#3 Connect SF, So What is Up With Zillow and is Real Estate Print Advertising on its Death Bed or Should It Be?

In San Francisco, I had the good fortune to sit with Drew Meyers, who is a Community Relations Specialist for Zillow, during one of the main events. However, I think Drew's title should be Zillow's blogger extraordinaire.

I mentioned to Drew that I liked to advertise my listings on Zillow, but was concerned because "zestimates" were often much lower than market values and listing prices. If the "zestimate" for a home was much less than the sales price for the home, I would not advertise the home on Zillow. Drew let me know that Zillow is very aware of the issue and is working on new algorithms which should give more accurate "zestimates" of value. By the way, I am sure many of you know that as a home owner, you can log onto the site and update your home information to get a more accurate "zestimate" of value. Zillow has no way of knowing if you have done some major updating of your home unless you add that data.

It's also free for Realtors to advertise listings on Zillow. Your home should be advertised on the local MLS, but your Realtor should be advertising in all the right places. Your home should be advertised where buyers are searching for homes, which (no big surprise here) is now on the internet. In today's world, your home should be listed on many real estate sites, not in the newspaper.

Besides Zillow, another great tool that your Realtor can use is vflyer. This is an internet flyer service that will post your home sale on Trulia, Oodle, Edgeio, Vast, and Craig's List. The beauty of internet advertsing is you can track the hits or views your home receives online. You know if buyers are looking at your home. It's so much more meaningful than the newspaper.

I am excited about this, because for so many years Realtors would advertise homes in newspapers and get little or no results. Sellers would always want their homes advertised in the Sunday paper, but rarely did it generate any activity and hardly ever resulted in the sale of a home.

There was talk at the conference that many of the large real estate companies might cut back on their newspaper advertising in the near future. (Ironically, the New York Times just switched to smaller sized pages in a cost savings measure) Do I hear the sound of the death knell for real estate print ads?

On another note, Drew had also been a presenter in the first Blogger Connect seminar in which the participants spoke about "Finding Your Voice" as a blogger. His panel consisted of two other great Seattle bloggers, Marlow Harris of 360Digest and Ardell DellaLoggia of Rain City Guide. Dustin Luther, the founder of Rain City Guide, presented during another of the Blogger Connect meetings. Seattle is again out there in the forefront of real estate information and technology with these interesting people.