objection is to pull the rug out from under it!

Why not include the zillow printout in your presentation and take away their ability to use it against you?

Also, are clients that want to believe in flase hopes, really the type of clients you want?  Just think of all the similar clients they'll refer to you!

Drew

Its a tough market and it doesnt help when everyone is pulling the rug out.

Zillow...is the Z word. I once had a listing for $299,000 which was about average for the area. The Zillow "Zestimate" valued the house at $699,000!  To their credit though, if you research their Zestimate, the explanation says it is a starting point in determining value and to contact a Real Estate Agent for a true value.

Zillow may tell you what your house is worth, but as an agent, I'm here to tell you what it takes to get your house sold.  People will only pay what the market will bear and Zillow does not take that into account!

I think Zillow is on crack and the folks on the discussion boards are Satan.  What a bunch of malarcky. 

Hi Claude - 

Did you show the seller the minimum value on their Zestimate value range? That's often a good way to reset lofty expectations! Obviously this conversation can go both ways but people seem to get that a Zestimate is an estimate. 

All - If you're still battling to explain Zestimates to your clients, I highly recommend this AR blog post from earlier today by Chuck Willman, AZ Realtor.

While I think that more and more sellers are getting realistic about the market, sites like Zillow certainly don't help.  I have agents who have turned down more listings this year than they have taken.  And I say, way to go! 

Wow, this is helpful information.  I have had the Zillow question and have responded with the simple statement that Zillow estimates value on the high end.  Fortunatley, my clients valued my word over Zillow.

Truly this is one of the biggest hurdles in our business and I am glad reqltors keep writing about it, because some day athere is going to be a magic answer

I just listed a house two days ago and the knife cuts both ways. The Zestimate said the house was worth $360,000, but it's more than that because Zillow doesn't realize it's a custom home, not a tract home like the homes on the next street over. We listed our listing at $419,000. I find that unfortunately for agents, both buyers and sellers are referring to things like Zillow and then want to debate the true value of the home, as if Zillow is more accurate.

Our MLS even got into the game recently, offering an MLStimate on their site. There's nothing better than getting stabbed in the back by your own MLS.

Go Ahead, and placate.  Waste the 10 grand in marketing, get a reputation for over pricing so you always get low ball offers from other Realtors whether it is priced right or not. Let the whole neighborhood know the ridiculous price your asking so the rest of us have to explain why the Smith's place down the street is listed for X, and our client wants to list theirs at a higher price because it is nicer.....

And the Grand Prize - your profit margin is still LESS THAN ZERO.

I believe one of our Code of Ethics articles speaks to this point of being honest with our clients and customers.  IS it really that hard?

My house was on Zillow for 450,000.00 and two doors down they were at 390,000.00. We have the same floor plan. The neighbor next to me did an addition and so did the one behind me. My house was no way at the 450 mark. It does give me a good story to tell when people talk to me about Zillow.

Claude-Great post, I applaude Julie Ferenzi-for her comment.

One of the things I like about active rain is the insight that my realtor associates provide into their world.  It looks like Zillo has become to Realtors as Ditech is to a Mortgage Professional. 

Gotta love these "educated" buyers and sellers. 

So check the competition on Zillow and show it to the Sellers. If it shows them overpriced too, and they aren't selling for a sales price less than Zillow shows (that's the case in my area most times) it might wake up the Sellers.

We have been zapped too - more recently from the buyer side - a couple of times. The buyers look at the recent sale $$$ and say "well the seller paid xxx amount for the house so we are not going to pay for more than xxx amount for it" - sigh - Also, some of the numbers are just that estimates! Another buyers insisted that a house had sold for about 50% of the value just a few months back - however it didn't - and if you read the * is says - the transaction was not used bla, bla, bla, due to anomalies.... yeah.  Occasionally it works the other way too. Never-the-less a lot of explaining goes on. ~Rita