Zillow

Zillow is an awful real estate for many reasons

1. They offer a Zestimate (their estimate of a property's value). In my case I received monthly emailed Zestimates for almost two years. During that time my property's value increased from $297K to $330K. Then last month the Zestimate decreased by $30K for no apparent reason. Looking at the historical value it also decreased, which does not make sense. They essentially rewrote history for no reason. The only factor that can influence the Zestimate are features of the property changing on the website, which only I the home owner can make (and I did not make any).

2. Customer service

- In response to the above issue I contacted their support group. Multiple times I tried to express my questions regarding a 10% drop overnight and a rewrite of the historical value with no supporting evidence. Each time I received the boiler plate carbon copy response on how Zestimate's are created.

- I listed my property under "Make Me Move". In doing so without my knowledge all my photos were automatically deleted. I requested to get them back only to be told that first about how Make Me Move works... completely ignoring my question. I followed up only to be told that my photos were deleted and could not be retrieved. Wtf.

After living in northern CA for over 30 years, my husband and I are planning to move back to Wisconsin, our home state. Our move is totally to be near family; it DEFINITELY NOT is because we enjoy WI's weather, humidity, bugs, snakes, etc. With us living so far away, Zillow is a good tool to use to help us find our new home. One thing I must mention is that WE ALREADY HAVE A REALTOR in WI, and we don't plan to use anyone listing a particular home. Along that line, PLEASE DO NOT PRESS THE BUTTON that says "I'm interested in this home" because you will receive many unwanted phone calls from agents! Otherwise, Zillow.com is a good tool to use to get an idea of a home you want. Zillow gives information on Facts and Features, Year Built, Square Footage, Room Sizes, Heating and Cooling (Central air is a MUST!), acreage, Taxes, price per square foot, schools, and much more. There is also a "Zestimate" that can tell you if the home is priced too high or too low. Zillow also gives "how many days" the home has been listed on Zillow, in addition to a history of the home's price increases or decreases or "taken off the market", which can help one ascertain whether a lower price might be accepted by the seller.
The negatives of Zillow are that pictures they show of the homes may be limited, and that if you don't already have a realtor, you take a chance on whoever is listing the home. Since we were already from WI, we have a realtor we know and trust.
But when you live thousands of miles from wherever you are planning to move, Zillow is a great site for you to get an idea of what is out there and how much it costs.

A home was purchased Jan 28,2016 and relisted due to unusual circumstances 2 weeks later.

The "days on Zillow" is wrong as it is adding the original listing for this home to the new actual days online with the NEW MLS# which is only 11 days and it is reporting 56 days!

I contacted Zillow and they responded that they can do NOTHING as it was NOT off the market for 31 days! This is absurd and a dis-service to those relying on Zillow for accurate information.

My response to their customer no-service is below:

That is a ridiculous policy as this is new listing with a new agent and presents a discriminatory disadvantage to a new listing with a new agent.

I will be finding EVERY forum on Zillow and its practices and expressing my dissatisfaction so that people know about this policy and the lack of sincere AND ACCURATE reporting.

There are plenty of dissatisfied people on the web regarding the customer no-service from your website as I read many reports before contacting you.

I already pointed out in my original email that the home had only been off the market two weeks after closing and the new listing created due to unusual circumstances; there WAS NO CAREFUL REVIEW ON YOUR BEHALF as you stated. This is a robotic answer.

Your policy of "off the market 31 days" is ABSURD and when it is pointed out that you are posting inaccurate information... YOU DON'T CARE!

CAVAET EMPTOR. As a consumer, I cannot recommend Zillow. I wrote a
Review on their website about a real estate "professional" who I had
Very negative interactions with - and zillow chose not to publish it without even telling me why. I came to the conclusion that Zillow really works for real estate pros and protects them because it is all one big real estate "brotherhood".
This "pro" has stellar reviews on Zillow (most likely written by
Himself) but every other website reviews show him just the opposite.
C'mon Zillow work fairly and honestly with both sides: realtors and
Consumers. It might go a long way towards cleaning up your own "C-"
Rating on the BBB site.

Also be very careful submitting reviews to Zillow - the following comes from Zillows rules and policies to realtors regarding on-line reviews:

QUOTE
"Will I know who has reviewed me?
When you receive an email notifying you of a review, you can see the username and profile of the person who has reviewed you, and, if provided, the address where the service was provided and the approximate sale price, if a home was bought and sold, as well as the year the transaction took place."

I listed a fully furnished 5 bedroom/5 bath home on Zillow, under the catagory "temporary/sublet", hoping to find a renter for any part of January 2021-April 2021. I was assured by Zillow marketing that if I "didn't receive at least one lead" from my ad, I would receive an additional week free.
Bizarrely, the ONLY "leads" I received were for a 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment on the other side of town, wholly unconnected to me in ANY way. I got multiple calls about that apartment asking for "Sharon", the landlord listing on the ad for that apartment, I guess. Clearly, Zillow made some sort of error and was directing those leads to me (I don't know if Sharon was getting my leads).
When I complained about this and asked for situation to be corrected AND to get my supposed free weeks-- I was told that "ANY " lead counts toward the guarantee! The fact that the leads were ALL FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S PROPERTY, didn't matter! This went on for 3 weeks, with the my listing auto renewed at $9.99 per week. I never received a single inquiry that was actually about my house. Total waste of $30.

The answer is a very clear NO! I signed up to be a Zillow Premier agent because of the continuous harassment of their sales guys. The calls just never stopped and eventually knowing I need more leads to provide to my agents I agreed to more than $2,000 a month. I made it very clear that I would not be the one fielding the calls and that they were to be routed to the agents on my team. Everything seemed great until they got my money and me to sign a contract. After that, no one cared anymore. It took them over two weeks to get my calls routed to my buyers agents. I had two weeks of missed opportunities because they didn't set things up right and they won't reimburse me for more than a half month of wasted leads. Again, I only signed up to provide more leads to my agents. I sell over 25 homes a year myself and 90% of those deals are online leads that I produce. I signed on with Zillow because I needed more leads for my the two new buyers agents, I couldn't handle anymore for myself. Zillow completely disappointed and they even admit to their mistake but wont compensate for it. Do not sign up with Zillow, they will take your money with zero accountability. They also compete against you in many ways. 1. They did not disclose that they actually cherry pick the best leads and buy or list those homes instead of giving the listings to their paying clients. 2. They leave under contract and sold properties on their website to generate more calls so that they can sell more zip code share to your direct competitors. They will tell you that your the last agent they can have in that zip code just so you sign up and months into your contract they will add 10 more agents reducing your leads significantly. Very deceptive! Trust me when i tell you this, I sell 90% of my homes from online leads and have been since 2005. Do not give Zillow any money, you will regret it!

We recently put our condo that we spent the last six months renovating up for sale by owner. We did all the work. We renovated, advertised, staged and cleaned the condo thoroughly.

We made the mistake of listing it on Zillow. We had two calls the first day from direct buyers without Agents. We showed the home. They seemed to love it. We were told by the property managers that we have the most desirable location in the community. The community is also very desirable. This is why we decided to purchase the condo in the first place.

We put in stone flooring, slate patio, new paint, carpet, custom cabinets, granite etc. etc. We wanted to price it fairly- and really looked into comps in that community. We have been told also that it is very fairly priced.

We noticed that after the first day, the calls stopped and realtors appeared on our listing with the possibility to contact them to get information on the property. We received over 15 calls a day for four days from only Realtors.

Then i notices that it says on OUR for sale by owner listing "want to appear as the agent for this listing?" call this number. I called Zillow pretending to be an interested person. They explained to me that it is a way for the REALTOR to get their name out there and to have the opportunity to get involved in OUR sale. SNEAKY AND PATHETIC.

I then saw reviews from other sellers who say that Zillow directs the questions and inquiries to Realtors who know nothing about the property and who then either try to get involved to make money off the poor seller or they say that the property is not for sale.

I hope that the brilliant mind who came up with this method of sticking it to the seller puts their own blood, sweat and tears into a project only to have some one completely scam them like Zillow did to us. BEWARE OF ZILLOW

Very poor quality pics for the listing. And didn't include the bathrooms. Amateurs and don't care. Zillow needs a competitor now!

I agree with all the comments on Zestimate and share the frustration expressed by owners advertising on this website. But there's another factor that nobody has mentioned: experience with local real estate agents.
Since Zillow and Trulia combined a few months ago, For Sale By Owner (FSBO) ads now appear on both websites. Owners are no longer asked whether they agree to pay the buyer's agent a 2%-3% commission. Instead, real estate agents can now advertise their services, thus giving buyers an opportunity to contact the owner directly or seek an agent's assistance.
Since this summer a trend has emerged. Some local real estate agents who do not advertise on Zillow or Trulia have approached me and offered to charge as little as 4% instead of the usual 5%-6%, if I let them list my property. This is a welcome change, but there is a catch. The 4% commission only applies if the broker himself or herself procures "a buyer who is ready, willing and able to purchase the property". If, however, another broker procures "a buyer who is ready, willing and able," the commission rises to 6% split equally between the two brokers. This is the Compensation clause found in the Exclusive Listing Agreement used in Florida.
Finally, sellers who use a real estate agent to represent them should also pay attention to the Conditional Termination clause which requires a seller to pay expenses incurred by the agency in marketing the property, if the agreement is terminated.
I continue to believe that the Zestimate should be removed but, given the recent changes in Zillow's website and the addition of Trulia, I am prepared to raise my rating to two stars.

Purchased Real Estate Agent Ads from Trulia through a phone sales rep. Zillow misrepresented the Ad service and failed to disclose planned changes.
I purchased Real Estate Agent Ads from Trulia on May 4,2015 based upon statistics the sales representative shared with be for the advertising area. I received leads (16-20 leads per month) for the are for the first 3 months of the 6 month term as the rep indicated.

After the second month using the Ad service, Zillow Group sent a notification that they were "integrating" the advertising platforms of Trulia and Zillow and that Advertisers would benefits from the changes. Once the change was complete, I was beginning my 4th month of the service and from months 4-6 received ZERO leads.

Zillow Group/Trulia blatantly misrepresented the advertising service they sold me over the phone. I repeatedly contacted the "newly assigned" sales rep who was very nice but told me that they don't have a means to cancel the term. When I expressed my dissatisfaction, he agreed to look up the number of "impressions" that were delivered in September and told me that the minimum threshold according to my agreement was not met, therefore they would refund that month of service. He informed me that he would contact the billing department and have a refund issued.

After 15 days of no communication, I sent an email to the rep and his supervisor to ask about the status of the refund. The supervisor replied that they will not issue refunds and they I can only stop payments when the end of the 6 month term is reached.

The Terms and Conditions were not reviewed with me at the sale. When purchasing the Ads the rep made no mention of the planned changes to the advertising platform, or what they called the "integration" which directly resulted in the LOSE of ALL LEADS being sent to me for the last 3 months of the 6 month term.

I didn't not physically or electronically sign a contract. The contract made was a verbal contract which the salesperson misrepresented in my opinion by not disclosing the upcoming changes. If these changes were disclosed I would have never made a verbal agreement to do business with an unknown advertising systems change.

When I signed up Zillow promised me I would appear at the top of each listing.
I pay almost $2k a month! 2 mos into the contract they changed their format. Taking that away, putting the listing agent of the property in place of where 4 agents to choose from were located.
Problem is 90% of these agents don't even pay for Zillow leads! So you can click on their name/company directly and never see my name why... it is now located somewhere at the bottom of the page where no one will ever scroll to, past so much junk about 2 feet down if you were to measure it.

The other "change" they made is some listings ONLY show the listing agent PERIOD! You will never show up, even at the bottom of the abyss.

I hold the number 1 spot in two towns and I won't come up on any listing in those towns unless I actually have the home for sale?! What's the point? Are you kidding me?

You are collecting $10,200.00 for absolutely NOTHING! No exposure what-so-ever!
You can try this "system change" all you want but, at the end of my contract, I will never re-sign with you. You are completely destroying my chance at the Spring Market and the extra leads I should be picking up right now.

The point of having the exposure is people are visual... they like to see several agents. They like to have the ability to choose between working with a male/female. They like to see their stars/reviews, click on them.
They like to have the ability to say "I think this is the ideal looking agent for me", "this is a professional looking agent" etc... Instead you are not giving me the ability to collect any additional clicks only phone calls that come through you, which was also NOT part of my contract.

You also do NOT screen your calls. I get calls from actual agents, buyers that are working with agents already and that already have contracts. So, it's certainly not to cut down on that seeing that you have no screening process what-so-ever. I am so angry with Zillow and it's representation.

You told me that it will only be for a few weeks as "you are getting many calls from other agents saying they aren't happy about the change either". Do yourself a favor and make the switch back NOW before you anger too many clients! Realtor.com is just a phone call away!