Why Online Realtor Services Can Never Replace a Real Estate Agent
ADAM BONEWITZ - REALTOR®
Being a Real Estate Agent is a full-time job! Most Agents focus on individual markets because each market is unique, and to adequately serve our customers, it takes local knowledge. So how can online real estate services be of any use to a consumer?
Let’s look at Zillow.com. Zillow is a major all-in-one Real Estate website. Their Zestimate pricing tool gives the “market value” for a home. Zillow claims their Zestimate will be within 5% of a home's sales price 80% of the time. In Manhattan, our average residential sale price in 2021 was $253,172. So, 80% of the time, the Zestimate will be between $240,513 - $265,830 (a range of more than $25,000)! Twenty percent of the time, Zillow’s Zestimate will have an even greater range and be even less accurate. Based on their local knowledge, a Realtor will be able to identify the market price with much greater accuracy. In 2021, The Alms Group Realtors priced homes with 99.82% accuracy: a range of only $900 vs. Zillow’s range of $25,000.
In addition, much of a Real Estate Agent’s job is to help with negotiations and navigate the gray area of a transaction – which is something that neither a robot nor somebody sitting in a corporate office on the West Coast can help do. Human intuition (i.e., experience) and local knowledge are something that only a real estate sales agent can offer. Every individual market has different mindsets, ways of doing things, and strategies for negotiation that work better than others. No online resource could ever fully integrate those considerations into their website’s calculations and features.
So, the next time you see one of these discount online services, keep in mind that the cheapest price oftentimes does not provide the best value.
