Has anybody used Zillow Premier Agent? Are the leads worth it?

[Hemanth Grandhige]

I quit my job a year ago and spent the last year flipping and building my rental portfolio.  I can't say I'm upset with the way things have gone but I need a steady income to keep everything moving forward.  I got my real estate license and just parked it as an assistant under my mentor. (She is an agent with ReMax.)  I'm thinking of pulling it out, dusting it off, and getting some listings.  

I have been contacted multiple times by Zillow to sign up as a premier agent.  The cost isn't terrible, a couple hundred a month at the most.  They claim the leads increase 44x that of just listing yourself on their website.  

Does anybody have any experience using Zillow Premier agent?  If so I'd appreciate any insight you can provide regarding getting the most from the service.

Thanks,

Hemanth

[Dan Allen]

people and brokers do not understand that Zillow is an advertising company NOT a real estate company . they corner the advertisement market by buying all there competition :                                  Trulia , Streeteasy , Hot pads , Naked apartments all owned by Zillow  it is worthless .

[Ryan Healey]

I wish I could find a newer thread on this topic.

I am a newer agent and two agents in my office who saw how much prospecting I was doing with expired and FSBO listings (and who I have gotten to know and trust) told me "Call Zillow!". I ignored it the first 10 times until I saw the number of expired and FSBOs appointments I was getting was barely anything no matter what I tried.

They both had (at one time) bought a zip close to my home that Zillow only charges a couple hundred a month for. One said his mistake was buying a cluster of zips when he started that cost him over $1,000 a month when this ONE zip got him well over a dozen closings. He eventually stopped ALL of it because he was established and had blown so much on the pricier zips he couldn't do anything more with them.

Another agent who has been mentoring me and been wonderful still uses Zillow. She keeps one zip near her (she used to have the same one near me too) and she says "Are you crazy, I have 8 buyers under contract from Zillow on top of my other business."

So two weeks ago I bought this zip from Zillow. They have once again changes how they sell so I ended up paying $300/month for the one zip both agents recommended. I have a 135% "share of voice" and it claims my monthly estimated leads will be 24. In fact, I was told the minimum number of leads I could buy in any one zip was 20. She added a "bonus" that took it to 24.

I need more time as it's only been three weeks but I have had THREE leads and one was a "mistake". It was a buyer who came to an open house of another agent, the open was not happening and he was messaging asking why. Zillow contacted him and directed him to the listing agent from what I see in the app.

So, I am with Zillow for 6 months. I realize we just had a holiday but I expect somewhere near the leads I was promised and that show on my account. No, I'm not paying a fortune and they were two zips that they offered to sell me for less but they were 20 minutes away.  

I am scratching my head as to why when I go to that city I am not listed on top (below the listing agent) with that share of voice but I'm the only other agent that is ALWAYS shown when you refresh. All the others leave and come back. I guess I need to give it time but I'm doing this on the recommendation of two really good agents so PLEASE! 

[Michelle Elsaid]

Zillow is a good place for leads and you can request to not be put in a 6 month contract

[Eva Kamal]

For those who’ve had no problems with ZILLOW (yet) I have news. I was a premier agent for a good while, under contract, got enough leads that I had to sometimes switch my phone off! Needless, the leads NEVER panned out. I get a call that now the minimum payment needs to be at $500 and I won’t get any exposure at the amount I was at. I agreed to the prorated amount to get to the $500. The $96 never came out of my account, the leads stopped COMPLETELY. My exposure was zero. I thought my account was closed for not meeting the “Minimum requirement”. When I emailed, I got a one liner answer “we’re waiting till it's your billing cycle to make the change” In the meantime, no exposure, no leads. Not one call that I used to switch my phone off to I STILL got charged my usual come billing cycle. EVERY MONTH THEN ONWARDS! When I called I was told my manager was on vacation for 2 months!?!?!? Guess what? Still fighting that battle. It’s been almost 3 months now. Think twice!

[Mike Cosmah]

I have found that coming in to the market at a different angle with Loan Officer Leads is much more profitable. Unfortunately, I know that's not going to work for independent agents or those who don't have a loan officer that works directly for their team.

But for offices that do, here is the difference in the numbers, their HUGE! (Also props to the gentleman who was able to show how Zillow leads were not working by showing actual numbers in an earlier reply!)

 Zillow average ROI is $2.60 for every dollar invested. That's 260% ROI

*Depending on your area's market* They are costing $20-$75 CPM (cost per one thousand views on "your" ads)

Loan Officer Leads

Average ROI is $8.00 for every dollar invested. That's 800% ROI

Costing on average $11.20 CPM (per one thousand views)

Plus you own these leads and your not getting all the crap that comes with Zillow, Trulia, RedFin, etc:

• Inaccurate listing information that misinforms leads
• After you work your *** off to get a good listing. You get surpassed by other agents on YOUR OWN LISTING because they paid Zillow to be a "Premier Zillow Agent" - whatever that is..
• Using your proprietary listing materials (pictures which you've paid for) for free on their website, then charge YOU a fee for being a "Premier Agent" on your own listing! Or even worse - giving it away to someone else!

LO leads are WAY more profitable for sure.

[Doug Drake]

Thanks everyone for sharing your Zillow Premier Agent results. There are lots of mixed results here. Some people are saying that they are only closing 0.5% - 1% of leads through the service.  That is shockingly low.  It's hard to believe that it is all due to the quality of the leads when others are closing >8% leads through the same service.  It could be your location or sales methods, too.

One poster said that about 80% of the leads are worthless.  I see that as 20% of the leads are good quality and they should close at least 10% of those. That is a pretty effective marketing program.

[Account Closed]

NO!  Complete waste of money and time- just cancelled recently.  I did it hearing about an 11% conversion, but I got calls on people wanting to buy old mobile homes in parks for $25k than anything.  We aren't even licensed to sell those!

[Account Closed]

@ryanhealy you can't have more than 100% share of voice in any zip.  Maybe you meant 35%?

[Sean Proctor]

I have been advertising with Zillow as a premier agent for 5 months now, and I can tell you that it is 100% a scam. I needed a new place to allocate some advertising dollars and decided to give Zillow a try. The sales rep, Lindsay Caldwell, told me the number of leads per zip I would receive (43) for the spend I was willing to do ($3,000 a month). Zillow makes you sign a 6 month contract, and I was a bit hesitant to commit to $18,000 for 6 months worth of advertising. Over the first few months I realized that I made a terrible mistake. I would say 90% of the leads are absolutely worthless. I have had one guy contact me through Zillow and ask what the number was for Zillow's customer service. Are you kidding me? That counts as a one of my leads. Just yesterday I had a lady who barely spoke a lick of English call and ask what was going on with this particular property. After a few questions I was able to ascertain that she wrote up an offer on this property and wanted to know what happened!!! Instead of calling the agent who wrote up the offer she submitted an inquiry on Zillow. What do you know, that counts as a lead against me. To top it all off the 43 leads I was sold on has now dwindled to 23 in month #5. Each month they sell more advertising so the number of leads per share goes down, but the amount they charge me does not go down relatively. It is borderline criminal. It is a SCAM. I asked my marketing rep, Jeff Wallace, to see if he can cancel my last month. Of course he could not. Ha, what was I thinking. They do not want to lose out on screwing me for that last $3,000. In closing, I want to get the word out to everyone in the business so maybe I can save someone else from getting scammed. Learn from my mistake, DO NOT ADVERTISE ON ZILLOW.

[Mike King]

Zillow Premier Agent is a joke don’t waste your time or money. You may get leads but they aren’t serious buyers. Most of them already have an agent and the rest aren’t serious buyers who change their mind the second you try to follow up with them. I’ve also noticed that I get calls in my zip code for the same lower cost homes. It’s almost like that’s the only homes displayed online on Zillow. There are many higher price homes in my zip code but I think those calls are going to more seasoned agents that have been on Zillow longer.

[Kimberly Martin]

@mariah huff - what do you mean by shoot video?

[Steve Bracero]

Interesting read.. I have never purchased zillow leads or buying leads of some sort.

I think it would be extremely difficult to be successful with working with zillow. 

I know a few agents who split with a lender and have decent results. 

Zillow does a great job prospecting for premier agents I must say. Their reps are relentless and follow up non stop 

[Monica Breckenridge]

@Hemanth Grandhige yes it works great. I used to pay $10k a month on zillow. It even comes with a crm that is free for you to use. It is expensive. If you buy zip codes the lead is going to 3 other agents. If you buy a zip code you need an ISA, basically somebody to answer the phone immediately when a lead comes in.