Zillow is arguably the most popular real estate portal. But Zillow is not without its flaws. Below are five reasons why you should install Real Estate Answers for Chrome before your next visit to Zillow:
1. Vet listings to avoid scammers
Scammers are not unique to Zillow. Because of Zillow’s popularity, however, they are likely more prevalent. As one recent Zillow user says:
I’ve noticed a rash of fraudulent listings on Zillow this week. I’ve contacted the owner on some, and they always seem to have a story about being out of the country and they need my deposit money to send me the keys.
Please Zillow. Can’t you vet your listing? I don’t like wasting my time having to filter out the fraud.
Real Estate Answers for Chrome allows you to get help from local real estate professionals while remaining anonymous. To identify a scam, simply ask local real estate professionals for their opinion about a rental listing’s price and method of payment.
2. Avoid capture of your email address
Like most real estate portals, Zillow asks for your email address when you request more information about a listing. But who knows how Zillow uses your email address? As one Zillow user suspects, your email address may be sold:
I am no longer looking at properties and don’t need the zillow help—in addition, I believe you have sold or given my address to god knows who—my spam has exploded since signing up with you and I can’t stop it….please close my account…
Real Estate Answers for Chrome doesn’t require your email address. As a result, your email address is guaranteed to remain safe and out of the hands of marketers.
3. Avoid continuous status updates by email
Again, Zillow requires your email address to send you information about listings. But once your home search is complete, the status updates continue to arrive in your inbox. As one Zillow user recently vented:
I’ve already unsubscribed from all emails from Zillow and I still get status update emails about houses that used to be in favorites list. We used that list to help us buy a house, but we’ve already bought and closed on it, so I don’t need to know the status on all those houses we had saved at one time or another. How do I make it stop?
Real Estate Answers for Chrome doesn’t require your email address. Furthermore, browser notifications automatically stop after 3 days. As a result, your inbox is not overrun.
4. Avoid frustration and difficulty in deleting your user account
Like most real estate portals, Zillow requires you to create a user account before using basic features such as saving and emailing favorites. While easy to create, a Zillow user account is difficult to delete. As a recent Zillow discovered:
How do I delete my old account? I can’t find it anywhere.
I finished with a home purchase and I don’t plan on buying one for a very long time. I can’t believe this situation is uncommon, so failing to allow account deletion seems more insidious than a simple oversight.
Real Estate Answers for Chrome doesn’t require a user account. To stop using it, you simply uninstall the extension from Chrome. As a result, it’s easy to leave.
5. Get accurate and recent information from local experts on the ground
I suspect Zillow has a server farm working around the clock to refresh data on its web site. But, the data has to be sourced from somewhere and it takes time to travel from its original source to Zillow’s web site. As a recent Zillow user yelps:
Your data is frequently incorrect – based on limited and outdated information!
Real Estate Answers for Chrome sends your questions to several local real estate experts within seconds of you asking. As a result, the answer is quickly crowd-sourced from those who are most knowledgeable about what is happening in the local market at that very moment.
