Is Zillow Premier Agent worth it?

Question

Hello BP,

I know everyone here has strong opinions on Zillow. But I know 3 People who bought a house in the last few years, all three of them found their agents on Zillow. I have heard a lot of people, on this forum and in person, say "Zillow leads are garbage." I suppose they would mostly be buyer leads.

On top of that if I wanted to get in to one of my preferred zip codes it would cost a ton of money. Even if I wanted to get in to the "Next Best" zip codes it would cost most of my marketing budget. If I wanted to do it and not blow my budget I would have to go out in to a sparsely populated rural area.

In short; For a new agent, is Zillow Premier Agent worth it?

Chang Hee Lee · Answer

Hey Chris,

Personally, no. I think I was reading in "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" by Gary Keller about mind share and how consumers only have "enough" memory to think of just two or three agents at any given time. In order to access this coveted spot in peoples' minds, you have to be memorable and how do you do that? You door knock, you call people, you talk to people at the grocery store, send postcards, etc. Zillow has always been one of those "too good to be true" for me in terms of lead generation because if it were that easy, why are over 90% of agents still failing within 1-2 years of starting? It's because those at the top are taking up the majority of the mind share (analogous to market share for any business) and although these agents might be on Zillow too, they've already established themselves through the methods mentioned above. It's like asking someone if you need a gym membership to get fit and the answer is absolutely not. Just put on some running shoes and go for a jog to the nearby park, do some pull-ups on the monkey bars, and heck go talk with some people there while you're at it.

If you can't be a realtor through these methods of marketing/advertising, then it doesn't matter if you have Premier or not. Just my two cents, good luck!

-Chang

Sean Proctor · Answer

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.

Alsee Mccray · Answer

The first time I got Zillow I paid $1300 a month and  got about 5 leads a day, closed about 1 buyer a month . not really a good return on my money but hey i stey out of the red. But this year I tried them for 2 months a $1700 a month and got diddly squat as far as closing the leads were total garbage. I went to the site to cancel, and they still took the money out of my account. they said i didnt follow through with the process, that i had to ctually go into my cart and cancel. so now i have to call my bank. zillow is a rip off.

Annette Hibbler · Answer

I did give it a try early last year. Quite frankly, unless you have the mega funds to compete with the heavy hitters on the Zillow Premier program, don't bother. I was told I'd receive 3-5 Zillow leads per month. The first month I got two leads that turned out to be dead leads. The second month I got two rental leads (I don't work in the rental market because I'm a landlord myself). Month 3 I received no leads at all. I canceled shortly after since the results did not justify the cost.

Is Zillow Premier Agent worth it?

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