A buyers is looking at listings on Zillow. The buyer sends the listing to their real estate agent asking why the agent hasn’t has sent them this listing. It has everything the buyer needs and the Zestimate says it’s worth 20% more than it is listed for. The buyer is furious at the Realtor. When the Realtor goes into the MLS to see more information about the Zillow listing he sees the home sold 8 months ago and is no longer an active listing. It also sold for under list price and no where near the Zestimate. This is something that every real estate agent agent experiences on nearly a daily bases.
Zillow Doesn’t Follow the Same Listing Information Rules as Agents Do
As a local real estate agent with a website, strict rules are in place for agents. An agents website must update on at least a daily bases to remove listings that are under contract, expired or any status change. Zillow leaves the listings on their site as active listings on purpose. There is a reason for this. For one it helps them in the search engine rankings. They more pages to be indexed. The other reason is the sneaky one, since Zillow sells your personal information to the highest bidder, if you believe that listing is still active you will click “Contact Agent” and when you do that your information is sent to multiple companies. The more “Active Listings” on Zillow the more customers clicking for information on those homes. It is a genius idea but incredibly shady. This has been a complaint of real estate agents across the country for years.
Zillow Has Manipulated the Public For Years With Zestimates – This is Why
The first thing buyers and sellers need to understand. Zillow is not your friend. They are not a wonderful company giving you free data because they like you. They are a data mining company that will sell your information to anyone that will buy it. The irony is they want accurate data from you but give you outdated and false data. The Zestimate is a perfect example. They have fooled the public for years manipulating them into believing a Zestimate was actually a ligit piece of information. Sorry, it is impossible for an algorithm to price your home. That is why you pay $1000 for an appraiser to come out and price a home a buyer is purchasing. That is why banks don’t say “Sure we will give you 80% LTV on the Zestimate”. Anyone in the business knows the Zestimate is and absolute joke. The reason it was so omportant for Zillow to make people believe the Zestimate was accurate was for phase 2 of their model. The purchasing of homes. Yep it is true Zillow is now (in certain markets) become a company that will make you an “instant offer” on your home. How do they come up with what to offer? You guessed it from the Zestimate. Then they charge you a convenience fee that is higher than any real estate company I have ever heard charging. So now they have the public believing the Zestimate is accurate so when they offer you the Zestimated price you will accept the offer. That is like me as a real estate agent walking into your home and giving you a price on my listing visit and offering that to you in the same day. That is unethical and immoral and I could actually lose my licence for that but that is what Zillow’s business model is. Still think Zillow is your friend? Think again they are a large data mining company with hopes to manipulate the market with lower prices during the acquisition phase and raise during the liquidation phase.