Really, we are a media co., Really
By: Rich Barton CEO | March 20, 2007
The title of this post is a stealthy way for me to welcome Greg Schwartz as Vice President, Advertising Sales, to Zillow. Greg is based in our NYC sales office and will grow the national sales team across the country. I met Greg in January, and despite having interviewed more than 25 very solid candidates for this super important position, it was immediately clear that Greg was the Zillow guy. He has a background that has straddled the advertising world and the online world having worked for Doubleclick, Yahoo!, and most recently, Time Warner’s CNNMoney.com. This means he can talk CPM in NYC with advertisers and RSS in Seattle with our engineering team. Welcome, Greg!
Now, let me circle back to the title of this post. You’ll notice that we’re not announcing a "VP of Zillow Agent Recruiting" or "VP of Zillow Brokerage". We have encountered some suspicion from the real estate industry since before we launched a year ago, that it is our stealthy intention to get directly into the real estate agency/brokerage business. This suspicion is fueled somewhat by the fact that we are registered as a broker in most states in the US now, so it is understandable. However, it is a legal decision entirely, kind of a "belt and suspenders" measure, that we have gotten these licenses. We do not operate and have zero intention of operating any brokerages. Believe me, you would see us recruiting and announcing the hiring of a huge number of agency personnel if this were our intention.
Instead you see us announcing our talented new head of Ad Sales, for we are a media company. We make our money now and will make our money in the future by selling advertising to all of those interested in reaching our affluent, engaged, and large audience. If you are an agent, you have already seen us release marketing features for you to get the word out like free posting of for sale homes. Thousands of you have registered and posted homes and we thank you. I also tell you that this is only the beginning of the cool stuff that we will enable to help you demonstrate your expertise, market your listings, and market yourselves on Zillow.com. Thanks for your support.
- Stumble it!
- Categories: Real Estate Industry, Zillow
Comments
7 Comments so far
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Richard M. Johnston on March 21, 2007 2:15 am
Hello Rich,
I would really doubt agents would line up to join your company if you decided to become a real brokerage.
You do however provide a great informational site to your visitors, and your data and Zestimates are getting better as time goes by. But it’s sad to see people based their home value using your online system without consulting a local professional.
It’s possible someone will get taken advantage of using your Zestimate; maybe the elderly or those who don’t know any better.
Your foreseeable future is probably only going to consist of being a data aggregator and a future seller of leads to real estate agents. Unless you got some magic tricks up your sleeve, entrance into your industry will be easy and you’ll soon face stiff competition who’ll do a better job than what you have. Or maybe your real intention is to get gobbled up by Google or Yahoo.
Bret M. on March 21, 2007 2:52 am
Trulia’s Blog tells why Russ Capper at PREA asked Trulia to leave the Prudential conference after he invited all the Trulia team to fly all the way down and even have a booth. What an A-hole! http://www.truliablog.com/?p=140
Frank Gimsdale on March 21, 2007 7:47 am
I look at zillow as more of an entertainment site then a place to go to figure out what my home is really worth. Its fun watching your house go up $100k one month and then down $58k the next. My house has gone from $968k down to $675 and back up to $790 in a 5 month period. But it is fun to see the crazy value zillow puts on it each week.
Seriously, I don’t know how you would ever make this site more reliable then what it is. There are so many variables that go into determining what a home is worth, and many of those variables are not available to zillow.
However, there are flaws in its logic that could be fixed, like not using the house next door that sold 2 months ago in the comps or the lack of consideration of location in the values (ie good waterfront vs average waterfront - that’s huge in Florida). I also don’t understand how the house next door can be valued at one price per sqft and your valued at another when they are both the same size in the same development.
Benji L. on March 23, 2007 9:48 am
Ciao Rich,
“However, it is a legal decision entirely, kind of a “belt and suspenders” measure, that we have gotten these licenses. We do not operate and have zero intention of operating any brokerages.”
Kind of a very ambiguous post that doesn’t explain to worried brokers why Zillow needs to be licensed. What does “belt and suspenders” mean?
Are you planning to get referral fees? If you are bringing brokers deals then they will be happy but more competition maybe not so much.
Benji
Chuck Ponzi on March 23, 2007 10:04 am
It’s amazing to me how many (d) realtors spend time on Zillow if it’s such a terrible site.
I call BS. This site is groundbreaking, and will change the face of real estate forever. Step aside, or get plowed over. This is a steamroller, and anyone not on board is going under.
Zillow getting better? You’ve got to be kidding me. There are at least 20 agents who think they have priced homes right in our neighborhood who have had their listings pulled in the last 6 months after not selling. In nearly every case, Zillow says they are overpriced between 10K and 50K. I would bet that if the agents used that information to make an informed decision, those houses would be sold, and they’d have their fat commission. Zillow is already better than 80 to 90% of agents out there in pricing.
Agents are overpaid clerks that don’t even perform as well as an automated algorithm…. hmmmm. sounds like a competitive advantage to me, sure enough!
Chuck Ponzi
Rich on March 23, 2007 11:15 am
Ciao Benji,
We are not planning to get referral fees. We hope to sell lots of relevant advertising. The “belt and suspenders” comment is not meant to be cryptic. The regulations of the real estate industry were largely written for an off-line world. Suffice it to say that we believe having our brokerage licenses will avoid potential lawsuits for providing the service and information we provide today.
Rich
David G from Zillow.com on March 23, 2007 12:04 pm
Chuck –
I’ve deleted the more offensive language in your post — please be more respectful of our blog’s readers.
You’re welcome to your own opinion and I respect the fact that you have the chutzpa to put your name to your comments. We’re flattered that you appreciate Zillow.com but please note that we do not agree with your generalizations when it comes to Realtors. You should note that most of the listings posted on Zillow were contributed by Realtors — they add significant value to the community of Zillow users.