Why Real Estate Agents Need To Embrace Change

The sky is falling. Or so you’d think after reading an article from RealtyTimes about a seller who pulled his home off the market because home valuation site, Zillow.com, estimated his home to be $500,000 lower than what he was asking.

Columnist Blanche Evans went a bit overboard in her response by ranting that no one has the best interests of sellers or real estate agents in mind when they let these types of valuation sites get away with murder.

Yes, Zillow.com often misses the mark when it comes to estimates - and she correctly points out that

Zillow.com admitted to BusinessWeek in February 2006 during its much-publicized launch that its “estimates are typically on target, falling within 10 percent of the actual home-sale prices 62 percent of the time.”

BloodhoundBlog’s Greg Swann has criticized Zillow repeatedly about their estimates, but even he finds the article a bit hysterical. If the seller put up $300 for a home appraisal, he’d have solid evidence to refute that potential buyer and the two sides could get on with negotiations.

Here’s the deal. Zillow.com may not be 100% accurate - yet. But they aren’t going away. In fact, they’ve just struck up a deal with Yahoo! Real Estate and Prudential California Realty to put estimates on their sites.

Why? Because Zillow offers a service that real estate agents weren’t providing - that is, offering buyers a wealth of information about the homes in their neighborhood. Zillow saw a niche they could go after, and they did. That’s just smart business practice - find a want or need that’s not being met and fill the gap with your product or service.

If real estate agents want to survive in the internet age, they have to stop complaining that things aren’t how they used to be and embrace change. That means learning new skills and becoming more technology and marketing savvy. And realizing that there are a lot of companies vying for the eyeballs and wallets of lucrative home buyers and sellers. If you want to compete, you need to find a way to meaningfully differentiate yourself from everyone else.