Fri 30 Mar 2007
Some Real Estate 2.0 execs still choose the old-fashioned way
Posted by Marlow Harris under Real Estate
I love it when those employed or investing in the web or real estate 2.0 industry, supposedly with 100’s of high-tech options available to them, choose traditional methods to buy or sell a home. Their actions underline the importance of traditional marketing and the MLS.
Rich Barton, Chairman and CEO of Zillow has his home listed with Gordon Stephenson of RPA, and now Kristin Acker, VP, Product and Design at Zillow found her new home and is selling her present one with Gordon too.
Mr. Barton has been quoted saying “major change in home selling is inevitable over the next five years or so because there is an unsustainable disconnect between the commissions charged by most agents and the value of their services. But, I’m glad to see he’s paying a 2.5% commission on the sale of his $2.8M home.
When Zillow was first launched, Barton was more frank about his intentions, or perhaps his business model has changed or he’s got better handlers or PR, but now he’s claiming Zillow is just a media company and a partner with Realtors and not a competitor.
Since they just hired Greg Schwartz as Vice President, Advertising Sales, to Zillow, perhaps we’ll see some new features and advertising opportunities rolled out soon for Realtors, agents and brokers.
March 30th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
$2.85m, Marlow, don’t short sell this terrific listing: http://www.zillow.com/HomeDetails.htm?zprop=48770961
And btw, we’re using all methods, traditional and non-traditional, to sell this terrific house — not the least of which is the ad on Zillow which has been quite heavily trafficked.
And to echo your lead-in, Rich (and Kristin, to whom I sold that house 15 years ago) definitely believe in the value that we “traditional” brokers bring to the table.
Thanks for the plug!
March 30th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Gordon, I LOVE the Barton’s house and I’ve shown it twice now. The 2nd couple I showed it to actually bought the house on the corner instead. It was twice as much $$ but was twice as big. http://locator.nwmls.com/scripts/mgrqispi.dll?APPNAME=Locator&PRGNAME=MLSLogin&ARGUMENT=lTGmPH3gZKprsGBYNIDVhIJWG%2FuB2hKqVkmAuGg3uqc%3D&KeyRid=1
Curiously, the view was not as nice as from the Barton’s property, but the lot was larger, plus it had a waterfall. But we all LOVED the Barton’s elevator and the cute children’s playroom on the top floor. It’s definitely someone’s dream house…..
I market homes using both traditional and newer methods and I’m really trying to track where my leads and buyers come from, both to report back to the seller and also to gauge the value of my efforts and advertising dollars.
Good luck with both listings!
March 30th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Great police work. It actually says a lot when a real estate 2.o person says I’m going with a traditional broker. That house is gorgeous. Ready to move to Seattle.
April 2nd, 2007 at 4:57 am
That makes me grin. Thanks for the votes of confidence, Rich and Kristin!
April 18th, 2007 at 3:00 am
I’m happy to see the changes coming to Zillow, and rather than try to fight it, and hold on to the MLS as our only truly unique feature, I’ve chosen to accept the fact that the MLS will become less and less of an agent tool. I think Zillow, and the sites churning out daily to compete with Zillow, will be a “good enough” version of the MLS for clients, and they will no longer view that as a need for an agent. We need to show clients we are valuable for our services and skills, not just because we can put their house on the MLS.