This is cross-posted at Blogher.
If you go to the new Zillow.com website you can get a bird's eye view of some houses that are for sale. To demonstrate this feature, Zillow includes some "famous" homes, among them, the house used for the HBO television series," Six Feet Under."
A bit Freudian? Some may say yes. While Zillow maintains it is not going to become a real estate brokerage, there are others who say this service, which lets you estimate teh value of your home and homes you may be interested in buying, is the first nail in the coffin for real estate agents.
Seattle-based blogger Marlow Harris whose blog, 360 Digest, looks at real estate and popular culture sees Zillow as a technological grim reaper.
Zillow is a new start-up, based in Seattle, which recently raised $32 million in venture capital. It’s headed by Richard Barton, founder of Expedia.
Expedia didn’t kill the travel agency per se, but it was definitely one of the nails in the coffin. Since 1995, many travel agents have exited the industry. Of the ones still in business, some have abandoned the “brick and mortar” agency for a home-based business to reduce overhead, and those who remain have managed to survive by promoting other travel products like cruise lines and train excursions, or by promoting their ability to aggressively research and assemble complex travel packages on a moment’s notice (essentially acting as a very advanced concierge).
Many people are expecting Zillow to shake up the real estate business in a similar fashion. "
Harris says that if Zillow is successful, the people who will be hurt the most are women.
"It’s interesting that the majority of real estate agents are female, as they seem to excell at this “people-person” type of job. The “skimmers’ at Zillow and Redfin are all males, at least the ones listed on their mastheads. A lot of real estate agents are women who have entered the workforce after their children are grown. They are people-people, not strategists, not computer programers, not business school grads. They are attracted to the business for a variety of reasons but if you ask them, a lot will say they like to “help people”.....The subtext of what these “real estate repackagers” are saying is that the average real estate agent (most likely a woman who has entered the business after her children are grown) makes more money than she deserves, and they want a cut of the pie. And they know how to get it, by building superior websites to lure the new, young buyers who are entering the real estate market and who are used to researching and ordering everything online. "
Harris lists several links that include articles about Zillow.One of the more telling is an interview in Businessweek online with Zillow founder Richard Barton( who also founded Expedia)
"Barton says the best brokers will be able to build on what Zillow offers. The bad ones could get squeezed out. He cited a California Association of Realtors study that found that buyers who searched on the Internet spent an average of 1.94 weeks with an agent before buying, while traditional buyers spent an average of seven weeks.
Said Barton: "It's very easy to think, 'Great, he's done all the work and I can earn a big, fat commission on 1.94 weeks of work.' You have to rethink that."
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