• Latest NE FL Housing Stats

The Sandberg Team @ Ponte Vedra Key Realty

Real Estate Sales & Service in Nocatee, Ponte Vedra & Jacksonville, Florida

Contact The Sandberg Team
904.703.4715 | Kim@KimSandberg.com
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Testimonials
  • Communities
    • Nocatee
      • Seabrook Village
      • Twenty Mile at Nocatee
      • Crosswinds at Nocatee
      • Crosswater at Nocatee
      • Coastal Oaks at Nocatee
      • Cypress Trails at Nocatee
      • Austin Park at Nocatee
      • Greenleaf Communities
        • Greenleaf Village at Nocatee
        • Greenleaf Lakes at Nocatee
        • Greenleaf Preserve
      • Willowcove at Nocatee
      • Tidewater at Nocatee
      • Town Center Communities
        • Town Center West End
        • Siena at Nocatee Town Center
        • Enclave at Town Center
        • Lakeside at Town Center
        • Addison Park
        • Daniel Park at Town Center
      • Del Webb Nocatee
      • Del Webb Ponte Vedra
      • Artisan Lakes
      • The Palms
      • Kelly Pointe at Nocatee
      • Timberland Ridge at Nocatee
      • Brookwood at Nocatee
      • Oakwood at Nocatee
      • The Villas at Nocatee
    • Golf Course Communities
      • Atlantic Beach Country Club
      • Queens Harbour Yacht and Country Club
      • St. Johns Golf & Country Club
      • The Plantation at Ponte Vedra Beach
      • Players Club & Seven Mile Dr.
      • Cimarrone Golf & Country Club
      • South Hampton
      • Jacksonville Golf & Country Club
      • Palencia
      • Marsh Landing Country Club
      • Marsh Creek Country Club
      • Windsor Parke
    • Oceanfront Condos
      • Ponte Vedra Beach Oceanfront Condos
      • Jacksonville Beach Oceanfront Condos
      • Atlantic Beach Oceanfront Condos
    • Ponte Vedra Beach
      • Plantation Oaks
      • The Woodlands
      • Odom’s Mill
      • The Plantation at Ponte Vedra Beach
      • Sawmill Lakes
      • Players Club & Seven Mile Dr.
      • Ocean’s Edge
      • Seaside
      • Azalea Point
      • Eagle’s Cove
      • Ocean Grande Condos
    • Ponte Vedra/St. Johns
      • Shearwater
      • Beachwalk
      • Middlebourne
      • Julington Lakes
      • Durbin Crossing
      • Aberdeen
      • Celestina
      • Oxford Estates
      • Rivertown
      • St. Johns Forest
      • Marsh Harbor
      • Walden Chase
    • St. Augustine
      • Beacon Lake
      • Silverleaf
      • Cordova Palms
      • Sandy Creek
      • Twin Creeks
      • Palencia
      • Bridgewater
      • Waterford Lakes
      • Ravenswood Village
      • Markland
      • Wingfield Glen
      • Villages of Vilano
      • Bannon Lakes
      • Madeira
      • Kensington
      • Las Calinas
      • Trailmark
        • Reverie at Trailmark
      • Marsh Creek Country Club
      • Murabella
      • Samara Lakes
      • Stonehurst Plantation
      • Segovia Townhomes
      • Sea Grove
    • Jacksonville
      • Seven Pines
      • eTown
        • Edison at eTown
        • Granville at eTown
        • Marconi at eTown
        • Del Webb eTown
      • Olde Mandarin Estates
      • Tidal Pointe at Southside Quarter
      • Tamaya
      • Queens Harbour Yacht and Country Club
      • Jacksonville Golf & Country Club
      • Deerwood
      • Windsor Parke
      • Bartram Park Preserve
      • Bartram Springs
      • Terra Costa
      • Montevilla
      • James Island
      • Riverside
    • 55+ Communities
      • Watersong at Rivertown
      • Del Webb Nocatee
      • Del Webb Ponte Vedra
      • Del Webb eTown
      • Parkland Preserve
      • Reverie at Trailmark
      • Sweetwater by Del Webb
      • Stillwater
      • Everlake at Mandarin
      • Bridge Bay at Bannon Lakes
      • Artisan Lakes
      • Cascades at World Golf Village
      • Villages of Seloy
      • Del Webb Wildlight
  • Our Blog
  • For Buyers
    • Homebuyer’s Checklist
    • Florida Homebuyer Tips
    • School Attendance Zoning
    • Service Providers for Home Buyers
  • For Sellers
    • Sell with the Sandberg Team
    • When You’re Ready to List
    • What’s Your Home Worth?
  • Search for Homes
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Blog / Zillow Shutters Zillow Offers, it’s Direct Home Buying Division

Zillow Shutters Zillow Offers, it’s Direct Home Buying Division

November 8, 2021 By Scott Sandberg Leave a Comment

What it means for home sellers and buyers

Home Buyers and Sellers

Zillow jumped into the direct home buying space in 2018. The company joined a number of ibuying startups like Opendoor and Offerpad. But recently, the company announced it would shutter its Zillow Offers direct home buying division.

Buying and selling homes directly certainly seemed like a smart play for the company. Zillow has strong awareness among consumers, and a trove of homes sales data gleaned from public records, Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) and user-submitted information. These data are what make up the company’s ubiquitous Zestimates, its proprietary automated home valuation model. We can only assume these Zestimates were the primary data point being used when the company made an offer to purchase a home.

Sounds like a slam dunk for Zillow. So what went wrong? A couple of assumptions:

Zestimates proved to be less accurate than the company had hoped
Accuracy has always been an issue with Zillow’s Zestimates (and AVMs overall), as we’ve written about here and here. As a result, the company overpaid for many of the homes they purchased, then wound up selling for a loss. A win for sellers, perhaps, (and maybe the next buyer), but it’s certainly no way to run a business.

The market moved faster than the data (especially at the local level)
Once a home goes under contract, it can be 30 days, 45 days or longer (or shorter) before a home officially closes. It may then take even more time for that information to be recorded in the public records. Based on those timeframes, Zillow’s sales data could be 2 or 3 or 4 months out of date. It doesn’t seem like a big deal until you experience a housing market like the one we’ve been living with over the past year or so.

The answer? You have to have boots on the ground. Knowledgeable agents that know the market, because they’re experiencing it firsthand.

A computer model will never know, for instance, that the home that recently went under contract had 20 competing offers on it. It won’t know that the home appraised for $20,000 less than the sale price and the buyer paid the difference out of pocket. That’s a big part of what got Zillow into trouble. As a result, they wound up paying over market value in an overheated market. Had they had a team of agents or appraisers in every market advising them as to what was happening on the ground, they still may have shut down their iBuying division. But they probably would have saved a lot more money in the process.

Ask any real estate agent or appraiser and they’ll tell you the same thing. Automated valuations and Zestimates are good tools, but they’re just one piece of the puzzle. In short, a computer can tell you the what (the sales prices of various homes in a neighborhood, for example), but it can’t yet give you the why (one home with more upgrades than the other, for instance, or a white hot market where buyers are foregoing appraisals, inspections and more).

To get that type of evolving, in-market data, it takes a knowledgeable human. Preferably one with a real estate or appraiser’s license.

Filed Under: Blog, Home Sellers, Homebuyers Tagged With: Florida, Home Buyers, home sellers, Real Estate

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Gated Communities

  • Coastal Oaks at Nocatee
  • Marsh Landing Country Club
  • Plantation Oaks
  • Queens Harbour
  • The Plantation

55+ Communities

  • Bridge Bay at Bannon Lakes
  • Cascades at WGV
  • Del Webb Nocatee
  • Del Webb Ponte Vedra
  • Stillwater

Golf Course Communities

  • Jacksonville Golf & Country Club
  • Marsh Landing Country Club
  • Queens Harbour
  • St. Johns Golf & CC
  • Stillwater

Copyright © 2025 | SandbergTeam.com | Privacy Policy