If you’re thinking about selling on your own then you’re likely wondering how and where to list your home. While listing your home on your own or For Sale by Owner (FSBO) is great for saving money, it does require a lot of effort and knowledge. Therefore sellers ask a lot of questions. One of these questions is the head-scratch-inducing “Should I list my home on Zillow?”.
Zillow often is the most obvious answer. While a great company to entrust your beloved home with it is always a wise idea to look around for additional options.
How does my home appear on Zillow?
When you search for homes on Zillow, the map’s default view only shows you properties that are listed with an agent. As a result, buyers must select the “other listings” button in order to contact you. You can see an example in the image below.
From our experience with many such listings, most of the sellers do not know that their listing is placed in this area. If the seller doesn’t know about this separate section then it is doubtful that buyers would know either. So, what does this actually mean? The “other listings” button is considered secondary in the category of listings and receives less exposure. Less Exposure means fewer viewers and less viewers mean fewer potential buyers. So we ask the question again, should you list your home on Zillow? If you’re looking for exposure the answer is no.
This could be a challenge for the FSBO seller. But the internet is a broad space and home buyers like to go around and look before buying. There are a lot of other websites that home buyers visit to shop for homes.
Does Zillow Let Me List My Home for Free?
Zillow charges you nothing when creating a listing. When a buyer who does not have representation contacts you directly, then Zillow gets nothing. However, when Zillow connects a realtor and a customer Zillow charges the agent a fee.
This sounds about fair because you’re using Zillow’s service, but there are two things to note. First, when a buyer is represented the agent is expecting a buyer agent commission. Second, Zillow places an easily seen “Contact Agent” button near the top of the page which does not contain your contact information. This can be seen in the image below.
Additionally, in order for a potential buyer to find your details and contact you directly, they must scroll to the bottom of the “Overview” section. Therefore, it is far more likely that a customer will click on the “Contact Agent” button which will cost you a 2%-3% commission.
So we ask the question again, should you list your home on Zillow? If you’re looking to fully reduce commissions the answer is no.
Are there alternatives to Zillow?
Yes, there are alternatives to Zillow. In fact, there are a lot of alternatives to listing on Zillow. But here’s one that delivers about 400% more marketing exposure than a listing on Zillow alone.
Everhome syndicates your listing to thousands of other websites, therefore, expanding your listing’s exposure. Everhome also lists your home on Zillow but supercharges your exposure by listing your home in the “Agent listing” category on Zillow.
Not only that, Everhome’s team of Marketing Specialists, Seller Representatives, and Listing Coordinators work with you and list your home on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and syndicate your listing to Zillow®, Redfin®, Trulia®, Realtor.com® plus every local real estate brokerage and members of your local association of Realtors. Now that’s exposure!
FSBO is the go-to move for people who want to save money. But there’s a difference between people who want to save money and people who sell fast for top dollar, stress-free AND save money.
You read that right. Stress-free. Everhome eliminates the dozens of solicitation calls you might get from agents trying to convince you to list with them. With Everhome, you make one written offer of compensation to all agents and the only reason they need to call is to schedule a showing to see the house with a buyer.
The best part? With Everhome, your MLS listing is free as part of the Listed With Owner program.
Everhome’s Listed With Owner program offers massive exposure and full-service representation to home sellers for a low set fee. To learn more, call (805) 379-3300 for a free consultation.
Zillow® is a registered trademark of Zillow, Inc. Redfin® is a registered trademark of Redfin Corporation. Trulia® is a registered trademark of Trulia, LLC. realtor.com® is the official site of the National Association of REALTORS® and is operated by Move, Inc.
