If you haven’t heard of Zillow yet let me be the first to introduce you to it. Zillow started out in February as a site that had hooked into all of the public property tax records and started a system of trying to give the public a computer generated estimate of the value of their home. They combined that with a neat mapping feature and the term Zestimate started to be used. I never though much of it because the amount of data I have access to through the MLS system makes the tax records that Zillow look like a cheap toy. But things are changing as of yesterday. Zillow has the potential to be the standard national MLS system open and free to anyone and everyone. They just introduced a free listing system as a new feature. If they can entice a critical mass of people to put their listings into their system, then it will be a must for everyone who wants to sell a home.
I have a feeling they might have a hard time convincing all the Realtors to put their listings on there but their system is so easy to use that the sellers could very easily do it themselves. So the challenge to Zillow will be to try to become a household name. They seem to be getting a lot of free press lately so it might not be that difficult. In a few years if your home isn’t listed on Zillow it will be the same as someone without email or a cell phone.
It should be interesting to see how long it takes for things to change. I look forward to the new opportunities of doing business in hopefully a more efficient and economical way.
The one thing that Realtors have that I can’t see being eliminated is the lock box key system. Without the lock box system, showing real estate will be slowed down to a crawl. It’s a beautiful thing right now showing homes without appointments during the day. You make a few courtesy calls to sellers to tell them when you’ll be by and you can zip from one home to another never having to worry about keeping to an exact schedule and meeting sellers at specific times. If homes aren’t listed with agent lock boxes, agents will only be able to show homes when the owners are home. I guess there could be lock box keys given to the public but that sounds like a pretty risky proposition. Realtors have been screened to some extent and have their livelihood on the line if they abuse their lock box privileges in any way.
For now though, if you want to search for homes in Atlanta, you really need to be using my home search tool.
What's happening in the Atlanta real estate market? I'll tell you my humble opinion on things going on in my small part of the world. I'll let you know details about the subdivisions that I specialize in and details about the really nice homes that come on the market.
December 9th, 2006 at 1:47 am
[…] Tim Maitski of the Atlanta Report predicts that internet powerhouse Zillow might creep into the national scene to become a replacement for the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) operated by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). […]
December 9th, 2006 at 11:05 am
I think you are correct about Zillow becoming the national MLS. All the FSBO sellers will flock to it no doubt, and enough of the realtors will use it to create at least a need to be present on it. Eventually it will hot critical mass and then the MLS is toast.
December 9th, 2006 at 9:42 pm
[…] Tim Maitski of the Atlanta Report predicts that internet powerhouse Zillow might creep into the national scene to become a replacement for the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) operated by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). […]