Zillow, Yahoo Real Estate form ad alliance
Zillow to manage for-sale listings
By Matt Carter, Thursday, July 8, 2010.Yahoo Real Estate and Zillow have entered into a partnership that will place targeted ads that real estate agents and brokers purchase from Zillow in property search results on both sites.
In addition to bringing Zillow's "Premier Agent" advertising program to Yahoo Real Estate, the agreement calls for Zillow to manage a common set of for-sale listings for both sites.
While Zillow will serve as the exclusive provider of for-sale property listings information at Yahoo Real Estate, Yahoo will continue to control the look and display of for-sale listings at its site, and will maintain separate databases of foreclosure properties, newly constructed homes, and rentals.
Executives with the companies -- the second- and third-most trafficked real estate sites on the Web -- said the partnership will allow them to claim a greater combined audience for advertisers than the top-ranked site, Realtor.com.
According to the latest report from Experian Hitwise, Realtor.com had a 5.73 percent market share in the real estate category in June, followed by Yahoo Real Estate with 4.55 percent and Zillow with 3.75 percent.
Once the partnership is fully implemented this fall, "It effectively doubles our exposure, and our ability to put advertisers in front of consumers," said Spencer Rascoff, Zillow's chief operating officer.
There's only about a 10 percent overlap between visitors to Zillow and Yahoo Real Estate, Rascoff said, and the companies are "quite confident" that together they will be seen by advertisers as having a greater reach than Realtor.com.
Because listings and advertisements have become so closely intertwined, it makes practical sense for Zillow to also handle for-sale listings feeds, said Steve Schultz, head of Yahoo Real Estate.
"The listing is, in many cases, part of the ad product, so it's very difficult to separate out the discussion," Schultz said. "It's important for clarity for the agent or broker to have one phone number to call to work out issues with their free listing or enhanced listing."
Zillow offers brokers and agents the ability to purchase "featured listings" that, by default, appear at the top of consumers' property search results ahead of other properties meeting their search criteria. Zillow also allows agents and brokers to buy "showcase ads" in desired ZIP codes.
The partnership calls for listings sent to Zillow to automatically appear on Yahoo Real Estate, which means one less feed to manage for brokers currently sending listings to both sites.
Although Yahoo Real Estate may currently be getting listings from sources that don't send feeds to Zillow, "In total we're going to gain -- we expect to lose very little, if any" listings, Schultz said.
It's not the first time Yahoo has partnered with another real estate company to provide for-sale property listings content. Yahoo and Prudential Real Estate entered into an exclusive agreement in 2004 for Prudential to provide for-sale listings information, and that arrangement came to a close in 2008.
Since then, Yahoo Real Estate has built up a database of more than 3 million for-sale listings, but generally doesn't accept feeds from sources submitting less than 5,000 properties.
"I think where Zillow has the advantage is addressing the longer-tail listings, such as the small broker or individual agent submitting listings," Schultz said.
Zillow accepts feeds of 50 or more listings from brokers, multiple listing services and vendors at no charge.
Rascoff said current Zillow advertisers will be offered the first chance to purchase Premier Agent placement on Yahoo Real Estate, at an additional fee.
Once the partnership has been fully implemented, all showcase ads and featured listings ads purchased through Zillow will automatically appear on both Zillow and Yahoo Real Estate.
Rascoff said that because they will be getting more exposure, those ads will cost more than they do now. Pricing has not been determined and will vary by ZIP code, as is the case now, he said.
Homeowners will have the ability to purchase "for sale by owner" listings and have them appear on both sites.
Zillow and Yahoo also said they expect to work together to sell display advertising on Yahoo Real Estate to new homebuilders, real estate agents and brokers.
Brian Boero, whose firm, 1000Watt Consulting, advises real estate companies on online marketing, said the partnership clearly offers benefits to both companies, but "I don't see this as fundamentally changing the landscape of online real estate."
While Yahoo Real Estate has "always had a tremendous amount of traffic, they really didn't have the domain expertise, or the team on the sales or advertising product side to really dig deep into the real estate category," Boero said.
"Yahoo Real Estate is operated by a very small team, and they probably needed some help monetizing that property."
For its part, Zillow "gets to make the claim of reach -- if you buy with us, you're going to get a combined audience that is larger than Realtor.com," Boero said.
But Realtor.com can still claim the most comprehensive and up-to-date listings database on the Internet, he said, and the quality of traffic a site attracts is also important to advertisers.
Boero said that as always, the key for brokers and agents deciding where to spend their advertising dollars is metrics.
"I think the only way a broker or agent can determine whether it makes sense for them to advertise on Trulia, Zillow, Yahoo Real Estate, Realtor.com, or any combination thereof is to measure" the business that advertising generates Boero said.
Unfortunately, "most brokers are still feeling around in the dark as far as measuring the effectiveness of online advertising -- you can track clicks, lead-generated phone calls, it's all trackable -- but most don't take the time or dedicate the resources needed to do that."
| Contact Matt Carter: | |||
 E-mail |  Letter to the Editor | ||
All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
You must login or register to post a comment.
Submitted by Kevin Lisota on July 8, 2010 - 11:09pm.
Interesting partnership that should have benefits for agents advertising with Zillow. It should also increase conversion on Yahoo, which is virtually non-existent at the moment.
Does Trulia have a response lined up for next week at Inman?
Submitted by John Burchardt on July 9, 2010 - 8:20am.
I keep remembering my conversation with Spencer Rascoff before the "official" Zillow launch who emphatically stated that they would have no need to provide listings...I told you so.
John Burchardt
LocalHomesForSale.com
Submitted by Matt Carter on July 9, 2010 - 9:16am.
Here's the official press release.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yahoo-real-estate-and-zillowcom-team-up-to-create-powerful-real-estate-advertising-network-98100404.html
Also, Drew Meyers, former Zillow business development specialist, weighs in on "What the Zillow-Yahoo! Real Estate Deal Means to the Real Estate Industry" on Geek Estate Blog.
http://www.geekestateblog.com/what-the-zillow-yre-deal-means-to-the-real-estate-industry/
"The fact that YRE!’s listing will be powered by Zillow is a nice win meaning that agents and brokers will have one less place to syndicate to, but the real news here is the creation of the Zillow-YRE Ad Network. In short, it means more money for Zillow and Yahoo! Real Estate and less money for Realtor.com."
Meyers concedes that while he no longer works for Zillow he is "obviously biased on this issue" -- as a stockholder he says he's "certainly thrilled this deal ... got completed."
"As for Realtor.com, I hope they have a few massive innovations or strategic deals up their sleeve or else it’s going to be a rocky road ahead for their sales team," Meyers concludes. "I’m guessing there will be a fair amount of chatter about this deal at Inman next week…"
Writing for TechCrunch, Leena Rao says the deal "feels like deja vu of two months ago, when Yahoo announced that it was outsourcing personals to Match.com. Yahoo also outsources job listings to Monster, after it sold HotJobs to the job listing service for $225 million."
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/08/yahoo-outsources-for-sale-real-estate-listings-to-zillow/
Submitted by Victor Lund on July 9, 2010 - 9:55am.
My Rant -
WAV Group has been pretty outspoken about third party listing websites. They exist because brokers, MLSs, and Associations have not elevated their thinking about listing syndication. I think that it is time for CMLS, NAR, Realty Alliance, or some mutual benefit organization to step up and harness listing distribution and revenues from listing distribution to return revenue to its rightful owner - the brokers.
Here are the problems
1. Data that appears on third party listing websites is grossly inaccurate - as high as 40% in some markets. Inaccurate data leads to bad leads, irritated home buyers and sellers, and throws egg on the agents and brokers face.
2. Third party listing websites are deriving significant revenue and (moreover) consumer trust on the backs of broker listings. Without the broker’s listing, they would not have a website.
3. Terms of Use for third party listing websites extend too many rights. In most cases, the third party listing website has the right to reuse, repurpose, and re-syndicate the listing information in any way they wish.
NAR’s partnership with MOVE is not without its critics, but 14 Million people surf listings that website every month - and that website has accurate data, shares revenues with NAR, and has Terms of Use that protect the broker and the agent with display rules and strict non-redistribution rules.
Today, the number 2 third party listing website and the number 3 third party listing website have teamed up to share listings and revenues - Yahoo and Zillow. In ComCast math, their combined traffic equates to 13.19 Million Visitors.
Did any broker or MLS that provides listings to those companies get asked first? Are they sharing revenues with MLSs and Brokers? Where else does the data go, and who else is buying it?
Don’t get me wrong, I like the people and the products offered by Zillow and Yahoo - and I know that they are good companies for agents and brokers to do business with. My concern is the terms of those business relationships.
Strategically, WAV Group has been supportive of using MLS consumer facing websites to battle against third party listing aggregators. They usually win local traffic wars and become the most visited local area property search website with little effort. Consumers know that the MLS has the most comprehensive and accurate data. All advertising revenues and consumer inquiries are distributed back to the MLS and Broker.
I am sure that greater minds will also conjure up solutions - and I hope they will.
Victor Lund
Partner
WAV Group
http://waves.wavgroup.com
http://www.wavgroup.com
Submitted by Lawrence Vecchio on July 11, 2010 - 6:34pm.
great post victor
Larry Vecchio
HomesinYourTown.com
Submitted by Sal Antsipenka on July 12, 2010 - 7:30am.
I completely agree with Victor Lund. Sites with hundreds of thousands of listings are not only bulky, but very inconvenient to use and hard to base a decision upon. Local realtor site SEO will bring whole lot more good leads than using portals.
Sal Antsipenka
Independent Brokers Realty
Naples, Florida
http://www.naplesrealestateseller.com
International Real Estate Buyer Leads
http://www.realestatefair.net
Submitted by AL TOMMASO on July 16, 2010 - 7:06am.
It seems to me, Yahoo is in for a rude awakening...Zillow has their "ZESTIMATE" of values, which really has nothing to do with VALUATIONS (need to be a CERTIFIED or LICENSED APPRAISER by law to give valuations)...their "ZESTIMATES" are only an averaging of sold prices within a zip code, and has nothing to do with REALITY...Square footage is way off, no mention of "functional or external obsolescences" nor any mention of condition and/or locational factors (truly a waste of time)....In 100% of the times a potential purchaser utilized that site and then offered that ZESTIMATE PRICE as an offer (yes, I am a NYS Broker & Appraiser), it was ludicrous to offer that crazy estimate...the SELLERS get insulted (you lose them as clients), the BUyERS think they can offer $525,000 for a home worth $700,000, and ultimately, you just wasted valuable time, energy and gasoline in this market. Now, whenever a buyer indicates they saw a home for sale on ZILLOW, I tell them to go directly to the owner with their offer ( IE: two homes located adjacent to one another in zip code 11766...one was offered at $700,000 (with 4200 SF) with a "Zestimate of $475-525,000"...the other (a handy man special w/2800 SF) actually SOLD for $360,000 with a "ZESTIMATE for $910,000...GO FIGURE! YAHOO, you really shoulda thought of another business model (just ask any APPRAISER or REALTOR, instead of corporate sales-people...Good luck.