Zillow is a media site, or a marketing platform for real estate professionals to utilize to connect with buyers, sellers, and each other. Each month more than 5 million people come to Zillow with one common interest, real estate.
Here are the top 10 ways that real estate agents can use Zillow:
1) Post your listings on the site, for free. There are three ways you can do this: manually add each listing, if you have the technical capabilities you can send us a direct feed (best for 200+ listings), or work with one of our syndication partners to populate your listings to the site (free service).
2) Create a free Profile. This is basically like creating an interactive business card online. Not only can you display all of your contact information, but it also centralizes all of your contributions on Zillow and makes your photo appear on all of your listings. Also, the profile gives you great search engine juice.
If you work for a company that is already feeding listings to us, make sure to set up a profile with the same email address your company has on record for you. This too will ensure that your photo appears your listings that they are sending us.
3) Listing presentation fodder. Include your listing distribution plan in your presentation to home sellers. Another benefit to the seller is not just that you are going to put their home on the site, but that you are going to handle all of the incoming phone calls and emails for them. We created this listing presentation piece to help articulate the value of being on Zillow.
4) Get involved in Discussions. Zillow has a Discussions area of the site where every day buyers, sellers and other real estate professionals are asking questions and discussing various real estate topics. Here is your opportunity to interject your voice in the conversation. Tip: Don't go for the hard sale here. Simply by offering helpful information and being there for the user, you can win them over to advance the relationship. There is a free-form search box in the Discussions area where you can search for topics of particular interest, such as "wicker park" or "condos in Chicago".
5) Home Q&A. On Zillow anyone can ask or answer a question on any of the 80 million homes we have on the site. On our home page, there is a link to "Answer Questions in your area". Click on it, and you are asked what area you interested in "farming". You will get attribution and a link back to your profile on any question you answer. If you are the listing agent of a home, you will be emailed whenever someone leaves a question on one of your listings and you will receive special treatment in the answers area as being the person with the most authority on the home.
6) Discover the Make Me Move database. This is a unique database to the Zillow site which represents a group of people who aren't interested in actually going to market, yet. However, if someone were to show up on their doorstep with a bag of money for the stated amount, they would consider selling. This can be an alternate source of listings when helping your buyers. But this can also be viewed as a potential list of future sellers. Same tip applies here, where the hard sale doesn't particularly work on these folks. However, you could begin sending them useful information in the form of drip marketing (consider snail mail, you know their address) such as recent home sales or developments of interest in their neighborhood. Internal research shows that 91% of homeowners who posted a Make Me Move price say they would consider paying an agent commission if their home were to sell, with 64% saying they would pay between 2-3%. 45% of the Make Me Move respondents said they would use an agent on the sell side to complete the transaction.
7) Co-Brand on links. Imagine you are going to write a blog post or an email to a client where you were going to link to Zillow. Instead of linking to www.Zillow.com, you can link insert the link www.zillow.com/?scrnnm=[insert Zillow Screen name here] and the link will go to Zillow, but with your contact information at the top of every page. For example, my Zillow screen name is sarab, so I would link to www.zillow.com/?scrnnm=sarab. Click on the link to check out what it looks like online. No special coding skills needed to get this extra exposure.
8) Free API and Widgets. The Zillow API Network can turn your website into a mini real estate portals by offering fresh and provocative real estate content to help keep people coming back to your site. We have bundled up a lot of information found on Zillow and published the code so you can easily add it to a website, thus offering this content to your visitors, for free. Please visit this information page about the API Network to learn more about how to do and what type of information is available.
We also have mortgage content you can use on your site, in the form of Widgets. These are very easy to implement, all you need to do is create an account with Zillow (see number 2 on this list), chose the widget you would like, and cut and paste the code onto to your site.
9) Market Your Open Houses. It is free to add any open house information to your listings online. Once the open house expires, the information will come down. The listings with open house information will also receive special treatment in the search results, drawing additional attention to it. Looking for even more exposure for your open house event, see number 10.
10) Use Zillow Showcase Ads, an advertising solution. Showcase Ads are a way to get even more exposure for your listings or yourself on Zillow, thru buying advertising on the site. Specify ZIP codes where you want your ad to appear so only potential customers looking at homes in those areas will see your ad. Write your own headline and content, include an image, phone number, e-mail address, and a link to your Web site, which you can update at any time. Cost is based on how much exposrue for your ad you would like to recieve, purchase 25, 50, 75, or even 100 percent of ad view placements in the ZIP code you want.
Each month Zillow attracts millions of buyers and sellers looking for real estate information. These ten tips on how to use the site will help you get in front of these people and begin to build relationships that can translate into customers.
Oh, and if you just want something fun to do or want some design ideas, check out our Dueling Digs! Warning though, this can be addicting.
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Sara,
Thanks for a very good post. I will definitely follow the points and make sure I am. Looks like every bit counts, and it is simply very timely for me.
Thanks again
i think we forget to use the resources out there that are free to us. I will take this into consideration. thanks for the blogg
Great post, Zillow can be an effective tool as can many of the free web sites but only if you put some effort into the content! Thanks for the post.
Dave
Interesting. I can remember when Zillow first premiered, most realtors thought of them as a threat. Then when they saw that Zillow was not going to take the place of realtors everyone calmed down. Sounds as if Zillow has come a long way.
All- Glad this helps. We keep adding more tools and it can be hard to keep up. I tried to organize them all here.
Pat- When we first launched, there really wasn't anything for a Realtor to do on the site. One could only look up estimated home valuations. So, yes, we have come far. And we hope to keep rolling out more for you all to use!
Thanks for reminding me that I need to use all of the resources that Zillow offers.
I guess I'm missing the boat because I see ZILLOW being the one that benefits from all the "free tools" for agents and not really the agents, buyers or sellers.
Ron- The public benefits by having access to TONS of information, while getting to remain anonymous, which is what they want. The benefit to RE pros is business. Last month alone we sent over 1.2 million clicks to listing partners and 1000's of leads (at no cost). This doesn't count the relationships that were forged through the social media parts of the site.
Great post Sarah.
Sara...
I love your point on the "soft sale" of the discussion part. :) thanks for sharing your Zillow expertise! :)
Sara: Great stuff! It's amazing how many times you can tell people about the tools and features that you offer, but it doesn't sink in.
Sara Ive noticed all of these features on zillow that you are talking about. Im using my favorites to post properties that would remind me of their being for sale for current & future buyers. I havent checked out all the other features that you post about but I will. Thanks for the heads up
Sara Im unable to find the"Answer questions in my area" link on zillow. Ive followed your suggestions above. Opps I found it thank you!
Thanks for this post - it is a good reminder that using the internet is the wave of the future for RE. I have actually found a site called Property Maps which I have really started to love even more then the "big guys." I hope it can help others out there!
I use Zillow and like it. I'm not sure why people that post questions never seem to respond to anyone though.
David Ive experienced the same thing- the public asking questions about their property because they are FSBO's and dont want to use an agent or pay a commission- is the most likely scenario I find. Sara correct me if I'm wrong?
Thanks for sharing your experience. We have been using Zillow for a while.
Carole, I bet you're exactly correct...FSBO's not wanting to be contacted. I guess we're scary people lol
Sara: Great posts -- you brought up some things I didn't know about.
Thanks Sara! I knew about some of the great Zillow features, but it was nice to hear about even more excellent tools that I can utilize.
Sara, Thanks for posting! I had always been a little weary of Zillow but you've cleared up all my concerns and I'll be setting up my profile today. I especially like the presentation piece!
I have bookmarked your post. So much information. Overload Overload. Thanks for posting this information. It is helpful to fully understand what you are signing up for.
Thanks for sharing Sara. It's great to know all the different options the site has - sometimes you can spend time on there for a while, and still not know all the tricks!
Sara, Thanks for all the information about Zillow. I post all our listings on the site. I've never noticed the question and answer section before. I just took a look at it. Is there a way to sign up to be notified if questions come up in a specific city?
Stephen/David- I think it is more that they just aren't ready to work with a professional yet. When we look at our "Make Me Move" group of people, people who have not yet seriously gone to market:
91% of homeowners who posted a Make Me Move price say they would consider paying an agent commission if their home were to sell. Most (64%) say they would pay between 2-3%
About half (45%) of people who post a Make Me Move price on their home say they would use an agent on the sell side to complete the transaction.
Vicki- Not yet, but we are working on it! The easiest way to search for Q&A is log on to the site and right on the home page, you can search by zip or city or whatever keyword you wish. We just added the functionality of being able to be emailed when new homes that match your search criteria come on the market, so look for other 'alerts' to be added soon.
thanks for showing me so much!
Thank you for this very useful information. I will defnitely use this more now
I think debbie romeo is right the information is great and I also will use it more
Thank you for your post. You offer a lot of great information about Zillow and it's applications.
Sara, thanks for explaining it so well.
Thanks good information to know. I may not be using this tool as effectively as I should.
Thanks for the information. Some of my clients have started using Zillow. Up to now my own use has been limited. I'll take another look.
Great information, and I am using Zillow now. I just added some widgets to my website. I think Zillow has made some recent changes that enhance what it already had to offer Realtors, as well as consumers.
There is great amount of info about zillow which I need to utilize. I use zillow but I guess there is more that I can do. This is a great post to bookmark.
Very good post! Your flyer on why you use zillow to market is good also. Thanks for all the info.
Good advice Sara! I think Zillow is a great idea even though the market is tough now.
I don't really think of using Zillow that smuch in new york city, but this blog reminds me of their benefits and options presented on the site. Thanks for the updates
Thank you Sara-I will follow the steps that you provided. Great post!
Sara,
Thanks. I've used Zillow for all my listings....and will try some of the things you suggest on your post. I've bookmarked this for future reference.
Sara, what do you suggest when you find out that the sales numbers are wrong? The are for the developmetn in which I live outside Philadelphia, as well as I know, from tax records, they are wrong for the area in which my parents live in northern VA>
Janice- I am not sure what you mean by wrong sales numbers? The sales prices are wrong or the historical transaction numbers are wrong? Two generic answers 1) On each property page there is a 'flag' to flag inappropriate or factually wrong information. Doing this sends a flag to our customer service team for them to investigate. This is the easiest option. 2) Homeowners can 'claim their homes' and publish to the site. Doing this allows you to correct any misinformation about your home, tell the public about any additions you may have done or about a great view you might have, things that would add value. When you do this you can also chose different comparable homes. Finally, there are many place to type free form text, so you could publish any corrections.
Hope this helps!
Sara,
Great information. I have wondered a long time about listings, etc get placed on Zillow. Thanks
I tried to printout the 10 Ways Real Estate Agents Can Use Zillow and I got blank sheets with links on the side. I can read it off the laptop but I also like to have a hard copy for travel. Can you help?
Joseph, can you copy the text and paste it into word? I am not really sure what to tell you about printing capabilities.
I'd like to encourage people on this list to also visit www.zillowpros.com, where I have links to a lot of this stuff as well.
Sara,
Found this from a reply on one of your more recent posts. Great information here for agents to use to make Zillow a partner with our businesses.
Thanks!
Scott
Thank you, I did not know about the linking option! I made a note of it and will do it!
Thanks,
Sandra
New tools Thanks I'm a tool guy. I will look at zillow to see how I can make it work for me .
Thanks for the post,
Mark
Sara maybe you can help me with this problem. I have a listing on my zillow profile 930 Burns St SE Washington, DC 20019 that I have been trying to delete for the longest time. Can you please help me? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Lanre- I took it down for you. However, you could have done it yourself by logging on and clicking "edit status" on the listing detail page to be "no longer for sale". Also, please note that this listing is being sent to Zillow because you have an account with Real Bird. Please remove the listing from this site, because the next time we process their feed, the listing could be rewritten to the site. Thanks!
Great post, very informative
I admit to being a Zillow idiot and my experiences from Sellers obtaining their home value on Zillow has not been positive. So, I guess I might as well jump in there and be part of the solution.
For example, Zillow valued one property at $100K. Don't know if Zillow knew that the property had a mobile home on it or not or that the roof was 20 years old or that the HVAC didn't work.
Zillow valued another property I'm going to list at $160K. Don't know if Zillow knows that there is no garage and that the "half bath" shares a room with a hot water heater, stackable washer/dryer and heater. Also, it has no sink, so legally can't be called a "half bath."
And, for fun, I entered my personal address in the "Make Me Move" section, and Zillow UNDERvalued my home by $75K. But, Zillow probably didn't know about my $100K+ kitchen remodel.
The tools look useful. I'll definitely check out the "Answer Questions in your Area."
Good post - thanks!
Lori- You are right, Zillow doesn't know about those things (unless they are somehow in the public records). This is why we invite people to claim their homes and tell us about all the extras they are proud about, like a kitchen remodel, and create and publish an Owner's Estimate. Over a million people have done this already on the site.
Also, when a home goes to market and an agent lists the home on Zillow, a few things happen:
Hope this helps. Thanks for reading!
Sara, thank you for the very informative post regarding Zillow. I can't seem to locate the link to "Answer Questions in your area". I saw where I can sign up for email alerts for USA but I prefer to answer local questions like I do on Trulia. Does Zillow offer this?
Thanks.
Gina- You certainly can be alerted when there are questions in your area. Here is a video you can watch on how to do this- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tbf3QnfEGk
Sara, thank you for this information on Zillow in a step by step form. I am going to share with my agents.
Sara, Thanks for the excellent post! I am new to all of this and Zillow is next for me to tackle. I actually had an agent ask me the other day what was Zillow???? (She had priced her listing WAY OVER what it should have been)! :)
Sara,
Awesome, i set up the Advice alert right from the YouTube video.
Great post. Zillow has certainly evolved from what it started as. You definitely hit alot of peoples hot button.
Margaret