2 Web Sites Push Further Into Services Real Estate Agents Offer
Two real estate Web sites are starting to offer services that could change the way real estate is bought and sold online. — One site, Zillow.com, which will be introduced today, will help consumers obtain …
Context & Ripple Effects
Zillow.com goes live today with a pitch aimed squarely at functions real estate agents have historically owned: helping consumers price, buy, and sell homes online. The New York Times frames it as one of two sites making the same move on the same day, and the story traveled unusually widely for a launch item — SiliconBeat covered it as an addition to a booming real estate space, while CNET News.com led with the consumer question the site answers directly.
There is no earlier arc in the record to hang this on; this is the founding beat itself. What makes it notable is who the displaced party is: per the reporting, these are services traditionally offered by real estate agents, now being productized by web startups rather than brokerages.
First-order effects
- Consumers gain direct online access to home-valuation and transaction-support services, weakening the information advantage agents have charged for.
- Zillow and its unnamed counterpart immediately compete for the same audience as established brokerages and early property portals, with the press attention concentrated on Zillow as the brand to watch.
Second-order effects
- Incumbent real estate portals and brokerage sites are pushed to match the consumer-data features rather than cede the top-of-funnel, since whoever owns the valuation lookup owns the lead.
- Agents' economics come under pressure as lead generation migrates to the platforms — the services being unbundled online were previously bundled into commission-based representation.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, residential real estate consolidates around consumer-facing platforms that control the data and the customer relationship, with agents repositioned as service providers downstream of the portal rather than gatekeepers of information.
The trend: Residential real estate is shifting from agent-controlled information to web platforms that unbundle valuation, search, and transaction services for consumers.