Review From the Road Part II: Advertising and Appraisals

By: Jorrit Van der Meulen, VP, Partner Relations | May 17, 2006

It’s been a while since I posted an update from the field. We continue to meet with lots and lots of people across the industry. Lenders and banks have been very keen to work with us to find ways to get in front of our audience.

People are often skeptical about how advertising can sustain us. And while I can’t say we’re where we want to be quite yet, I can tell you that we remain very bullish on this model. Our ad revenues continue to grow, and better yet, our core advertisers continue to renew and spend more with us. We recently launched a “See homes for Sale” ad unit which has been well-received.

We also continue to get questions about whether our goal is to eliminate real estate agents and/or appraisers. The answer is no. Not even close. We think agents and appraisers will always be a critical part of real estate transactions. We view ourselves as a media company. As such, our goal is to create an audience of people who are interested in real estate. We’ll do this by developing tools and information and offering this to consumers for free so that, when they do meet with a real estate professional, they will be more informed and educated about this complex process. Achieving this goal is not only great for our consumers; it’s great for all of our advertising partners.

Stumble it!
Categories: FAQ, Real Estate Industry, Zillow

Comments

6 Comments so far

Sam Mesh on May 18, 2006 10:18 am

http://tinyurl.com/zjfvj

When could I expect sale history data for my house?
Beach & Waterfront Houses on May 18, 2006 4:34 pm

I think this is great…. Only problem is no homes are shown for this *HOT* resort, beach area. Zip 36542. Our property apppreciation down here has been steep, in spite of recent storms.
It will be nice when you can include info about the Fort Morgan / Gulf Shores / Orange Beach Alabama area.
Roger Bennett on May 26, 2006 7:10 pm

It may not be your goal to eleminate brokers and appraisers from the real estate markets, but should you succeed in doing so, you will deserve the grateful thanks that millions who will not be compelled to succumb to their questionable services.
Cliff Jacobson on June 30, 2006 9:20 am

When will other agents and brokers realize you (Zillow) want to be the first Google of Real Estate and not the next NRT or REMAX?
Luke Walsh on July 5, 2006 8:46 pm

Great work, keep it up.

Agents should not convince themselves that their only advantage is knowledge of a home’s price. There’s a lot more to providing a service, and there are plenty of sellers without the time or inclination to plugin to “invisible hand of the market” at a discount.

On the other hand, Agents may need to get more innovative about their fee structure. That’s not Zillow’s fault though.
Laura on March 4, 2008 1:22 pm

Why is Zillow not yet on the Canadian market?