<div dir="ltr"><div><br></div>I'm clueless about all this, but what you are saying sounds right, and I think having more information, and a far less costly process is always good. A few times I saw a house for sale I was interested in checking out on Zillow. I was happy to see the option to take, if you wanted to see the house. I assumed this would put me in touch with the listing agent. I was very upset when I finally realized Zillow was matching me up with an agent for me, who would then contact the listing agent on my behalf, of course then expecting an additional cut of any resulting deal. I guess that is the way Zillow makes money? They get some sort of commission? Now I know better. You need to look up and contact the listing agent, on your own.<div><br><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Oct 1, 2022 at 12:52 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg8532313292477083113"><div lang="EN-US" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="m_8532313292477083113WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Perhaps someone here who knows from real estate can comment.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">We have seen how Amazon.com revolutionized retailing. The job changed dramatically when anyone can browse the web, find a deal, order or go locally and buy. The consumer was handed control over a process the retailers once mostly controlled.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Consider real estate. With the arrival of Zillow.com, now the consumer can look around at what is available, what has sold for how much and when, all very easily. Previous to Zillow, the real estate agent was paid for facilitating a deal, so the agent was at an advantage by controlling information carefully. Now the consumer is empowered by having access to a lot of useful information. Real estate agents uniformly despise Zillow, for it has taken much of the profit out of the business (they are forced to charge a smaller commission on what is a now a much smaller job) while simultaneously in a sense making the job more difficult. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Facilitating a deal when both parties control more information is more difficult in a way, for it takes away the agent’s advantage over both the buyer and seller. The job itself is smaller for it requires less driving clients around to show them properties they can discover on their own are unsuitable. So it pays less while becoming harder. So… real estate agents hate Zillow.com.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Do we have real estate hipsters among us who wish to comment?<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">spike<u></u><u></u></p></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>
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