RISMEDIA, October 5, 2009—Zillow is a media site, or a marketing platform that real estate professionals can utilize to connect with buyers, sellers, and each other. Each month more than 8 million users come to Zillow with one common interest, real estate.
According to the company, Here are four ways that real estate professionals can use Zillow:
1) Create a free profile – Participating on Zillow all begins with the creation of a profile, which links to everything you do on the site. To get started, click “Register” in the upper right hand corner and walk through the steps. If your brokerage or a syndication site is feeding listings on your behalf, be sure to register using the same email address as they have on record for you. We use the email address to match listings to profiles. Also, be sure to include your photo, all contact information, marketing text with unlimited links back into your website, geographic areas you work, and professional areas of specialization. Because your profile is automatically included in the directory, it is important to use relevant keywords that consumers will be searching with when looking for a real estate professional.
2) Zillow Advice – Zillow Advice is an interactive forum where anyone can ask and answer questions. It is a great place to soft sell yourself by leveraging your local real estate expertise. Your responses will be posted to the site, along with a link back to your profile. You are free to browse all the topics and discussions that are constantly added to the site. To use Zillow Advice most efficiently you can subscribe to be alerted via email whenever a question about a topic or geographic area you designated in is asked. Simply go to Zillow Advice, type in a topic such as “short sales” or “Chicago”. At the top of the search results, click the link “Get Email Alerts.”
3) Local Real Estate Data – Zillow produces monthly, interactive Real Estate Market Reports for the nation and more than 160 metro areas across the country, with home value information down to the neighborhood and zip code level. One thing that make these reports unique is that Zillow looks at data from all homes on the site, not just the ones that are on the market or have recently sold. This data is useful when communicating your local real estate expertise to your clients.
4) Accuracy Chart – Ever hear the question from buyers and sellers, “But Zillow said . . . “? Using the accuracy chart posted on the footer of every page on Zillow.com, you’ll be able to answer this question by saying “Zillow also says they have an error rate of X% in our county, and are within 5% of a home’s sale price X% of the time.” This is a great tool to use, along with the customization information that you prepare for your clients.
