New Widgets from Zillow
February 22nd, 2009Posted by Jim Reppond
Zillow has introduced new Home Values and the Mortgage Rate widgets. These are very cool and useful for agents and mortgage brokers and add a great feature to their sites. (see Seattle Home Values widget on the right sidebar of this blog)
They have a very savvy co-branding feature option that allows agents to have their Zillow profile information displayed at the top of the re-directed pages if people click on the integrated Zillow link. This gives viewers an easy way to navigate back to your site when they are done with looking at home evaluations. I think this is brilliant and addresses agents concerns that we are going to loose potential clients if they click off our site.
I’ve decided not to implement the Mortgage Rate widget at this time because I’m worried people might think I support the Mortgage Marketplace function that it links back to. I’m uncomfortable with a business model that directs any of my clients to make a loan request with anyone other than the lender I use and prefer (Dani McDonough at Metlife Home Loans).I’m sure they have some good mortgage professionals there. But I never recommend someone for something as serious as a mortgage unless I know them or have experience with them.That being said, these are very neat tools and I am grateful for them. I think people are curious about home values and want easy access information . Zillow offers this up in a clear and accurate way.
Cool features in Zillow Home Values Widget
5 Comments Add your own
1. Lou Lynch | February 24th, 2009 at 11:23 am
I have to agree with you on your point about the mortgage widget and have heard this from other real estate agents. If there were a rate widget that would display your preferred lender’s rates and info, do you think your lender would take the time to update it?
2. Thank You For Your Feedba&hellip | February 24th, 2009 at 11:25 am
[…] Thanks for the feedback, Jim. We have some exciting innovations to our home values pages in the works that I think you’ll really like. Stay tuned. […]
3. Jim Reppond | February 24th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Thanks for the comment and re-blog, Drew! I’m excited to see what you come up with.
Lou - I think the rate widget needs to be automated. Preferably as close to real-time as possible.
4. Kristal Kraft | February 25th, 2009 at 4:48 am
Years ago I used a mortgage rate widget and they scrapped email addresses of the visitor to send spam. When I learned what was happening, I got rid of them.
I don’t know if that is the case with this one, but to me it’s not worth the risk!
kk
5. Jim Reppond | February 25th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Gee Kristal,
You bring up a good point. Maybe Zillow could clarify their TOS (terms of service) and privacy policy.
But the reality is, that private information isn’t really safe with anybody. You have to weigh the value against the risk.
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