Housing News
Mint.com announces they now include Zestimates in their platform
Personal finance tracking website Mint.com today announced they will include automated home valuations (AVMs) in their suite of mobile-ready applications and have chosen to partner with Zillow.com to provide these AVMs (called “Zestimates” when data is provided by Zillow).
This partnership has gone live- as of today, when users log on to their Mint.com account, based on their address on file, they will see their home in their list of investments along with a Zestimate (home valuation).
Although Zillow’s data has recently been called into question and Zestimates have always been a topic of contention in the real estate market as agents often have to correct the misperception of their accuracy, we think this is a pretty cool partnership.
Mint.com users are financially minded and we believe this personality type that invests time in tracking this information does their homework and compares data sources, and it is interesting that someone can be on the train and pull up their investments in a simple app on their Android, iPhone or whatever and see their home featured.
We think that this will add exposure to the Zillow brand but more importantly will put the focus of homeowners back on their primary investment.
We anticipate that with the recent announcement of restructuring at Zillow that we will see more partnerships forming leading up to Zillow’s possible IPO candidacy.
AgentGenius.com is not affiliated with Zillow.com or Mint.com.
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Housing News
Average age of houses on the rise, so is it now better or worse to buy new?
With aging housing in America, are first-time buyers better off buying new or existing homes? The average age of a home is rising, as is the price of new housing, so a shift could be upon us.
The average home age is higher than ever
(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.
With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.
Prices of new homes on the rise
Newer homes cost more than they used to. The price differential between new homes and older homes has increased from 10 percent traditionally to around 37 percent in 2014. This is due to rising construction costs, scarcity of lots, and a low inventory of new homes that doesn’t meet the demand.
Click here to continue reading this story…
Housing News
Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?
The last year has been one of dramatic and rapid change in the real estate tech sector, but Realtors are vulnerable, and we’re worried.
Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes
(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.
Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.
So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.
1. Zillow poaches top talent, Move/NAR sues
It all started last year when the gloves came off – Move’s Chief Strategy Officer (who was also Realtor.com’s President), Errol Samuelson jumped ship and joined Zillow on the same day he phoned in his resignation without notice. He left under questionable circumstances, which has led to a lengthy legal battle (wherein Move and NAR have sued Zillow and Samuelson over allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets), with the most recent motion being for contempt, which a judge granted to Move/NAR after the mysterious “Samuelson Memo” surfaced.
Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.
2. Two major media brands emerge
Last fall, the News Corp. acquisition of Move, Inc. was given the green light by the feds, and this month, Zillow finalized their acquisition of Trulia.
…Click here to continue reading this story…
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Erica Ramus
September 22, 2010 at 7:42 pm
It seems to me that Trulia is being left in the dust here lately, which is a shame. I find Trulia to be much easier to navigate, and in polling my buyers it seems they like it better than Zillow. However, Zillow is the one partnering with mint.com, move.com and seems to be making more/better relationships.
What is Trulia doing to catch up or innovate?
I am rooting for Trulia here… Zillow has never impressed me.
Erica Ramus
September 22, 2010 at 9:29 pm
PS– I do use mint.com to organize my finances and them using Zestimates just brings mint.com DOWN in my eyes. Do they not realize how inaccurate these are? Why do they need this partnership?
Jim Duncan
September 22, 2010 at 10:19 pm
I’m curious what, if any, of my financial data from mint that Zillow gets. Clearly Z got my address … what else? Mint’s privacy policy hasn’t been updated since early this year, so that’s no help.
Ken Montville
September 23, 2010 at 7:37 am
I’m with Jim Duncan on this one. I don’t use Mint or other online financial tracking software/apps because I really don’t want to make it any easier for the entire world to know my finances.
I’m under no illusion that there is very little, if any, online privacy but I try not to make it too easy. That may be an illusion in and of itself.
Re: the partnership. Zillow’s Zestimate has been its marketing hook from Day 1. It’s inaccurate, at best, and doesn’t take into account either the condition of the individual house or the current market conditions of the neighborhood/area. However, consumers love it. Who wouldn’t? Unfortunately, for Mint’s customers, it will throw off its projections and net worth formulas since it will be using bad data.
Garbage in, Garbage out.