A Real Estate Discussion Blog

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DOJ+AVM+MLS= Alphabet Soup Confusion

Last Fall the Department of Justice implemented a settlement with the National Association of Realtors giving Sellers the right to opt out of their having an Automated Valuation Model (AVM) or user generated comments displayed on their home's listing on Virtual Office Websites (VOWs).  There was a lot of speculation about this settlement when it was announced, and people especially wondered what this would mean for Zillow, a site known for its Zestimate (AVM).

Now that some time has passed, the answer is, not much.  Why?  Because Zillow isn't a VOW.  In case you aren't familiar with a VOW, it is a real estate agent or broker website where someone must give contact information, get a password, and then can do searches of all available MLS listings.  [

Every listing on Zillow is there because the agent, broker, mls or home owner has intentionally given us the information to display on Zillow.  Sometimes the listing information comes directly to us, through a broker feed for example.  And sometimes it comes to us via a third party syndicator like Postlets, Point2, or The Real Estate Book.  The biggest third party provider of listing information for us is ListHub, as they handle syndication for many MLSs across the country.  We always show the source of the listing information near the bottom of the page.

Under the DOJ settlement, the seller has to affirmatively request not to have AVMs or user comments on VOW sites showing the listing.  Recently some MLSs in ListHub's system have been applying the DOJ ruling beyond just VOW sites, to real estate marketing sites as well.  This means when an agent selects "no" to having a client's home appear on a VOW site that has AVMs, the agent is also saying no to marketing exposure on non-VOW sites.  I listed the MLSs that are now doing this below. 

As I talk to real estate professionals about this decision, a common misconception I hear is that they think when this option is exercised, the website (such as Zillow) will simply remove the valuation or user comments functionality from the site, but the listing itself will still be there.  This is not the case.  When you say ‘no' to this option, your listing is simply not showing up on these sites at all.  So by forgoing this, you are opting not to get exposure on one of the most visited trafficked consumer websites, Zillow, plus a handful of others such as Yahoo! Real Estate and Trulia. 

Obviously we want the listings on Zillow, but outside of this, I worry the decision to do this could come back to haunt the agent, if not properly explained upfront.  I worry that the agent asks "do you want an AVM on your listing?" and let's say the Seller says "No".  The agent, as usual, then goes on to describe all the ways they are going to market their home online.  The Seller then goes to check all the sites the agent promised and doesn't find their listing on Zillow.  Instead the seller just sees the public record facts and the Zestimate for their home, but no listing information, no extra photos, no sales price, and no agent contact information. You know what the next call will be. 

When I talk to MLSs about this, they say they are just enforcing the DOJ settlement.  But the settlement applies to VOWs, not sites where the agent, broker and seller have sent their listing information.  I feel it is wrong for these MLSs to extend the settlement on to non VOW sites.  This practice misinterprets NAR's VOW policy, and reduces the amount of marketing exposure a seller is receiving online. 

I hope this helps clear up the settlement and how Zillow is involved with it.  If your MLS is one of the ones listed before, it is important for you to know what you are opting in and out of.  Below are some resources if you would like to familiarize yourself more with the rulings.  Or please feel free to contact me directly if you would like to discuss further. 

  • Arkansas Regional MLS
  • Brunswick County MLS
  • Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors®
  • Central Virginia Regional MLS
  • Metropolitan Regional Information Systems
  • Northern Nevada Regional MLS
  • North Texas Real Estate Information Services
  • Outer Banks Association of Realtors®
  • Realtor Association of Northwest Illinois
  • Sandicor
  • SOCAL MLS
  • Triangle MLS

Resources:

VOW policy 

Final Judgment, Exhibit A, Section II.5.c 

" The seller also has a right to request that a VOW's comments, blogs or automated market value estimate about its listing be disabled or discontinued (although the VOW can state that those features have been disabled) "at the request of the seller."   http://www.car.org/legal/mls/summary-status-doj-nar-vow/

Definitions of VOW and IDX websites

 

0 comments • Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} • July 09 2009 09:16AM

A Detailed Lay Out Of My Social Media Marketing Plan

I often say that social media can be overwhelming if you don't have a plan.  However, sometimes without specifics, this might not make sense.  So instead of blogging about the theory of planning, I am just going to lay out my personal plan.  This is just what works for me, I am sure others have very different strategies and I would be interested in hearing them. 

My goals:   1) Reach and educate real estate professionals about Zillow and internet advertising in general.   2) Keep in touch with my sphere of influence 3) Keep abreast of current real estate topics and 4) Keep abreast of local happening in my neighborhood. 

Target: Real Estate professionals and Locals

Twitter- This is turning into my favorite business tool because of my short reading and writing attention span.  95% of my tweets are business related and 5% personal.  I'll follow back anyone who is in the real estate industry.  I won't follow anyone that hasn't uploaded a picture or whose profile description isn't real estate related.  I use TweetDeck to sort out those who are particularly interesting to me and any direct messages or replies.  I also use TweetDeck to follow these keywords: Zillow, Wicker Park, and the combination of "anyone know" & "Chicago".  Finally use the service to follow the hash tags for any conventions that may be happening.  (One exception to this is I have a column in TweetDeck that I track Celebrity Tweets, guilty pleasure).  I have TweetDeck on constantly throughout the day and just consider it an extension of my email.  I believe the quality of the people you follow and who follows you is more important than sheer numbers.  I also use Twitter to broadcast my new blog posts. 

Facebook- I use Facebook mostly because I personally enjoy it.  If I never got business off of it, I would still use it because I enjoy knowing what people I don't regularly hear from are up to and seeing their pictures.  90% of my status updates are personal, about 10% are business or cause related.  I don't post anything I wouldn't want my mom to see (she is now a friend of mine!).  Since the "groups" function on Facebook is so easy to use, my policy is that I'll follow anyone that has uploaded a picture and some information about themselves and we have at least two mutual friends.  The "groups" function then makes sure I don't miss any of the people I really care to know about.  I have groups for: good friends, work friends, high school, college years, and family.  The main reason I'll 'friend' anyone is that I will use Facebook to broadcast new blog posts and I want to make sure I reach as far as possible.  (tip: don't auto post your blogs to facebook, go create a custom link and message).  On average, I check Facebook 5 times a day for about 5 minutes each time. 

LinkedIn- I probably could do more here, but I use the site in a very passive way, mainly as a Rolodex or resume.  I will only connect with people that I would feel confident giving a personal recommendation about.  In other words, I must actually know you.  I keep my profile as up to date and complete as possible.  I occasional will check my Inbox, but not regularly, as most of the stuff that comes thru this site isn't time sensitive.  I probably spend an hour a month on the site. 

Blogging- Blogging is my home base to get information out.  When I first started I thought- I want to reach real estate professionals, where are they hanging out online?  So having my blog hosted by Active Rain was an obvious choice.  With so many other professionals using the site, it was an automatic audience.  Writing for me doesn't come easy and it takes effort for me to post, which is why I don't post as much as I like.  My goal is twice a week.  I will also occasionally blog on the Zillow Corporate Blog, when there is something to say that affects the real estate community. I guess I average 3 hour a week here.

Commenting on Blogs- Google alerts here are priceless.  Whenever my name is mentioned in a blog post, I will leave a comment.  I also try to leave at least one comment a day within the Active Rain community.  This is an area I wish I was better at because I think commenting can be a huge play.  Without commenting on other people's blogs, authoring your own loses something I feel.  I guess I average about 2 hours a week leaving comments.

Reading Blogs- As blogs become more popular, there is so much more to read.  I have about 40 blogs to which I subscribe to their RSS feeds and new posts go straight into my Inbox in an RSS folder.  This way I don't have to constantly go to blogs to check for updates.  I can also catch up on my blog reading when I am on planes by setting these feeds up, as I can read them offline.  I will scan the featured blogs on ActiveRain daily and just do a few random searches each day.  Finally, I find myself more and more just reading blog posts that people Twitter about. Reading blogs takes up about 45 minutes of my day. 

Forums- Again, think about where the people you want to reach are hanging out online, and get there.  For me, this means Zillow Advice (obviously!).  In the Professional section of Zillow Advice, many professionals leave posts about things they need help with, so this needs monitoring if I am going to be of help.  I am also interested in what is happening locally, so I subscribe to get alerts whenever anyone leaves a post that is tagged to my neighborhood and Chicago in general.  I like to interact with these people as well.  The auto alerts are great because I can just click on an email, and give an answer that usually takes me about 2 minutes to type. 

YouTube- My goal this year was to get more into video and I am starting to creep into it.  At Zillow we have been working this year to create training videos for various parts of the site, we now have about 25 that are hosted by YouTube.  I then use all the tools mentioned here to get these out. 

Yelp - 100% personal.  I admit, I am more of a taker than a giver here.  I read reviews for just about any place I go to eat and professional service I use.  I try to do a review here about once a month, more because I feel guilty about not giving back because I use the site so much!

This post was a little long, but I hope it gives some meat around how I personally have crafted my social media plan.  There isn't a one size fits all this!  Sites that people have a lot of success with, that I don't use, for example FlickR and blip.fm and fan pages on Facebook.  Any other good tools out there? 

14 comments • Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} • July 08 2009 12:22PM

Zillow Milestones For The First Half Of 2009

Well, we are now half way through 2009 and its time to stop and look at some of the milestones we've accomplished so far at Zillow.

Traffic- For the first six months of the year we averaged 8.3 million visitors to the site each month, which is an increase of 67% year over year. This group of people looked at 44% more pages in the first half of 2009 than in the first half of 2008. 

Listings- There are 35% more for-sale listings on the site in the first half of 2009 versus a year earlier, as the result of more listings feed partnerships with brokerages and Multiple Listings Services. In total, 3.6 million listings are posted on Zillow today.

Mobile- More than 535,000 people have downloaded the Zillow iPhone App since its launch in late April, more than any other real estate-related app.

Mortgage- Zillow Mortgage Marketplace continues to rock.  Consumers submitted 265,000 loan requests on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace in the first six months of 2009. Lenders responded with 3.5 million custom loan quotes during this same period.

Agent Exposure- The Zillow Directory of real estate professionals now lists nearly 200,000 real estate agents, and more than 12,000 lenders, who have created a profile and are active on the site.

Along with these miles stones have come more ways real estate professionals can take advantage of Zillow.  So help get the word out about how to best use Zillow, we are creating a video training library.  Here are some of the more popular videos and I'll continue to publish more on my blog as they become available.

Thanks to all that are using the site.  Our success in attracting a large, qualified audience of home buyers, sellers and owners ultimately translates into success and new business for you.

Visit www.ZillowPros.com for more information on these and other resources on the site. 

Traffic for some of the top visited metros on Zillow:

6 comments • Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} • July 01 2009 09:24PM

Creating An "Awesomest" Profile With Links Is Important

To my pleasure, I opened my Tweet Deck this morning and saw this Tweet from @TeriLussier:

This sparked my curiosity as to what is an "awesomest zillow profile" looks like, so off i went to see Teri's profile.  I posted it below, or you can follow the link to Teri's profile.

The first thing you'll notice is that is visually appealing and full of good content.  Great, if someone goes directly to her page.  But how do people get to this page and cause such a Tweet to be written?

Notice all the rich keywords.  What you can't see is that all these links and keywords are "followed", meaning that sites like Google and Yahoo see them and index them.  This helps people find Teri when using a search engine.  The words you highlight and link matter to Google.  So linking "click here" isn't doing you any favors.  Not all profiles on all sites are followed.  But by doing a search for Theresa Lussier on Google, you can quickly see why this matters. 

So make sure when you build a profile on sites that follow links, like Zillow, you are taking that extra few minutes to fill it out completely and insert links and video as it can make a huge difference to Google and your readers. 

followed links on zillow

social media on google

38 comments • Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} • July 01 2009 04:11PM

How Will Cap and Trade Affect Your Real Estate Business?

 

Via Nestor & Katerina Gasset Realtors® Wellington Florida Luxury Homes (International Properties and Investments, Inc.):

Real estate is local when it comes to market conditions and market trends. Real estate differs from region to region in styles, architecture and amenities generally speaking. For instance; in Florida fireplaces are not the norm whereas in cold winter areas such as Colorado, fireplaces are a standard addition to a home. In some areas of our country people have wood burning stoves and others have coal burning furnaces. There are areas of our country such as here in Florida where you would not dare live without Air Conditioning but in many homes in Washington for instance, air conditioning is more of a luxury than a necessity.

So when we are discussing the effects of cap and trade in your real estate business you will need to take into account the region in which you live as some areas will be more effected than others. 

Here is a really good interactive map from the New York Times. The map I posted below is the map of the votes in the House for and against the Cap and Tax bill that just passed the House. But if you click on the link of the New York Times map, it is interactive.

cap and trade house vote new york times

 

You can move your mouse over the map and see who voted, what party they belong to and their district. You will be able to see that no matter whether they were democrats or republicans if they are in the farm country of America, high manufacturing areas of America, low energy bills of America and the heartland of America- they voted NO on this bill and for very good reasons. 

"For a household of four, energy costs go up $436 that year, and they eventually reach $1,241 in 2035 and average $829 annually over that span. Electricity costs go up 90 percent by 2035, gasoline by 58 percent, and natural gas by 55 percent by 2035. The cumulative higher energy costs for a family of four by then will be nearly $20,000.

But direct energy costs are only part of the consumer impact. Nearly everything goes up, since higher energy costs raise production costs. If you look at the total cost of Waxman-Markey, it works out to an average of $2,979 annually from 2012-2035 for a household of four. By 2035 alone, the total cost is over $4,600." Heritage Foundation.

You will notice that the states where the votes were yes are also the states that already have the highest energy bills. The states that voted no are mostly states with presently low energy bills.

Instead of calling this to Cap and Trade- We can really call it the Tax On Electricity Bill.

How does this information pertain to real estate agents? If you live in the lower energy pricing states you are going to be seeing huge increases in household energy bills. If you live in states that are coal powered or oil powered you will see the largest increases ever in your energy bills because those energy sources are going to be punished with taxation.

  • How is that going to effect home prices?
  • How is that going to effect movement in and out of your state?
  • How is that going to effect your real estate office utility bills and who is going to pay for this?

The House is at it again. This was a 1,300 page bill and again as with so many large bills was not read by most of those that voted yes or no. What is it that they don't get? The American people expect our leaders to read what they vote on.

So what else is tucked away neatly into this bill that perhaps no one knows the full implications of yet?

How about the Federal imposition and takeover of building codes? Your local planning and building offices will not be qualified for any Federal funding of any kind unless they adopt what the FEDS say is the new energy efficient building standards. This will create higher prices in building new homes which is then passed on the homebuyers and then you as a real estate agent are also effected because less buyers will be able to afford to buy a new home built . Not to mention having to wait for the Feds to come and inspect the builders and the homes.

How about the new Federal Energy Nazis Inspectors who will come and rate your home before you can sell your home. So before you can list a home for sale, the seller will have to wait for the Federal inspectors to come out. DMV lines anyone? Once that inspector comes out, he or she will give the home an energy rating. If the home does not meet the guidelines the seller will be required to do the work necessary to bring the home up to energy standards before they can sell the home! Can we say money? Does that mean that there will be homeowners who will become prisoners in their homes because they can not afford to make the energy repairs that the feds require? Is that an invasion of your privacy as well as an attack on your property rights?

Hmmm, how is that going to effect short sales where the seller has no money to make the repairs and adjustments?

  • How is that going to effect your ability to get listings in a timely manner?
  • How is that going to effect your seller who is about to lose their home in a foreclosure?
  • How is that going to effect the seller who has to relocate for their job?
  • How is that going to effect the estates with heirs having to do these repairs and such when there won't be any money until the estate is sold?

I wonder if our House of Representatives and our Congress men and women EVER thought to actually ask us in the field working this business day in and day out how these bills will effect the housing market?

Of course, the US will be living Cap and Tax while the real perpetrators of dirty air like China and India get off scott free. There will be an unfair advantage in pricing products and manufacturing to the point that if a US company even stands a chance of staying in the manufacturing business will have no choice but to move their company oversees which in turn will cause a massive layoff of people increasing the already high unemployment problem we are facing in our country.

  • How will the unemployment effect your real estate business?
  • How will the unemployment effect the REOs and massive foreclosures in your community?
  • How will the unemployment effect home values as you get more and more vacant properties in your area?

If you are an agent in America's farmland you will begin to see farms no longer being able to produce a profit. Farms use a lot of energy. Energy use will be punished. This is why nearly every politician from a farm land state no matter what party they are affiliated with voted no to this bill. Their districts will suffer terribly. As this happens we will be buying more and more produce from other countries with far less health standards than our own. I don't trust foods, especially produce from China or other countries except Europe. But we don't import our veggies from Europe! 

  • How is this going to effect your real esate business if you live and work in a farm land state?

When it comes down to the nitty and the gritty about this bill you must remember that GE is the biggest supporter of this bill. They stand to make billions of dollars from the passage of this bill. The politicians voting yes on this bill, many of them are getting paid to vote yes. And Al Gore will become the very first GREEN billionaire. It is just too bad that he is not a real capitalist. He could not become a billionaire playing fair and square. Instead, he has an unfair advantage, legislation to make him filthy rich. Not exactly the free market way. It is all about the money.

Contact your Senators now to vote NO now. Click on this link to find your Senators and contact them by email, phone and fax today. Let them know how this is going to effect your business and your community homeowners and buyers. Pass this on...

 

4 comments • Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} • July 01 2009 08:00AM

Now do I really need the iPhone? Zillow and my Client finally left me no choice!

This is a great post by Richard A. Stephan about how useful the Zillow iPhone app can be. 

Via Richard Stephan (Engel & Völkers Celebration):

First: I love my Nokia PDA. It is a great phone. It does everything I want from a phone: E-Mail, Web browsing, Tethering even SIP-Telephony without a glitch. Fun stuff also like Google Latitude, always letting my family know where I am. Google Earth and a lot more.

I tried the first iPhone years ago. After a few days I gave it to my daughter. Too many things I loved on my Nokia PDA, it could but would not do (because of some agreements between Apple and At&T).

Then last weekend everything changed:

I drove with a client to look at a home in an area where they would love to move to, but were not able to find the right home. We looked at this home, but sure enough there where to many issues that did not fit their criteria. So we looked around for other homes for sale in the area.

I was prepared. I had my notebook connected via Bluetooth with my Nokia to the Internet (Tethering). I am a technology freak. Always up to date! Not many of the Realtors I know would even try this on the road.

So I thought.....

We found a home that looked interesting, so I started entering the address into the MLS when my Client, playing with his iPhone, read out loud all the info of the home: Bedrooms, Bathrooms, Sqft, sale price. I wasn't even finished typing in the address. Then he showed me pictures of the inside on his iPhone.

Now I just found myself in the stone age of technology! 5min ago I thought I was at the cutting edge. Wow what a feeling.

Things like that happen to me only one time!

Back home I ordered the new iPhone 3G S online. I also bought a device to mount it in my car like a navigator.

Now I am back in the game and wonder how I survived without this device. I always have Zillow activated, so while I drive through town, I can see the real estate information about the homes I am passing automatically. The built in GPS follows my route and shows me the homes around me without any interaction with the phone. If I am interested in a home, I tap my finger on the home and receive more details and in many cases pictures from the inside. What a great tool to have, and now I am impressing my clients!

Looking forward to show you homes in the area and being able to answer your questions about every home, even if I don't know all the details. I just look them up right then and there!

See you soon!
Richard

Dipl.-Ing.
Richard A. Stephan
Licensed Realtor®
ENGEL & VÖLKERS ORLANDO-CELEBRATION
License Partner of Engel & Voelkers Florida Residential Real Estate, LLC
1420 Celebration Blvd. Suite 200
Celebration, Florida 34747 / USA
Mobile: +1 - 407 - 433 - 8702
Fax : +1 - 407 - 624 - 4855
My Website: www.RichardStephanRealtor.com
Office Website: www.engelvoelkers.com/celebration
Mail To: RichardStephan@me.com

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3 comments • Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} • June 25 2009 02:35PM

Zillow All-Stars and Zillow Local Experts

On Zillow we bring attention to those who contribute the most by awarding Zillow All-Star and Zillow Local Expert badges. 

These badges appear on profile pages and can also be posted on your other marketing efforts (such as on your Active Rain blog).  People with these badges are also given better placement in the Professional Directory, with the idea that those that are the most helpful should get the best exposure on the site.   

All this on top of the obvious benefits that come with contributing more, which is getting to connect with more potential clients.   

What is a Zillow All-Star?   The All-Star badge is given to active Zillow users who share their real estate knowledge and help others by contributing high-quality content.

What is a Zillow Local Expert?  
Local Experts are active Zillow users who share their real estate knowledge and help others by contributing high-quality content at a local level.



So make sure your listings are online, upload neighborhood photos and most of all, participate in Zillow Advice- and earn your designations as being a helpful, knowledgable professional on Zillow.
4 comments • Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} • June 25 2009 10:10AM

Free Zillow iPhone App - Version 2 Release

About 2 months ago, Zillow rolled out our first iPhone app with tremendous success.  In 2 months we have had over 400,000 downloads, immediately giving our listing partners a mobile component, on the most popular smart phone real estate application, to their marketing plan. 

Thanks to feedback from our users, some smart engineers, and updates Apple just rolled out to the smart phone's operating system - we now have a second version of the app that is even more useful. 

The Zillow iPhone app can now:

  • Filter search results by beds, baths, price, and status
  • Save searches
  • Save favorite homes

    • Apple also recently release Push Notification technology.  Now, if you have a saved search and new homes come into the system that match, you will see a numbered badge on the Zillow iPhone App icon which indicates that there are new homes to see.  Then, you can launch the App to see these results under your Favorites tab. 

    If you already have Version 1 downloaded, you can update to V2 in your "Updates" tab in the app store to get the new version.  (you'll also want to make sure you update your iPhone software to the new OS 3.0).

    If you missed the first release and don't know everything the Zillow iPhone app can do, go download the Zillow iPhone App today or watch this short video:

     

    The Zillow iPhone app can follow you as you move through a neighborhood, while displaying information on approximately 90 million homes, including those that are for sale or recently sold. 

    3 comments • Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} • June 18 2009 11:41AM

    Zillow Traffic Stats - May 2009

    Via Spencer Rascoff (Zillow):

    Zillow had another record month for traffic in May 2009 -- 8.9 million unique visitors, up 72% year-over-year.

    (Note: Zillow measures our traffic using Omniture logs which track the actual usage of our website, rather than a small panel of users which are then extrapolated to try to guess the actual usage.)

     

     

    Here are some other interesting tidbits from our record month in May:

    • 17.1% of residents in the San Francisco - Oakland - San Jose area visited Zillow in the month of May. 17%!! That's crazy.
    • 12.2% of Seattle residents visited in May.
    • 11.7% of San Diego residents visited in May.
    • Our traffic is growing 80% year-over-year in New York and 88% year-over-year in Washington DC
    • Our largest city in terms of visitor traffic is Los Angeles, where 1.6 million visitors came to the site in May.

    Here are our traffic statistics by city. Please check your city to see how big we are in your neck of the woods. Type your city into the "search" box in the upper right of the file here.

    [These numbers are total visitors, not unique visitors. The shorthand math is that we get about 2 visitors per visitor, so if you want to get to the unique visitor count in your city, divide the numbers below by 2.]

    And remember that you can speak with someone on our sales team at 866-324-4005 or learn more here.

     

    Zillow (Sml) Visitors by City - May '09

    1 comment • Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} • June 09 2009 05:38PM

    Video Introduction To Some Zillow Employees You May Know Online

    We are continuing to put out more videos from Zillow!  Here you can meet some of the folks that you may have seen around the RE.net. These videos also appear on their Zillow profile pages. You can have a profile page too for free (with video if you want!)

    Rich Barton, Chairman and Co Founder

    David Gibbons, Director of Community Relations (and social media extraordinaire!)

    Drew Meyers, Also active in the blogosphere.  You may also deal with Drew if you have questions about to implement any of our widgets or API calls. 

    Spencer Rascoff, COO who is also very active here on Active Rain 

    So hopefully this brings personality to some of the folks you may have interacted with online over the years. 

    6 comments • Sara Bonert {Real Estate Internet Marketing} • May 22 2009 12:23PM