Zillow has unveiled an “Owner Dashboard” that offers homesellers a clear window into how their listing is engaging people online — and what they can do to grab the interest of more buyers.
The tool will help consumers have “a more informed conversation with their real estate agent about their home’s marketability,” the listing portal said in a statement.
The “Owner Dashboard” is the latest tool unveiled by Zillow that could fuel adoption of its agent app, which is available to all agents — both agents who advertise on Zillow and agents who don’t. It provides a constant reminder to users that adding a walkthrough video, which boost a listing’s placement in listing search results, will enhance a listing’s exposure on the site.
The only way to produce a walkthrough video is to use Zillow’s consumer app or agent app, meaning agents with clients who take Zillow’s recommendations to heart would have to download the app if a client requested that they shoot a video and they chose to fulfill that request.
Zillow’s ‘Owner Dashboard.’
Homeowner interface
Homeowners can access “Owner Dashboard” by clicking on the “Owner Dashboard” tab that now appears on listing pages. It looks like anyone can view the dashboard if the listing hasn’t been claimed, but only visitors who select the correct name of a home’s owner to claim a listing can then edit listing information.
The dashboard will also advise homeowners that adding more home facts and photos to their listings could enhance a listing’s appeal. This could give a bit of a lift to the accuracy of Zestimates in the long run: the automated home valuations update when owners edit home facts.
Users can also see how a listing is performing compared to similar listings and where it shows up in search results when Zillow users search for listings that match its property characteristics, encouraging users to take a scientific approach to elevating their listing’s visibility.
Other tools in the dashboard
Two tools that Zillow recently rolled out are also nestled into the dashboard: Price Your Home, a home valuation tool that lets users choose which comparable homes to use to generate an estimate, and Best Time to List, which estimates how much the timing of when a property is listed will influence its sales price. Both those tools can generate seller leads for agents who pay for exposure on Zillow.
Users will also be able to put around on Zillow’s new Sale Proceeds Calculator, which calculates the net profit of a home’s sale.
“Owner Dashboard empowers sellers by allowing them to monitor, in real time, how their listing is stacking up against the competition,” said Jeremy Wacksman, Zillow chief marketing officer, in a statement. “And it enables them to have a more informed conversation with their agent about different ways to make sure their listing stands out.”
The Zillow “Premier Agent” app is designed to inspire agents to buy more ads from the listing portal by making it easier to manage leads, Zillow and Trulia profiles and listings. Zillow recently beefed up the app by layering in a lead-routing system that could be particularly useful to agent teams.
The listing portal has said that it could later stitch the transaction management system dotloop into its agent app, but said the company would be very careful not to make the app too complicated.
The listing portal introduced a big incentive to download its agent app when the site recently rolled out the ability to upload walkthrough videos to listings.
That’s because adding the video to a listing boosts its appearance in listing search results — promotion that was previously awarded to agents who advertised with the site, but no longer is — and the only way to shoot a video is to download a Zillow app.
Zillow’s owner dashboard resembled a leaner version of the “Home Dashboard” dashboard that Redfin offers to consumers. Clients who use the tool see not only analytics but also what their agent is doing and what the next steps are in the selling process.
Add these features to your existing marketing strategies to compound your content marketing and other efforts.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that Zillow’s agent app is available to all agents, both agents who advertise on Zillow and agents who don’t.
