ZILLOW SLASHES WORK FORCE
INDUSTRY NEWS, SHASTA COUNTY, TIPS FOR BUYERS, TIPS FOR SELLERS
October 21st, 2008
Inman News reported last week that Zillow, an online valuation and listing site, laid off 25% of its workforce. Founder Rich Barton, stated “Unprecedented economic events….have made a prolonged recession likely, in our judgement.” He went on to say “We are a young company that is not yet making a profit.” Despite the fact that revenues are not covering expenses, he stated revenue is growing rapidly.
Zillow has been roundly criticized by real estate professionals across the country because their “zestimates” are usually too far off to be of any real benefit. Some agents blogging on this article had this to say:
- Fran McGrath of Denver-”I have been in the real estate business for thirty years.…I have been amazed how far off their numbers are. Most of the time 15% or more in either direction.”
- Barry Noble-”I cannot be unhappy about this-the Zillow attempts at valuation of properties is ludicrous and an insult to appraising. They were $125,000 off on a property I had recently appraised in a price range that meant they were 48% off.“
- Sean Fields of Cape Cod-”Bye, Bye Zillow….and good riddance. In the resort/retirement market of Cape Cod, this site just proved to be a pain in the neck. I personally had two clients make Zillow based offers over the past few years….both were told to go away and missed out on tremendous deals…”
I’m not sure how well Zillow works in California since assessed values are fixed by Prop. 13. If they use tax records to determine values in a particular neighborhood, this could throw their Zestimates way off. In states that reassess annually, their system of guesstimating might work. I’ve heard of sellers that used Zillow to set the asking price of their home they were selling themselves and left a bunch of money on the table. This could work out well for buyers that connect with sellers utilizing Zillow as their only price evaluation tool!
530-224-6767 or 530-941-7492
BRAD GARBUTT
REALTOR/BROKER ASSOCIATE
REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS GMAC
QUARTER CENTURY LOCAL REAL ESTATE EXPERIENCE
