Are you in the market for a new home or wanting to sell your current home for something a little different? Would you do it all online? The emergence of online brokerages is taking the real estate industry by storm. While technology has changed our lives for the better in many ways, allowing us to take care of menial tasks easily, buying or selling a home might be something you’d want to reconsider doing online. If you’re looking for your new Cherry Creek home, hiring a traditional realtor is the way to go, over using a company like Zillow. Read on to learn more about using Zillow to buy or sell a home in Cherry Creek, Colorado.
What’s Zillow?
Zillow has been around since 2006 and came to be in Seattle. Their platform acts as a database for people to access at no cost, giving them access to the current market listings in their area. Zillow claims that they can assist homeowners in the selling process and interested seekers in the buying process. The website can even help those looking for rental properties. Zillow advertises that they can handle the full selling or buying lifecycle for their clients, including renovations and financing.
Their most popular product is their “Zestimates,” which is the process of an appraisal on listed homes and rentals. This product allows for a complete sale to be processed on the Zillow platform, from browsing for homes to mortgages. It’s supposed to be the one-stop-shop for homeowners looking to buy or sell a home in Cherry Creek, Colorado.
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Zillow is free to use, so how do they make money?
Zillow is free to access for anyone, so they need to find other revenue streams to keep it accessible for their target audience. They have three ways to make a profit: iBuying, advertising, and partnering with realtors they have named the Premier Realtor Service.
iBuying is essentially selling a home, or buying a home online, start to finish. It’s very automated and straightforward, so the process is fast.
Advertising on Zillow’s site attracts companies like mortgage lenders, insurance companies, management companies, telecommunications companies, or other businesses that are targeted towards home buyers or sellers. Zillow has a network of websites, including popular sites like AOL Real Estate, MSN Real Estate, MyNewPlace, Hot Pads, and Trulia. Their network is very attractive to those companies wanting to advertise because they include some well-known companies, and they’re sure to get a lot of views on their ads. Due to the audience being so precise and targeted, advertisers pay a premium price for ads on Zillow's network.
The realtor partnership program, called The Premier Realtor Service, is a subscription that willing realtors pay into to be given preference on leads and advertisements with Zillow. Many realtors pay this subscription fee, so when clients put in their contact information and communicate interest in a home, a lot of premium realtors get the leads. They take precedence when it comes to advertising, and they are recommended for the iBuying process when clients are interested in that.
Using a traditional realtor versus using Zillow
It would be a great concept if buying and selling a home in Cherry Creek, Colorado online was doable without any problems, but there are certainly some downsides to what may be perceived as a quick, cheap and accurate process.
Zillow is continuously under fire for having sold listings on the site or being advertised when they are no longer on the market. They are not diligent when keeping up with their listings, which can be frustrating for a client that could be interested in a Cherry Creek home listed for sale on Zillow when in reality, it’s been sold for days.
The signature ‘Zestimates’ is heavily criticized for being off target, and it seems that it’s more often wrong than it is right. In fact, users claim that it’s almost always inaccurate. The website does not have access to provide an estimate online, and couldn’t possibly without a trained professional physically viewing the home to appraise it. This process can be disappointing for clients who choose to use this service and have it turn out to be completely wrong.
Zillow’s platform is all about data. The website makes buying a home very impersonal, and it doesn’t provide much of a great customer experience. When you hire a realtor, you will get to know them, you can research their areas of expertise, and they will be diligent in finding out exactly what kind of home you’re interested in. They strive to provide valuable and seamless experiences for their clients, because let’s face it, buying or selling a home in Cherry Creek, Colorado can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be.
The website's revenue model poses a problem for clients as well because when you provide your information to the website saying you’re interested in a home, the realtor that contacts you is likely not going to be the listing agent. That means they won’t be knowledgeable about the property. Many disgruntled previous clients have mentioned that up to 15 different realtors have contacted them when they've made one inquiry. Zillow doesn’t have open lines of communication, and they don’t treat their leads with care. When you hire a realtor, they are the only realtor you deal with.
On that note, the premier realtors are paying to be top of the list, but realtors who have worked with Zillow claim that the leads are not reliable. A marketing tactic that forces clients to put in their contact information to completely view properties is not a great way to generate leads, because most of them probably aren’t ready to buy a home tomorrow. Once these leads go into the Zillow system, they’re shared with all the premier realtors, so if you don’t get to it fast enough, it could be gone. This process is chaotic and difficult for both the realtors paying for the subscription and those using Zillow to browse.
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The benefits of choosing a realtor
Zillow has some glaring issues that need to be resolved to create a better experience for both clients and their subscribed realtors. When you hire a traditional realtor, you eliminate all of the headaches you’d get dealing with Zillow in Cherry Creek, Colorado.
When you research your realtor, you can find a Cherry Creek neighborhood expert. That means this realtor has many years experience and knows the ins and outs of your desired new home.
If you’re selling your Cherry Creek home, they likely know the value of your home compared to others in the area. They know how to market your home, so it gets in front of the right audience. They also have a network of marketers, photographers, and designers, and they will know how to stage your home to look it’s best. A potential buyer wants to see them in your house, and a realtor can help you achieve that. When you deal with Zillow, you don’t get any of those perks, and you are competing with others for ad space only on Zillow's network. Zillow’s ad return on investment is minimal for those selling their home.
Due to the nature of how realtors are paid, they are motivated to sell your home fast, or help you find your dream home. Being paid only by commission means they need to put the effort in to get you what you want, or they don’t get paid on the sale.
An experienced realtor will definitely have some tips and tricks that they bring along to each sale. When you’ve worked in a position for a long time, you often find solutions to all the problems that arise. Zillow can’t do that as a realtor can. Zillow is merely a data provider, not an experience provider. If you have questions, Zillow isn’t a phone call away. If your realtor is a Cherry Creek expert, they can give you details on schools, parks, and recommendations for your hobbies. A realtor will also handle all your negotiations for you.
Buying or selling your home? Choose a realtor
Cherry Creek is one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Denver, and if you’re looking to live in an upscale community with high-end shops, cool restaurants, and flexible transportation, this is the neighborhood for you. While the area is fancy and upscale, Cherry Creek has homes that range from the low $500,000s to $6,000,000 and above. There is something for most budgets. Residents love living here for the high quality of life and access to great amenities.
Zillow, and similar companies, are meant to be beneficial for the client, but they fall short. In an ideal world, they would be the perfect replacement for a traditional realtor, but with the flaws in their processes, their most popular features, and how highly criticized they are, there is a significant disconnect.
Many previous clients of Zillow have claimed to be frustrated and stressed with the processes in place and would have preferred to have hired a traditional realtor instead. A traditional realtor is your partner throughout the home buying and selling process, they’re the only realtor you deal with, and they bring a lot of knowledge to the table. Zillow and others are trying to replace the traditional realtor, but since they are so valuable, that will never happen.