Comments on: Zillow – a terrific, boring business

By: Vincent Spoto

Vincent Spoto — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 19:34:03 +0000

Yardley’s comments are confusing! Does he mean making money is great as long as it is not made by real estate professionals? Certainly no one in real estate today will make the windfall that Zillow’s founders, employees and investors will make if they are able to execute their plans. And good for them if they do.

Zillow or anyone else could not raise their venture money if they promised returns that the average real estate company receives. Also, they probably couldn’t get anyone to work for them if they paid their employees the average compensation that agents make. I don’t pay lawyers or any other service provider fees that I don’t believe are fair. Mr. Yardley should not either.

The business model, like it or not, that will succeed is the one where the customer is best served. From their presentation at the Inman conference, it sounds to me that the Zillow folks have it right

By: Douglas Doss

Douglas Doss — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 15:42:42 +0000

In general agreement with the tone here. Success in real estate should be the same as any business, superior service at reasonable price. Fee structures and business models have to change. The enormous profits of traditional models cause a zealous orchestrated resistance to change from percentage based fees, so maybe like a sculptor beginning on a large chunk of marble Zillow is taking the first small chips that have not yet revealed the finished beauty. They are a parallel venture to Redfin and complementary.
Zillow may not have gone far enough, but any steps to transparency and increased benefits to consumers should be applauded. I wish them well.

By: barry

barry — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 05:38:09 +0000

I’d like to integrate Zillow into our multilingual local search system. Hopefully, Zillow could support muliti-languages as well.

By: hash

hash — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:13:34 +0000

What I love about Redfin is that they’re taking the industry head on. It’s certainly not easy, but in a couple years time I think we’ll find they are a very wealthy company. They only need a small percentage of buyers to feel comfortable going through the web to buy their house.

It takes balls to do what they’re doing, and you have to respect them for doing it.

By: erik

erik — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:09:04 +0000

I couldn’t agree with you more actually. Zillow has missed the mark on being the truly earth-shattering change that the industry needs. Redfin is much closer to that model, proven by the hostility that they provoke among real estate professionals.

By: Aneil Weber

Aneil Weber — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 19:01:01 +0000

Greg, I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve discussed this before, the real estate market desperatly needs something disruptive like Redfin, not just a “novelty” type of service like Zillow. And yes, I do agree they have great positioning, etc… – But as you mentioned based on your reactions from what you heard, they are being careful not to alienate the existing model, which is great, but time will show that something more disruptive will win the long run.