How Zillow Has Reached Beyond Listings and Zestimates
How has Zillow’s multi-pronged marketing strategy disrupted the real estate industry?
Yesterday, the Washington Post’s Lydia DePillis analyzed the real estate listing website’s myriad methods of establishing themselves as a major player in the real estate world.
Aside from hosting a website populated with current listings, Zillow throws housing conferences with big-name speakers, publishes a Home Value Index, calculates values via a Zestimate, and publishes a blog. They host Google Hangouts with high-ups in the Administration, and have even interviewed President Obama.
Their interviews and panel discussions are often available via video, making them a resource of housing market and mortgage-related topics.
In the process, noted DePillis, Zillow is “taking on traditional real estate agents, media companies and publishers of housing data — and it’s threatening all of them in the process.”
From the Post:
“Zillow saw this opportunity, about five years ago, to fill what we perceived to be a massive void in academia, government and in the media,” says Spencer Rascoff, the company’s 37-year-old chief executive. “Nobody was providing objective, unbiased data and analysis about what was happening in the real estate and mortgage industries. The people that were providing it represented trade associations with agendas and were advancing particular policy prescriptions for their constituents.”
While Zillow has been growing, earning $47 million in revenue last quarter, some parties are frustrated with what they see as inaccuracies in the listing information and Zestimates.
Zillow defends their metrics. Unlike other actors who have a stake in encouraging buyers to buy, Zillow claims to aim for pure accuracy: “our business only works if people trust us to be telling them the unbaised truth,” stated a Zillow representative in the Post article.
For the full story, check out the Post.
Similar Posts:
See other articles related to: zillow
This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/how_zillow_has_reached_beyond_listings_and_zestimates/7758
Most Popular... This Week • Last 30 Days • Ever

UrbanTurf is re-running its primer on property taxes which outlines a few things that... read »
UrbanTurf has compiled virtual looks at large new developments around the DC region.... read »

The 11th Street Bridge Park project is progressing through the approval process.... read »

Another 30-day public comment period is currently underway.... read »

To illustrate the rise in prices, UrbanTurf analyzed four charts that show the path o... read »
DC Real Estate Guides
Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market
We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Visit guides.urbanturf.com or start browsing below!
First-Timer Primers
Intro guides for first-time home buyers
Unique Spaces
Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro
5 Comments