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Originally Posted by NajdorfDefense
Yes, I think it's because the Seller only cares about net and selling your home is essentially an auction so it's critical to get not just as many eyeballs on it, but the right eyeballs.
True statement but as real estate marketing standardizes and centralizes so much, proprietary marketing efforts are a lot less common since everyone is looking in the same few places these days to find listings.
Example: I own (City)House.com and (City)Condo.com for a few cities. I occasionally lease them to realtors to use as marketing tools.
In the 00's and even 2010s, brokerages would lease them to use as platform marketing tools; they'd list their entire inventory of condos in (city) on (City)Condos.com, then use that URL in their digital and meatspace marketing campaigns. These days, the domains are leased on a month to month basis to be used as individual marketing tools for individual properties at the highest end (stuff deep into the 7 figures). Total shift in tactics; there's no point DIY'ing your own platform marketing, since Zillow and the MLS/Realtor.com have taken over that role, in addition to the realtor's own proprietary brand sites (Remax, whatever)
Zillow absolutely has potential to fill this role, if the broader transaction and closing ecosystem can evolve to match it. Companies like Doma are making a run at instant title processing (I've averaged my own long position down to have a cost basis around $2.2X), they're branching into home inspections.
If Zillow can get boots on the ground to handle showings, and partner with someone like Doma to handle closings and inspections, its possible to obsolete a lot of what realtors do and start charging lower commissions. The hurdle will be regulation ecosystem being rooted in the 1900s and the tons of people, including lawyers and legislators, who benefit from it protecting their turf because something-something "if you don't use us, everything will go wrong, we're here to protect you", etc, etc
ZG seriously mismanaged their homebuying efforts, but it was a peek behind the curtain of the direction they'd like to head; using proprietary data to identify rapidly rising RE markets, then take a position... then sell themselves for a higher price, capturing both commission and upside on the house itself.