Zillow's "Zestimate" Is Not What You Think
Promoted as “the leading real estate and rental marketplace dedicated to empowering consumers with data, inspiration and knowledge,” Zillow has rapidly become a go-to source for buyers and sellers alike. Zillow does an amazing job displaying photos of homes for sale with the ease of a simple search. Regrettably, the real estate data provided by Zillow is notoriously inaccurate and inconsistent. What many consumers don’t realize, however, is that Zillow is first and foremost a lead generation tool for real estate professionals. Under the perception that they are “invisible,” buyers and sellers eagerly surf through “Zestimates,” while at the same time Zillow is capturing whatever data is entered during these searches and selling it to local REALTORS®. When a property is listed for sale, the data hits the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS), in a matter of minutes. But, it can take as long as nine days to populate on nationally syndicated sites like Zillow or Trulia. A study by Re...