This is me in today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link).
This is adapted from my main post Tuesday night, of course. I get 350 words in the paper. They cut me today to 330, so I used my own version of the text for the permanent link.
But here’s the sad part: This is breaking news in the Republic. This is the first word of Zillow’s new release to appear in the newspaper. Aren’t you glad you have a choice about where to get your news?
Web site builds community of real estate consumers, vendors
- Any user of the system — not just homeowners or their real estate agents — will be able to report that a particular home is for sale and at what price. Only owners and/or listing agents will be able to create more elaborate listings for homes for sale.
- Any user of the site will be able to ask or answer a specific question about a home, whether or not it is listed for sale. The questions and answers will be stored with the record for that home, and each user’s questions, answers and Zillow Wiki contributions will be recorded on that user’s personal profile page on the system.
- Agents or other users wishing to promote either themselves or their homes listed for sale will be able to do so through a new “EZ Ads” system. The ads will be sold by the zip-code at a cost of one-penny per impression.
“With this release, Zillow becomes a community,” said David Gibbons, the company’s Director of Community Relations. Zillow’s home value “Zestimates” have been very popular with home sellers. Zillow.com is giving buyers and Realtors incentives to join its community.
Zillow wants agents to submit at least limited-data listings, which will in turn bring it buyers, which will in turn reward sellers and listing agents for inputting full-data listings and other information, which will in turn provide a stickier and more satisfying experience for buyers. By giving agents credit for their contributions to Zillow’s content database, agents have the incentive to drive the process.
Taken together, Zillow is creating a community in the sense of a magazine: A target-marketed community of content consumers who are also interested in products and services conjoined with a community of vendors of those products and services. Zillow goes most magazines one better by giving the vendors the incentive to create much of the content at their own expense.
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Mark Ballard says:
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m a little fatigued with the overuse and flippant use of the word “community”. Community implies a stake in something, an ownership interest and a potential to benefit – and NOT just a social gathering or club.
April 6, 2007 — 10:06 am
Louisville Real Estate says:
I just read about Zillow on another blog, and it looks like a really neat site/service.
Social sites are popping up all over the place, but the consumer wins out when there are more choices that continually raise the bar IMO.
April 7, 2007 — 5:34 pm