Today I received an email from both Zillow & Trulia explaining this acquisition to me. They both stated they will still keep both brands and run both separate from each other. So why did they do this? Well, $ of course. Why not buy out a major competitor and have more of the market for yourself?
If you ask me how I feel out Trulia and Zillow, I would cringe as I always do when I hear someone talking about Zillow. I don’t know much about Trulia but I do know about Zillow and their Zestimates. Zestimates is Zillow’s term regarding their price quote on a property. They take recent sold properties around the neighborhood and come up with a price. Now, let me tell you from experience and knowing our downtown San Diego real estate market, their #s are all over the board. I have clients coming to me saying Zillow said my this property should be worth “X” amount; which would be $75-100k less than the property below sold last week that also had multiple offers. Or even vise versa. I’ve had clients say to me their property is worth $100k more than a property that sold above them that took 90 days to put into escrow and also after reducing the property multiple times.
On another note, I’ve had clients call me after they searched through Zillow to view a property to find out that property wasn’t available. I would search my own Multiple Listing Service and seek out that property my clients were interested in and I wouldn’t find it in the Active listings. I would then call Zillow myself and inquire about a property that was listed on their website for purchase. The representative at Zillow told me that property shouldn’t be up and was sold 5 years ago. What? I said. I came across this situation more than one time.
So do I like Zillow, NO! Not because they are a website competitor of mine, their #s and listings aren’t accurate. I strive to have my websites accurate and provide you with recent downtown sales and recent Downtown San Diego rentals so you can see the information yourself. I’m not trying to hide anything from you, I’m doing the opposite. I want you to see what other properties are selling for so you can understand what these properties are selling for. You are searching the MLS as I am through Sandicor. I do know these complexes and properties within so one property within a complex could sell for a lot more than another of like kind because of many different factors. Let me help explain what these factors are within the complexes you like and want to pursue.