Sara Bonet, from Zillow wrote a post today where she asked for our imput as Realtors on inaccurate data on Zillow.
I had a lenghy answer and thought it would be good to post it here.
First let me say, I have no issues with Zillow. They are one arsenal or portal that a home buyer might use to find their new home and land on your listing.
Here is my response to Sara's question:
Sara, there is nothing more frustrating for a consumer to ask about a listing, then we go to our MLS and find it is sold, expired, withdrawn. This applies to all the national companies not just Zillow.
I work it for my good, I tell them the data is NOT accurate there, and it is best to let me set up a search for them and they will only be sent accurate Active listings, or they can sign up for my IDX search and it also pulls from the MLS nightly. 99% are happy to do this.
Then you get a call that someone wants information on another house, or they send a MLS number they found on Zillow or Trulia. Once again we go to the MLS, and it is sold, expired or withdrawn.
"hey we told you to stop wasting your time there, there is too much inaccurate data."
Your feeds from the MLS will be the most accurate, as I have found most Realtors don't monitor their data anywhere out there, some even in the MLS. Ex..."showings start June 1st, and it is Sept in the MLS."
So you are not going to be able to change Human Behavior ie...agents monitoring their listings.
Here is a question I asked Jeff Turner years ago.
How do sites know which is the authority site? Let's say I list a home, it goes in the Ann Arbor Area MLS, then I do a Vflyer, then I do a RealEstateShow, then it goes in Point2Agent, then it goes into KW which feeds to listhub.
All of these sites give us the syndication feature.
So who is the authority site in terms of sites like Zillow, Trulia,Vflyer et all...????
In my mind the MLS is the authority and should be the authority for a company like Zillow or Trulia, if it is gone from there, then it should be gone from all the syndicated sites.
It is the consumers we are trying to please, right?
They want accurate data.
Since it is not always right, then I take advantage of it by having them search my site or I set up a Saved Search in my MLS for them.
I don't not like Zillow or Trulia, heck you never know where a buyer (which portal) they are going to find my listing on. So I have no issues with Zillow or Trulia.
I applaud you for trying to find a solution, but the solution is to get Brokers to get you their MLS feed like Remax did.
Does anyone know who decides which of your sites will get the listing out on Zillow or Trulia?
Is it Point2, VFlyer, your Brokers site, I would still like to know....
Missy Caulk & Team can be reached at 734-926-9797 or email: Missy@MissyCaulk.com
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