{"id":298,"date":"2006-09-07T19:59:07","date_gmt":"2006-09-08T02:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=298"},"modified":"2007-05-13T20:13:23","modified_gmt":"2007-05-14T03:13:23","slug":"shadowing-zillow-filleting-redfin-and-a-just-plane-smart-approach-to-change-in-the-real-estate-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/298\/shadowing-zillow-filleting-redfin-and-a-just-plane-smart-approach-to-change-in-the-real-estate-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadowing Zillow, filleting Redfin, and a “Just Plane Smart” approach to change in the real estate business . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

Dustin at Rain City Guide is giving stat-dancing lessons today<\/a>. I am neither as talented nor as interested as he is, but I do have an interesting statistic to reveal: Debunking Zillow.com<\/a> is averaging well over 100 unique hits a day. All of my extended Zillow rants<\/a> do very well, and Debunking Zillow.com<\/i> comes in third if you Google on “zillow.com”<\/a> — which many visitors to BloodhoundBlog are doing every day. It pays to keep things in perspective: Our Zillow traffic can’t hold a candle to that which is landing directly on Zillow.com<\/a>. But for anyone looking for a second-opinion, and apparently many people are, it’s right there on the shelf next to the branded product.<\/p>\n

There are two memes I hear all the time in the disintermediation debate that I think are incorrect. The first is the implication that anyone who expresses a skeptical or negative view of one or more of the dot.com RealtyBots is either an actual luddite or is in some way frightened by technology, disintermediation or simply change in any form. The second is the idea that disintermediation in the real estate industry will — or will not<\/i> — take the course followed by travel agencies and stock brokerages.<\/p>\n

For the first meme, I can discern no evidence whatever. It’s a caricature composed of characterizations rather than quotations with supporting links. Surely I would qualify as a technophile of at least the second rank, and my objections to Zillow.com and Redfin.com have nothing to do with technology, fear or even the idea of disintermediation as such. Zillow.com is deceptive in its portrayal of what it can and cannot do<\/a>, and Redfin.com is a cowbird that incubates its buyer representation commissions in the listing agent’s nest<\/a>. I am one of the most pro-innovation Realtors on the planet — and, in case you didn’t notice, yesterday I proposed an innovation that will, as a secondary consequence, obviate Redfin.com’s current business model<\/a>. What I am opposed to — and what every honest person should be opposed to — is unethical behavior.<\/p>\n

For the second meme, I think both the “will” and “will Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dustin at Rain City Guide is giving stat-dancing lessons today. I am neither as talented nor as interested as he is, but I do have an interesting statistic to reveal: Debunking Zillow.com is averaging well over 100 unique hits a day. All of my extended Zillow rants do very well, and Debunking Zillow.com comes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,6,5,27,25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-disintermediation","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-redfincom","11":"category-zillowcom","13":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2664,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2664\/zillowcom-announces-its-sponsorship-of-bloodhoundblog-unchained\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":0},"title":"Zillow.com announces its sponsorship of BloodhoundBlog Unchained","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"BloodhoundBlog has grown up with Zillow.com. We're consistently second or third on a Google search for Zillow.com, and Debunking Zillow.com is one percent or more of our traffic every day. On the other hand, we've also been big boosters of the tools Zillow has built to help sellers, buyers and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":188,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/188\/tell-the-world-zillowcom-is-bunk\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":1},"title":"Tell the world: Zillow.com is bunk . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote Debunking Zillow.com on July 25th, two weeks ago today. Without being arcane or technical, I think it completely demolishes the idea that Zillow.com can -- or ever can -- provide reliable home values. Nathan Hughes at Richmond Business and Commercial News wrote about my post, and, in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/134\/debunking-zillowcom\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":2},"title":"Debunking Zillow.com . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 25, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Zillow.com got itself a ton of new venture capital yesterday, so today seems like a fine time to deconstruct its praxis. When Zillow was brand new, Catherine Reagor, the dippy local real estate reporter for the Arizona Republic wrote:Want a reality check? Go to zillow.com, a new Web site with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2885,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2885\/zillowcom-takes-advertising-demographics-to-never-before-seen-places\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":3},"title":"Zillow.com takes advertising demographics to never-before-seen places","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The other bit of news to come out of Zillow.com is this: The real estate start-up is collecting, deploying and reselling advertising demographics in unique and interesting ways. The vast quantities of demographic information -- income, property values, credit scores -- that will be collected in the new Mortgage Marketplace\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":195,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/195\/pinocchio-wept-the-map-is-never-the-territory-so-even-a-much-much-better-zillowcom-clone-would-not-be-able-to-evaluate-real-property\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":4},"title":"Pinocchio wept: The map is never the territory, so even a much, much better Zillow.com clone would not be able to evaluate real property . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"David G. from Zillow.com replied to my post yesterday which argues that Zillow.com Zestimates are bunk, which I had proved to my own satisfaction in an earlier post. I'm revisiting the topic -- to everyone's delight, no doubt -- because I want to drive the point home, and because I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":669,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/669\/the-zillowcom-shake-down-deconstructing-the-ncrc-complaint\/","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":5},"title":"The Zillow.com shake-down: Deconstructing the NCRC complaint . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The NCRC complaint against Zillow.com was filed 26 days ago. Today we have the first detailing in the public prints of the bogus nature of the charges (subscription required):Absent specific instances of harm, the complaint looks more like a scheme to grab some of Zillow's publicity than a legitimate beef.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}