Zillow headlines have flooded the news as November opens. I have a personal statement about it in the second section of this note. First, I must announce the release of the television reality show that captures my team joining reality star Kendra Wilkinson as she becomes a real estate agent, learning from us all the initial lessons of a rookie agent in Beverly Hills.
The title is Kendra Sells Hollywood, and even though we are based in Beverly Hills, it is quite true that she can sell from Hollywood to Malibu or Tarzana to Pasadena. From Beverly Hills an agent can radiate outward to the entire LA metroplex. That does not work in reverse as I learned when I moved here from NYC. Although Kendra learns many lessons, I certainly learned some as well with a camera crew “living” with us for many weeks. It will all be on streaming display when you tune to Discovery+ on November 17th. I’ll see you there.
Back to Zillow. Finally, we get the written acknowledgement from the Zillow execs that their famous Zestimate is not accurate, and never was. Zestimate was the value estimate for every home in the US -- and literally everyone who had the app on their phone used the estimate to claim their home value. Only if it was more than they thought, of course. When the Zestimate was below what they expected, they decided “something must be wrong”. Well now you have it from Zillow -- yes, it was wrong. Agents already knew this, but of course we sounded very defensive when we tried to explain that home value is not a robotic function of square footage and location. Value is complex! An experienced agent or an appraiser knows how to value your property, but a mobile phone app simply cannot. We still work with Zillow and will keep our eye on the best consumer service we can provide.
Our team’s 4th quarter sales are off the chart... I am completely surprised (and delighted) for the robust activity just before this long holiday season begins. This will be our highest volume year ever, and we have set our sights on a strong opening for the 2022 1st Quarter.
Wishing you the best year end season -- we’ll see you on Discovery+ soon!
-Ernie
