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The answer to the question "will Zillow buy your house for their zestimate price?" is now "yes".


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2018 Apr 17, 7:28pm   4,247 views  11 comments

by RWSGFY   ➕follow (4)   💰tip   ignore  

"Zillow shares plunged 9 percent on Friday after the online real estate database company announced it will begin buying and selling homes, a capital-intensive endeavor. With Zillow’s new program, announced on Thursday, home sellers in the test markets of Phoenix and Las Vegas will be able to use Zillow’s platform to compare offers from potential buyers — and Zillow. When Zillow purchases a home, it will aim to quickly flip the home, making updates and repairs and listing it as soon as possible. An agent will represent Zillow in each transaction."

https://stratechery.com/2018/zillow-aggregation-and-integration/

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1   Strategist   2018 Apr 17, 8:43pm  

This is very interesting. Thanks for posting.
Zillow realizes the traditional way of buying and selling property through overpriced realtor commissions is coming to an end. They are positioning themselves to benefit from the coming change.
2   Patrick   2018 Apr 17, 9:28pm  

The stock plunged because Zillow's customers are realtors, and they will leave in droves if there is the slightest threat to their commission business model.

Zillow makes money solely by referring innocent buyers to ravenous realtors.

If realtors think that Zillow is cutting them out of the picture in any way, they will just stop paying Zillow for leads.
3   CBOEtrader   2018 Apr 17, 9:54pm  

Flipping homes is also wildly outside their existing business model.

I assume they feel they have an information edge. Flipping homes though? Their REIT plans must have fallen through.

I mean, how does a company scale the process of flipping when so much of the process is specific to that flip? I don't see how this works in any way.
4   Patrick   2018 Apr 17, 10:18pm  

They also have a strong dependency on the MLS's (a patchwork of incompatible systems across the US). Zillow needs the listing data from the MLS's, but the MLS's are wary of being replaced by Zillow, and also likely to withdraw cooperation.

What we really need is an open MLS protocol and a demand by all sellers that agents use it. But currently agents have almost all sellers convinced that open and honest listing information is not in the seller's best interest.
5   FNWGMOBDVZXDNW   2018 Apr 18, 3:16am  

Open listing service would be great. What is to stop scrapers from getting a nearly complete list of properties for sale? Do selling agents prevent sellers from advertising on Facebook and Craigslist?
A browser add on that scraped user pages for listing data and uploaded to open listing service would prevent services from shutting down a centralized scraper.
It would be nice if cities required registering a property for sale sixty days before recording a sale of 30 before accepting a contract. If notice is not given, they could charge a hefty fee for a closed sale.
6   lostand confused   2018 Apr 18, 4:04am  

Is this the sign of an impending crash?
7   CBOEtrader   2018 Apr 18, 8:56am  

https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/01/kin-insurance/

Notice this startup insurance company "KIN". They describe their value add as a "3 click" underwriting process vs 5 to 10 conversations and paperwork back-and-forth of the past for their product, MORTGAGE PROTECTION LIFE INSURANCE. The key to that difference is "data" that they pull automatically for things (I assume) like house price, sales history, taxes, etc...

I'll bet this startup is a customers of Zillow's data service.
9   Strategist   2018 Apr 19, 4:49pm  

MrBark says


So in this example Point puts up 13% of the down payment in exchange for 20% of the appreciation. They also charge interest at 6.1% APR.
Seems OK as they are taking a risk, but the devil is in the details.
10   Patrick   2018 Apr 19, 4:49pm  

FNWGMOBDVZXDNW says
Open listing service would be great. What is to stop scrapers from getting a nearly complete list of properties for sale? Do selling agents prevent sellers from advertising on Facebook and Craigslist?
A browser add on that scraped user pages for listing data and uploaded to open listing service would prevent services from shutting down a centralized scraper.
It would be nice if cities required registering a property for sale sixty days before recording a sale of 30 before accepting a contract. If notice is not given, they could charge a hefty fee for a closed sale.


Scrapers are prevented by the "terms of use" of real estate listing sites. I talked to a lawyer about this who assured me that anyone who scrapes real estate data gets sued and shut down pretty much instantly.

Remember, realtors don't really want to advertise your house to the widest possible audience. They only want the largest possible commission for themselves, so they want control over who buys it. If a buyer represented by the same agency buys it, the agency get double commission!

Yes, selling agents prevent sellers from advertising on Facebook and Craigslist as a rule, either through the terms of the contract, or just through browbeating sellers into letting the "expert" handle the sale.
11   Strategist   2018 Apr 19, 5:02pm  

Patrick says
Remember, realtors don't really want to advertise your house to the widest possible audience. They only want the largest possible commission for themselves, so they want control over who buys it. If a buyer represented by the same agency buys it, the agency get double commission!


Yet it's in the interests of the seller to get the widest coverage possible, in order to get the highest possible price for their home. The agents have a fiduciary duty to the seller to put the sellers interests before their's.
Scumbags. The present real estate business model that tightly controls who gets to see the listings cannot last in today's world. I see the MLS becoming totally useless, and the agents getting paid for the actual work and services they provide, not a ridiculous commission based on their marketing and bullshitting skills.

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