Totally My Opinion Here... On The Zillow Mess.

So, by now, everyone and their brother has read about the Zillow fiasco. I've decided just to blog about that elephant in the room today!

Maybe you don't consider it a fiasco, but most Realtors are actually tickled pink that Zillow got egg on their face. I mean, the meme's going around are hilarious. The Realtor networking groups are making them up daily.

For me? I'd say it's about time they took a tumble. A very big, financially challenging, tumble.

As long as I've been a Realtor, and Zillow has been around, I've done battle (practically) with clients over those Zestimates. I've told clients time & time again, use them for their easy navigation, but look at other sites for reality, etc.

Recently Zillow became a brokerage. They got 'in-bed' with one particular company and they tried to do a bit of monopolizing the market. They also did some scandalous, completely against the association of Realtor code of ethics, things that I blogged or YouTubed about before. No need to repeat.

Recently I became involved in one of their iBuying fiascos. It was awful. And, later we found out that they paid way too much for the house. Not sure if they used their Zestimate, but they over paid by about 60k if I'm remembering correctly.

My eldest son even got wind of Zillow buying up properties for more than they were worth. What did I think of that he wondered. 

We agents all figured they were just trying to gain a market share. Say, look at us, we buy & sell sooooo many houses! Hah.

So, here we are now, they have stopped doing the iBuying, have admitted to a financial fiasco, and have let go of quite a large chunk of Zillow employees.

My take on this? Well, the only thing I love about Zillow is my profile on their site. It will keep track of my sales, allow my clients to post reviews, heck I've even got my Love-My-Peeps party video on there!

But, when a company tries too hard to be the best, without having the experience, expertise, and ethics, to truly be the best....you know what happens.

And, it happened. Happened as large as that elephant in the picture. Not sure what their recovery is going to be like, but for now.....let this serve as a reminder that not all realtors are created equal. And, needless to say, the bigger is certainly not always the better. IMHO.

~ Lauren Witz Greber ~ (Licensed as Lauren Lefkowitz) ~ Lauren@KeepYourWitz.com ~