Feel…
How would you feel if the professional organization you belonged to was making your job harder to do?
Think…
What would you think if the organization you paid dues to in order to look out for your best interests was involved with a company that was looking out for their pocketbooks at the expense of yours?
Keep on reading and you’ll find out…
Realtor.com launched an AVM entitled “What’s Your Home Worth” a few weeks back. It allows consumers to put in an address and see an estimated market value for it. The widget is on the Realtor.com home page, as well as next to every listing displayed on the site. Obviously, they’re putting it in front of consumers as much as they can in order to promote it.
So what’s the big deal? A few things:
The new Realtor.com just made your job as a Realtor harder.
The values they’re spitting out are anywhere from somewhat to completely inaccurate. They are no better than Zillow or any other AVM out there. In fact, in many instances, Zillow was much more accurate.
As Realtors, we all know how much fun it is when our clients want to argue our opinion of a property’s value against a “Zestimate” or some other inaccurate AVM. Now we also have to argue against Realtor.com and an organization we’re directly affiliated with.
In addition, many consumers will likely believe that the values somehow have the input of the 1.3 million Realtors in the US (after all, it is called “Realtor”.com). Once they see just how inaccurate the values are, do you think that think that consumers will view give Realtors more or less credibility than before?
So why make our jobs harder and devalue our credibility even more?
It’s all about the Benjamins… Remember folks, this ain’t no not-for-profit charity. Real estate is a trillion dollar industry with millions of dollars of online advertising dollars at stake. And what compels companies to spend their advertising dollars on your site?
Traffic.
And what brings traffic?
Things like “Zestimates” and “What’s Your Home Worth”.
Does it truly help consumers? No. Does it truly help Realtors? No. Does it put money into the pockets of Realtor.com? Yes. Doesn’t sound quite right, does it?
Suggestion…
So how about Realtor.com do this…
- Let Zillow and all the other sites out there that have AVM’s continue to make money off of their Zestimates and further discredit themselves as a source for accurate information.
- Focus on providing consumers the most accurate data and help interpret that data and show how to apply it in real life. This will help bring credibility to “Realtor” name in general.
- Start worrying about retaining Realtor members as well as attracting new ones by looking out for their best interests. We’re the ones who pay dues to keep you around in the first place, remember?
P.S. Sorry to Realtor.com for picking on them again.
