Zillow

I've been using Zillow for quite some time, and while I appreciate the platform's efforts to help people find the right real estate agents, I'm deeply disappointed by its review policy. Zillow's refusal to publish negative reviews is a major drawback that undermines the credibility of the platform.

In my recent experience, I had a less-than-satisfactory interaction with an agent, and I wanted to share my honest feedback with the Zillow community. However, to my surprise, Zillow rejected my negative review because I hadn't formally hired the agent in question. This policy essentially silences the voices of individuals who have had negative experiences with agents, preventing them from warning others about potential pitfalls.

Transparency is crucial in the real estate industry, where significant financial decisions are made. Buyers and sellers deserve to have access to a complete picture of an agent's performance, including the good and the bad. Zillow's current review policy only serves to create a biased, overly positive image of agents, which does a disservice to users.

I believe that Zillow should reevaluate its review policy and consider allowing reviews from all perspectives involved in a real estate transaction. This would not only enhance the platform's credibility but also empower users to make more informed decisions when selecting an agent.

In summary, while Zillow is a valuable resource for the real estate market, its refusal to publish negative reviews is a glaring flaw that needs to be addressed. Let's work toward a more transparent and user-centric review system that benefits everyone in the real estate community.

Great. I'm very happy for you. Thank you so much. Next order coming soon. Can you provide me the same qualities reviews?

CAVAET EMPTOR. As a consumer, I cannot recommend Zillow. I wrote a
Review on their website about a real estate "professional" who I had
Very negative interactions with - and zillow chose not to publish it without even telling me why. I came to the conclusion that Zillow really works for real estate pros and protects them because it is all one big real estate "brotherhood".
This "pro" has stellar reviews on Zillow (most likely written by
Himself) but every other website reviews show him just the opposite.
C'mon Zillow work fairly and honestly with both sides: realtors and
Consumers. It might go a long way towards cleaning up your own "C-"
Rating on the BBB site.

Also be very careful submitting reviews to Zillow - the following comes from Zillows rules and policies to realtors regarding on-line reviews:

QUOTE
"Will I know who has reviewed me?
When you receive an email notifying you of a review, you can see the username and profile of the person who has reviewed you, and, if provided, the address where the service was provided and the approximate sale price, if a home was bought and sold, as well as the year the transaction took place."

I listed a fully furnished 5 bedroom/5 bath home on Zillow, under the catagory "temporary/sublet", hoping to find a renter for any part of January 2021-April 2021. I was assured by Zillow marketing that if I "didn't receive at least one lead" from my ad, I would receive an additional week free.
Bizarrely, the ONLY "leads" I received were for a 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment on the other side of town, wholly unconnected to me in ANY way. I got multiple calls about that apartment asking for "Sharon", the landlord listing on the ad for that apartment, I guess. Clearly, Zillow made some sort of error and was directing those leads to me (I don't know if Sharon was getting my leads).
When I complained about this and asked for situation to be corrected AND to get my supposed free weeks-- I was told that "ANY " lead counts toward the guarantee! The fact that the leads were ALL FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S PROPERTY, didn't matter! This went on for 3 weeks, with the my listing auto renewed at $9.99 per week. I never received a single inquiry that was actually about my house. Total waste of $30.

The John Aguirre team is by far the BEST realtor team. They were so helpful and professional making this process a breeze.
Thank you so much.

The answer is a very clear NO! I signed up to be a Zillow Premier agent because of the continuous harassment of their sales guys. The calls just never stopped and eventually knowing I need more leads to provide to my agents I agreed to more than $2,000 a month. I made it very clear that I would not be the one fielding the calls and that they were to be routed to the agents on my team. Everything seemed great until they got my money and me to sign a contract. After that, no one cared anymore. It took them over two weeks to get my calls routed to my buyers agents. I had two weeks of missed opportunities because they didn't set things up right and they won't reimburse me for more than a half month of wasted leads. Again, I only signed up to provide more leads to my agents. I sell over 25 homes a year myself and 90% of those deals are online leads that I produce. I signed on with Zillow because I needed more leads for my the two new buyers agents, I couldn't handle anymore for myself. Zillow completely disappointed and they even admit to their mistake but wont compensate for it. Do not sign up with Zillow, they will take your money with zero accountability. They also compete against you in many ways. 1. They did not disclose that they actually cherry pick the best leads and buy or list those homes instead of giving the listings to their paying clients. 2. They leave under contract and sold properties on their website to generate more calls so that they can sell more zip code share to your direct competitors. They will tell you that your the last agent they can have in that zip code just so you sign up and months into your contract they will add 10 more agents reducing your leads significantly. Very deceptive! Trust me when i tell you this, I sell 90% of my homes from online leads and have been since 2005. Do not give Zillow any money, you will regret it!

We recently put our condo that we spent the last six months renovating up for sale by owner. We did all the work. We renovated, advertised, staged and cleaned the condo thoroughly.

We made the mistake of listing it on Zillow. We had two calls the first day from direct buyers without Agents. We showed the home. They seemed to love it. We were told by the property managers that we have the most desirable location in the community. The community is also very desirable. This is why we decided to purchase the condo in the first place.

We put in stone flooring, slate patio, new paint, carpet, custom cabinets, granite etc. etc. We wanted to price it fairly- and really looked into comps in that community. We have been told also that it is very fairly priced.

We noticed that after the first day, the calls stopped and realtors appeared on our listing with the possibility to contact them to get information on the property. We received over 15 calls a day for four days from only Realtors.

Then i notices that it says on OUR for sale by owner listing "want to appear as the agent for this listing?" call this number. I called Zillow pretending to be an interested person. They explained to me that it is a way for the REALTOR to get their name out there and to have the opportunity to get involved in OUR sale. SNEAKY AND PATHETIC.

I then saw reviews from other sellers who say that Zillow directs the questions and inquiries to Realtors who know nothing about the property and who then either try to get involved to make money off the poor seller or they say that the property is not for sale.

I hope that the brilliant mind who came up with this method of sticking it to the seller puts their own blood, sweat and tears into a project only to have some one completely scam them like Zillow did to us. BEWARE OF ZILLOW

Very poor quality pics for the listing. And didn't include the bathrooms. Amateurs and don't care. Zillow needs a competitor now!

My agent Miguel helped me a lot in buying my house. He was always on the lookout for my phone calls.

They're very dishonest. They change the price on you & reduce the number of leads.
I don't trust the sales people

Zillow is so far off on price estimates. They listed my house at 872K and it just sold for 1.05M. Makes you wonder why would anyone would use Zillow.

Hats off to Judy Pendarvis with edgefield realty. She has gone over beyond to help us. Great job... Carol Wade

Worst company to get a hold of. It's been 3 days and we've blown up every social media they have and promised a response and they still haven't gotten back to us. WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER.

My listing (stating to be patient--taking 72 hours to approve and post) has said this for about a MONTH now.
And no response.

I agree with all the comments on Zestimate and share the frustration expressed by owners advertising on this website. But there's another factor that nobody has mentioned: experience with local real estate agents.
Since Zillow and Trulia combined a few months ago, For Sale By Owner (FSBO) ads now appear on both websites. Owners are no longer asked whether they agree to pay the buyer's agent a 2%-3% commission. Instead, real estate agents can now advertise their services, thus giving buyers an opportunity to contact the owner directly or seek an agent's assistance.
Since this summer a trend has emerged. Some local real estate agents who do not advertise on Zillow or Trulia have approached me and offered to charge as little as 4% instead of the usual 5%-6%, if I let them list my property. This is a welcome change, but there is a catch. The 4% commission only applies if the broker himself or herself procures "a buyer who is ready, willing and able to purchase the property". If, however, another broker procures "a buyer who is ready, willing and able," the commission rises to 6% split equally between the two brokers. This is the Compensation clause found in the Exclusive Listing Agreement used in Florida.
Finally, sellers who use a real estate agent to represent them should also pay attention to the Conditional Termination clause which requires a seller to pay expenses incurred by the agency in marketing the property, if the agreement is terminated.
I continue to believe that the Zestimate should be removed but, given the recent changes in Zillow's website and the addition of Trulia, I am prepared to raise my rating to two stars.

Purchased Real Estate Agent Ads from Trulia through a phone sales rep. Zillow misrepresented the Ad service and failed to disclose planned changes.
I purchased Real Estate Agent Ads from Trulia on May 4,2015 based upon statistics the sales representative shared with be for the advertising area. I received leads (16-20 leads per month) for the are for the first 3 months of the 6 month term as the rep indicated.

After the second month using the Ad service, Zillow Group sent a notification that they were "integrating" the advertising platforms of Trulia and Zillow and that Advertisers would benefits from the changes. Once the change was complete, I was beginning my 4th month of the service and from months 4-6 received ZERO leads.

Zillow Group/Trulia blatantly misrepresented the advertising service they sold me over the phone. I repeatedly contacted the "newly assigned" sales rep who was very nice but told me that they don't have a means to cancel the term. When I expressed my dissatisfaction, he agreed to look up the number of "impressions" that were delivered in September and told me that the minimum threshold according to my agreement was not met, therefore they would refund that month of service. He informed me that he would contact the billing department and have a refund issued.

After 15 days of no communication, I sent an email to the rep and his supervisor to ask about the status of the refund. The supervisor replied that they will not issue refunds and they I can only stop payments when the end of the 6 month term is reached.

The Terms and Conditions were not reviewed with me at the sale. When purchasing the Ads the rep made no mention of the planned changes to the advertising platform, or what they called the "integration" which directly resulted in the LOSE of ALL LEADS being sent to me for the last 3 months of the 6 month term.

I didn't not physically or electronically sign a contract. The contract made was a verbal contract which the salesperson misrepresented in my opinion by not disclosing the upcoming changes. If these changes were disclosed I would have never made a verbal agreement to do business with an unknown advertising systems change.

You can't be honest in your review. I didn't curse or use foul language! I just used honesty but can't be honest on Zillow. I'm off to REDFIN!

When I signed up Zillow promised me I would appear at the top of each listing.
I pay almost $2k a month! 2 mos into the contract they changed their format. Taking that away, putting the listing agent of the property in place of where 4 agents to choose from were located.
Problem is 90% of these agents don't even pay for Zillow leads! So you can click on their name/company directly and never see my name why... it is now located somewhere at the bottom of the page where no one will ever scroll to, past so much junk about 2 feet down if you were to measure it.

The other "change" they made is some listings ONLY show the listing agent PERIOD! You will never show up, even at the bottom of the abyss.

I hold the number 1 spot in two towns and I won't come up on any listing in those towns unless I actually have the home for sale?! What's the point? Are you kidding me?

You are collecting $10,200.00 for absolutely NOTHING! No exposure what-so-ever!
You can try this "system change" all you want but, at the end of my contract, I will never re-sign with you. You are completely destroying my chance at the Spring Market and the extra leads I should be picking up right now.

The point of having the exposure is people are visual... they like to see several agents. They like to have the ability to choose between working with a male/female. They like to see their stars/reviews, click on them.
They like to have the ability to say "I think this is the ideal looking agent for me", "this is a professional looking agent" etc... Instead you are not giving me the ability to collect any additional clicks only phone calls that come through you, which was also NOT part of my contract.

You also do NOT screen your calls. I get calls from actual agents, buyers that are working with agents already and that already have contracts. So, it's certainly not to cut down on that seeing that you have no screening process what-so-ever. I am so angry with Zillow and it's representation.

You told me that it will only be for a few weeks as "you are getting many calls from other agents saying they aren't happy about the change either". Do yourself a favor and make the switch back NOW before you anger too many clients! Realtor.com is just a phone call away!

We live on a county reservoir that was built in 1989. Zillow is using a map that is so old, the lake isn't shown.

This is without a doubt the worst company I have ever seen as far as customer service and trying to get a resolution to a problem.

Zillow lacks transparency with its users and public, zillow games the people and thrives off of bad news.

I was looking for a home to rent and saw what that is listed as a 5 bedroom 4 bathroom home however it is only a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom property

They do list all homes on their site. They do not include Redfin homes. If you want to know what what really on the market, use another site.