David Barr's Sarasota and Venice Real Estate Blog

Zillow is in legal trouble (again), this time with the federal government for alleged violations of anti-kickback and deceptive practices rules.  In short, it's a violation of RESPA, the Real Estate Settlement Protection Act, for an entity to pay for real estate referrals, such as a lender paying for advertising for a Realtor. Buyer beware: Whenever you see a Zillow Premier Agent promoting a lender, that lender is helping pay for that agent's marketing on Zillow.  When you hire a Realtor to market your home for sale, you need someone can market themselves first.  Gary Keller of Keller Williams once said "Zillow is lazy marketing for agents".   Zillow is an unethical company which always seems to be in litigation for misuse of data or misleading business practices.  Avoid Zillow when looking for a property because of bad data, and when choosing an agent who can't market themselves.

I was doing some market intelligence today and I noticed something quite interesting. The major real estate portals such as Zillow/Trulia, Redfin, Movoto, etc., are including what are supposed to look like an active inventory count of available properties for the search term queried.  It seems one of our competitors has picked up on this trend. Today's search results for "Venice Island FL real estate" showing incorrect inventory on competitor websites Both of these search results are displaying incorrect inventory levels for the search terms used.  Since "Venice Island" is a geographic area more than a neighborhood, I use the mapping feature available in our MLS to display properties there for sale on my website .  Today there are 93 single family homes, condos, townhomes, and villas for sale in that area, not 127. As far as Zillow's link, it wasn't even accurate based on the keywords used.  For Venice FL, there are not 977 homes for sale. ...

I was reading today about Zillow acquiring DotLoop. I had not heard of DotLoop. Apparently it's a competitor to Docusign. And there's a lot of competitors to Docusign.  But I digress. The blog I was reading posted this link to a YouTube video about this acquisition:   https://youtu.be/FTvEw0toTTc I believe this is Zillow's last gasp. Zillow's end game is to change how real estate is transacted.  They have been pursuing a strategy of acquiring electronic signature companies, online rental companies, and IDX data (and stealing it to display on Zillow), all in an effort to begin the creation of a new online experience.  Zillow wants an end-run around Realtors, and appeal long term to millenials, who live their lives through apps. They can't win the accuracy battle with Realtor.com. They can't win the PR battle they face against an army of Realtors who are spreading the word about Zillow's unethical and misleading business practices. They are n...

I've been tracking the inaccuracy of Zillow values in Sarasota for 5 years and here's an update of the results.  I've also begun tracking Venice. Zillow's inaccurate 2014 Sarasota median home value Zillow calls Sarasota's housing market "hot", yet it's posted 2014 median housing value of $200,700 is below the $201,700 it reported in 2013.   See the 5 year trend: click here . If you were a homeowner in Sarasota relying on Zillow to set the price for your for sale by owner property, you probably left money on the table, since MLS reports Sarasota's median 2014 sales price at $205,580. MLS Sarasota median home value for 2014 was $205,580, higher than Zillow's estimate The reverse happened in Venice in 2014.  Zillow reported a median home value price of $202,100.  But wait a second.  Every experienced Realtor in our area knows that Sarasota is a more expensive real estate market than Venice.  The story told by the numbers gets eve...

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) issued a warning on "coming soon" marketing, since the issue was raised by Zillow's new "coming soon" feature.  NAR says brokers who do not act in the best interest of their clients by informing them of the limited nature of coming soon marketing could face liability. "Coming soon" marketing is another form of pocket listings, where a Realtor has either a verbal agreement with a homeowner to sell their property, or has a written agreement.  The MLS I belong to, MFRMLS, is the 2nd largest in the country.  MFRMLS rules require a listing to be input in the MLS within 48 hours of completing a written listing agreement.  A "coming soon" listing could only be in effect with a true written  agreement for 48 hours, using Zillow's "coming soon" feature. In my previous blog post, I outlined how "coming soon" listings have the potential for abuse.  A Realtor could technically have a...

Readers of this blog will know that I am a fervent advocate for accuracy in real estate, especially when it comes to Zillow and Trulia. I had yet another customer ask me about a property they found on Zillow that was not available for sale. The customer says she found 141 Spanish Point Drive, Osprey, FL for sale in Zillow.  Google Maps does not show a home at that address, and there is no Sarasota County tax record for this address. Zillow does show a property at 121 Spanish Point Drive for sale on their site:   http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Osprey-FL/47533789_zpid/56139_rid/27.203443,-82.487342,27.198166,-82.495335_rect/16_zm/1_fr/   That property is not for sale in the MLS. For more about how Zillow and Trulia do business please visit my wesite:   http://www.davidbarrhomes.com/#!debunking-zillow-sarasota/cftb

Zillow is starting a new "feature" that allows agents to post what we in the industry call pocket listings:  Properties that are supposedly for sale before they are listed in the MLS. Pocket listings are prevalent in some markets, and no doubt a lot of buyers see agents negotiating pocket listings on popular real estate TV shows on Bravo or HGTV. Unfortunately for consumers, pocket listings are full of potential legal and accuracy issues that will add more headaches than necessary to the home buying process. The MLS I belong to, Mid Florida MLS, the 2nd largest in the country, requires that a property must be listed in the MLS within 48 hours of receipt of a signed listing agreement by the seller.  Zillow's "Coming Soon" will not be much of a benefit. Zillow's "Coming Soon" feature opens up a lot of opportunity for agents to abuse it.  In the absence of a signed listing agreement, agents could post a property for sale without a signed list...

Today I got an email from a customer using Zillow's mobile app. As readers of this blog know well, I'm a avid crusader against the business practices of Zillow that negatively impact the public and the real estate industry. This home that was listed for sale on Zillow is actually under contract in our MLS: MLS M5845701, available on Zillow's mobile app but under contract in the MLS If you install the Zillow mobile app on your device and use it to search for homes, you'll be looking at out of date information.  Remember, #AccuracyMatters. Fortunately for my clients, I have my own mobile app that provides up to date information from the MLS.  Download it here: http://t.ikenex.com/?k=LGz Follow me on Twitter @sarasota_homes and #AccuracyMatters.

Have you been searching Zillow or Trulia for Sarasota real estate? I've been saying for a long time that these services have a lot of inaccurate information and outdated properties for sale on their sites.  Many of the homes and condos they list for sale were never available for sale in the first place. You can check the true status of a property you've found on either of these sites with a MLS # search:   http://www.davidbarrhomes.com/#!sarasota-mls-number-search/cvrw

Are you using Trulia or Zillow mobile apps? I've written extensively about how Zillow in particular (and Trulia) is not a real estate company but a website that sells advertising.  The real estate listings on both sites are notoriously out of date or just plain inaccurate, some never having been for sale in the first place. Have you driven to a property using one of these apps and found the home wasn't for sale?  You're probably not alone.  If you 're looking for a good Sarasota real estate app, copy this link to your mobile browser:  http://t.ikenex.com/?k=LGz

Zillow is reporting increases in visits to their website and is spending a lot of money advertising to the general public.  This is causing a lot of misperceptions about what Zillow is, and what they do. Here's what Zillow is:  they are a self-described media site.  This means they are in business for the sole purpose of attracting a lot of visitors to their website.  They sell advertising and set their ad rates based on the number of website visitors. Here's what Zillow is not:  Zillow is not a licensed real estate broker.  Zillow cannot sell you a home.  You cannot complete a real estate transaction on Zillow's website. There are implications for home buyers and sellers who use Zillow on their own, without employing the services of a local Realtor. Zillow zestimates are as likely to be too high, as they are too low.  If you are a home buyer making an offer without a Realtor, using a high zestimate can result in the home you are buying w...

Woo hoo! I got an email today from Trulia to let me know my profile on their site ranks in the top 1% of agents nationwide, for views by real estate consumers. I'm not a big fan of Trulia and it's major competitor, Zillow.  In fact, I think these two sites do more to damage the real estate business than anything Congress or a bad economy have done.  Why?   Read more here. However, these two sites do receive a lot of traffic, and offer free exposure for me to promote my brand and my online presence, including my website and this blog.  I consider it one of my missions as a Realtor to help consumers who post questions on Trulia's forum, understand why so many of their "listings" are not available for sale, and why so many of their property value estimates are flat out wrong.

Last year I created a page on my website about Zillow's misleading and unreliable data about Sarasota real estate. As I wait for the football games to start, I thought it might be a good time to get updated information from my friends at Zillow, who love to misinform real estate buyers about price trends in our fair hamlet. Zillow reported an 18% decline in real estate sales prices for Sarasota in 2011 versus 2010.  MLS data showed the median sales price was flat in 2011, the sign of a market that had hit bottom. Zillow's data for 2012 is even more perplexing.  They reported the median sales price in 2011 was $130,000.  They now report a 2012 median sales price of $220,000, a whopping 74 % increase over 2011. Wow.  I wish that was the truth.  Even so, 2012 was a nice recovery for our area, with MLS data showing the median sales price in Sarasota County was $155,000 versus $135,000 2011. Can you really trust such wildly fluctuating data from Zillow? ...