Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

'My Agent' feature changes display rules for buyer's agents who make lead connections Zillow Group announced several new updates to its Premier Agent app that will become available in 2018, the biggest of which is a feature called My Agent that aims to allow real estate pros to more easily build relationships with buyer leads from Zillow and Trulia. “Once buyers connect with you through Zillow Group and continue to visit our sites and apps to browse for homes, there is a risk they might contact other agents who appear on a listing,” wrote Zillow Group Chief Business Officer Greg Schwartz in a blog post. “Today this changes.” Through My Agent, agents can connect with buyers through an invitation sent via the Premier Agent app. If the buyer accepts the invite, the agent becomes the exclusive advertised buyer’s agent on for-sale home listings in that agent’s advertising region. (Home shoppers will still see the home’s listing agent appear next to the property.) Through this feature agents will also be able to see a buyer clients’ online search history on Zillow and Trulia to collect what Zillow has dubbed “Client Insights,” and receive buyer inquiries about the home or requests for a home tour. As leads come in from Zillow Groups portals, Premier Agent’s Concierge Service already asks whether they are interested in buying or selling, and whether they are working with an agent. Starting in 2018, if Concierge successfully connects the lead with an agent, that agent automatically becomes the buyer’s agent on for-sale listings as well. Concierge is offered free to agents who meet the minimum spending amounts with Zillow Group. The minimum spending amounts vary based on region and promotions. As of early 2017, Concierge was offered to 15 percent of Zillow’s 150,000 active Premier Agents. Zillow Group is also adding to Premier Agent the ability to send text and emails within the app and — available now — the ability to set up tasks and reminders. Finally, as announced earlier this month, Zillow will be rolling out its 3-D Home capture app in 2018 for 3-D tour creation and placement on Zillow and Trulia listings. It remains to be seen whether the company will support 3-D tours provided from third-party software like Matterport, GeoCV, NCTech and Realvision. Zillow Group currently separates itself from these other providers in the file format. Specifically, Zillow 3D Home captures panoramic photographs as JPEGs, then stitches them together to create the tour. Most 3-D files from aforementioned services are OBJ format. (The latter is much larger and editable in programs like Maya, Dimension, or Adobe Fuse.) This format is what creates the “dollhouse effect” for tours. Once the tech becomes available, Zillow app-made 3-D tours will be visible while third party 3-D tours can be linked on the “Home Details” page. Search results in Zillow will give preferred sort order to 3-D listings, and an icon for 3-D tours will alert buyers searching specifically for tours.