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What Zillow doesn't want you to know about its listing gap

buildzoom.com

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Re: What Zillow doesn't want you to know about its listing gap

#11

Mods: the title of this HN post is not the title of the linked article, which at this writing is the somewhat less clickbaity "What Zillow Doesn’t Want You To Know". In fact, the c&d part, while important, could almost be seen as a distraction from the larger issues of MLS listing access discussed in the article.

I like the HN title better, "What Zillow Doesn’t Want You To Know" is the definition of click-bait (it doesn't let you know what they don't want you to know!).

Re: What Zillow doesn't want you to know about its listing gap

#12
post #6

One point that this analysis misses is that there's often a significant delay between the time a property hits the market (lists on MLS) and the time it hits aggregators like Zillow [0]. If you're looking at week old listings in hot markets like LA and SF, then you're looking at a batch of inventory that has already been picked through by savvier buyers. For this reason, we always recommend that our buyers use a brok…

Right, in our market and for our home search, Redfin was as fast as the broker's feed and the other sites were delayed several days. We went under contract on our house after seeing it on Redfin and before the listing even showed up on Zillow.

Re: What Zillow doesn't want you to know about its listing gap

#13
post #6

One point that this analysis misses is that there's often a significant delay between the time a property hits the market (lists on MLS) and the time it hits aggregators like Zillow [0]. If you're looking at week old listings in hot markets like LA and SF, then you're looking at a batch of inventory that has already been picked through by savvier buyers. For this reason, we always recommend that our buyers use a brok…

That first link threw two interstitial ads at me back to back. The only thing more egregious they could have done would have been to make one of them an auto-play video.

Re: What Zillow doesn't want you to know about its listing gap

#14
When I was looking for a condo this past summer, I used RedFin. Since RedFin ties into MSLs (basically a list that all realtors use), I knew about listing before my agent could email me about them.

I highly recommend it, even if you have a non-RedFin agent.

Re: What Zillow doesn't want you to know about its listing gap

#16

When I was looking for a condo this past summer, I used RedFin. Since RedFin ties into MSLs (basically a list that all realtors use), I knew about listing before my agent could email me about them. I highly recommend it, even if you have a non-RedFin agent.

Zillow used to tie into MLSs but their access was cut in most areas (as described in the article) due to a dispute. Used to be an awesome resource, now it's a ghost town.

Would think it's only a matter of time before realtor.com shuts down similar sites like RedFin.

Re: What Zillow doesn't want you to know about its listing gap

#17

When I was looking for a condo this past summer, I used RedFin. Since RedFin ties into MSLs (basically a list that all realtors use), I knew about listing before my agent could email me about them. I highly recommend it, even if you have a non-RedFin agent.

MLS --> Multiple Listing Service

Re: What Zillow doesn't want you to know about its listing gap

#18
When I was searching for a house I used 5 or so apps to do so. I found that Zillow had many, many listings that were very old, but were placed up top and the dates changed to make it look like it was just listed. However, checking the actual data for that listing shows that it was not pulled from the market and relisted, it was just Zillow constantly boosting really crappy houses that had been on the site for a long time.

In short, trust none of them, use multiple services, and keep looking constnatly. I found my house through my agents MLS system, which was about the time it showed up on the aggregates.

Re: What Zillow doesn't want you to know about its listing gap

#20
post #3

What annoys me about Zillow is that their "number of days on Zillow" is totally bogus. A house down the street was on the market for 2 months (at a highly inflated value). Time on Zillow? 2 weeks. Maybe the time on Zillow is based on repricing or taking it off the market and putting it back on? Either way if you were looking for homes unless you kept track of an individual house you wouldn't be any wiser. Also amusin…

I had this problem a lot. I really wish Zillow allowed you to block houses from your search, regardless of price changes, relistings, etc. I came across the same lot of sad, crappy, and overpriced homes over and over, because Zillow kept erroneously marking them as "just listed!"
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