Farwell to Zillow Offers Program including Zillow Certified Photographer17919
Pages:
1
 WGAN StandardMember Las Vegas |
VTLV private msg quote post Address this user | |
Looks like Zillow is cutting ties with everyday photographers and pushing services internally with their purchase of Showingtime - a service that copies agent lead data and poaches the agents clients to other real estate services without the agents knowledge.  Press Releases Zillow Group acquires VRX Media to create national photographer network, elevate listing media through ShowingTime+ brand Dec 8, 2022 VRX's real estate media services provide convenient, fast delivery to customers SEATTLE, Dec. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Zillow Group (NASDAQ: Z and ZG) today announced it has closed on the acquisition of VRX Media. This real estate media marketing and services leader is known for its aerial drone photography, virtual staging, 3D tours, high-definition photography and fast-media delivery to clients, which is made possible through the company's national professional photographer network. Zillow Group will continue to offer VRX Media's services through the ShowingTime+ software suite. Read more here: |
||
| Post 1 • IP flag post | ||
 WGAN ForumFounder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @VTLV Thanks for posting. Here's a related story: ✓ INMAN (9 December 2022) Zillow's VRX acquisition reveals why the portal can't be dismissed | Never on the defensive for too long, Zillow's strategy, Brad Inman writes, is to secure its position as the leading listing service and digitize everything — as the rest of the industry sputters Dan |
||
| Post 2 • IP flag post | ||
|
WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Video: Zillow is Shutting Down their Certified Photographer Program! | Video courtesy of Momentum 360 YouTube Channel | 12 December 2022 | ||
| Post 3 • IP flag post | ||
|
WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Video: Big Changes Coming to Real Estate Photography | video courtesy of Nathan Cool YouTube Channel | 12 December 2022 | ||
| Post 4 • IP flag post | ||
 WGAN Fan Club Member Gilroy, California |
Dataventurer private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Heard about this from the Nathan Cool Photography video on YouTube. Been checking on some things. Use of the Zillow Certified Photographer logo The authorization for use of the Zillow Certified Photographer logo (its in my signature block for all my emails)ends December 31, 2022. Discontinuation of Video Hosting on Zillow I found the page on the Zillow site with information about changes to the video upload process. Currently, a videographer, listing agent, or homeowner can upload a video to Zillow and it gets displayed at the bottom of the photo carousel on the property's listing page on Zillow. It appears that capability will end this month, December 2022. Subsequently, videos must be hosted somewhere else, the link must be entered through the MLS, then it will get picked up with the property photographs and a link will display on the Zillow listing page under the Facts and Features section. The page with this information on the Zillow site is here: https://www.zillow.com/z/video-upload/faqs/ I called VRX to explore what their plans are for adding photographers. The receptionist offered the HR manager's email and suggested I contact him. She mentioned that Zillow, not VRX Media, will be handling the photography staff additions. I sent an email to the HR manager and also to my contact at Zillow 3D Home Tours with a similar request for more details about their plans for staffing. I'll report back with any details I can obtain. Here are some immediate thoughts as I'm processing these announcements. I know a lot of real estate agents loath Zillow because of past dealings. For established agents who already have a stable of media providers, I don't think the agents will be very motivated to switch to the Zillow media services. There would need to be some powerful incentives, not so much in cost savings as in potential marketing benefits to the agents (like the way a Zillow 3D Home Tour for a listing earns some favorable featuring in the Area Search results). As far as "joining" with Zillow as a contract photographer, I think it's always worth taking a closer look at new opportunities to see if it makes sense business wise. That requires some additional info that I am pursuing. |
||
| Post 5 • IP flag post | ||
|
WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Video: Why Did Zillow just Acquire VRX Media? | Video courtesy of Hopscotch Interactive YouTube Channel | Emily Olman @Hopscotch | 13 December 2022 I posted this note to this video by San Francisco Bay Area-based Hopscotch Interactive YouTube Channel: Emily [@Hopscotch), thank you for this MUST WATCH news, analysis and commentary. It sounds like Zillow just "boxed out" Matterport tours in favor of Zillow 3D Tours shot by VRX Media. In the real estate meets virtual tour space, it's starting to feel like the larger players are acquiring real estate media agencies to "box out" other virtual tour platforms. Keeping track of what's happening is making my brain hurt and my head spin (from whiplash). Dan Transcript (video above) Emily Olman: -Hi guys, This is Emily from Hopscotch Interactive. I want to chat with you today about some big industry news, which is that Zillow has acquired VRX Media. Now, VRX Media is a Milwaukee-based real estate media services company. They are more or less a marketplace for booking everything from drone to photos to virtual tours. They operate in 60 metro areas. Now, this is interesting news because along with the acquisition, it had a big impact immediately on real estate photographers and real estate media producers. With that acquisition, it was also announced that the Zillow corporate would be sun setting, something that many of us have and using our marketing, which is something like these Zillow Elite Photographer badge and of course the Zillow Certified Photographer Designation. These are not to be used anymore. However, nothing has taken their place as of yet except for a big question mark for me that is going to be, well, what is the badge? Is there a badge? How should we call ourselves if we are a super experienced Zillow Photographer and want to make sure that we distinguish ourselves and we don't work for VRX? Maybe VRX isn't even active in our metro areas. Really interesting stuff and we're going to get into it a little bit further. Now this comes on the heels. VRX is their 18th acquisition, but this comes on the heels of two other acquisitions that I want to talk about as well. The first one is ShowingTime, which was acquired in 2021. Now, this is going to be the umbrella brand that they are going to be using for everything that they are going to offer to their listing agents. That's going to mean listing preference, promoting the listing agent, fueling, and funneling buyer leads to them, but also the offering and packaging up of media services to be fulfilled, I'm assuming through the arm now that they've acquired with VRX to deliver all of the photography. Emily Olman: ShowingTime, actually already has an app and I don't know if that's going to be maintained. I don't know if that's going to be independent. I don't know if VRX will be something you can book through ShowingTime or if it will all just become Zillow. We don't know yet, but you can see that really ShowingTime is pushed towards supporting the listing agents so that they have efficient meetings and appointments scheduled for bookings or for showing appointments. I'm sure that's a big pain point for listing agents and for real estate photographers, it's not really part of what we are involved in, but I can see how that was something that was really valuable to think, we've got listing agents and we want to help them. What else can we do? Well, we can offer bundle-up services. I also took a look at the the Q3 2022 shareholder letter and we're going to get into that in a second. But before we do, we want to talk about the 17th acquisition which was made, so the one just prior to the VRX, which is the Zillow had to figure out a solution for its floor plans. They had paused the program about a year-and-a-half ago, I think in spring 2021 because they just couldn't keep up with demand. We experienced that ourselves with a floor plan taking over a week to get to us. We said, no way, never again, they paused the program and then only rolled it back out again once they had figured it out. Now, not only figured it out, but they accelerated it and made it even better because they have now added artificial intelligence that can support the creation of floor plans, reducing the time it takes for those floor plans to be generated to less than 24 hours in many cases. So that is pretty interesting. It also is assigned that Zillow is not afraid of using artificial intelligence, even though they had some not so great results from using it with their eye buying program and that we can talk about in a second as well. Now of course, Free Floor Plans available. Anybody can make a floor plan whether they know how to really make it or not. I've even done tutorials, especially during the pandemic of how do you make it with just your iPhone or with your cell phone or how can you make it with a Ricoh Theta Z1? Definitely check for other videos from Hopscotch that we've done to teach folks about how to do that. Emily Olman: This was Rich Media Technology, that they acquired in order to help with the floor plan generation. But what about VRX Media? I don't really know these guys very well and they're not super active in my market. But the research that I did show me that they have super aggressive pricing. This is Nevada, which I'm sure is definitely different than the West Coast. But certainly $220 for professional photography plus a Matterport 3D Tour is super, super aggressive. In fact, those rates would be unsustainable in the Bay Area where we are. I think also maybe it's a great fit, however, for multifamily, for rentals, for other properties, but maybe not your premium real estate listings. Also because I think that our clients really value the relationship that they have with us and they love that consistency and we get to know them, they get to know us. Top agents are probably still going to be leaning on the people they consider part of their team. Whereas for folks that find the media services to be bit more transactional for them, this is going to be actually a great way to ease that pain point for them. How did they do it? How do they keep the rates so low? One of the ways I think they're doing it is maybe perhaps favoring folks that are using the Ricoh Theta Z1. Again, I don't know, but this is something that I saw from what are their tours and I thought, well, that's certainly speeds up the creation of a tour. Also, I think on those packages you're going to see instead of Matterport 3D as part of the package, you're going to see the Zillow 3D Home Tour replacing it as the default. Now, I think that they should figure out a way to work with Matterport because obviously it's better for everyone if there's more 3D tours. In January, they are going to be actually doing just boosts on properties. Starting in January, there will be just boosts on properties that have the floor plans. This is different than the way it's been, which is if you have the Zillow 3D Home Tour, you would get the boost and then your listing we get elevated and it would be included in emails that would go to people with the search parameters for the first seven days that that listing was live. Now it's going to be from what I understand, just for properties that have the Zillow floor plans generated as well. This is one of our properties here in green that we did a Zillow 3D Home Tour 4. I think our agents really love it because they get the marketplace, they get the boost. That's a big deal. I'm also a little concerned that if we want to generate really robust floor plans, nice floor plans that are NZZ 765 compliant, that there may be some conflicts between the Zillow floor plan and the other floor plan, and then there's a question of which one do I use and which numbers are the right numbers? Nobody wants to have confusion. That just opens up a big can of worms and we don't want that for anybody in the US, this applies to you. For folks outside of the US not so much, but I think it's interesting and certainly something that I would want to know if I were planning my marketing for 2023. So how do you make, if you wanted to do this, you want it to still get the boost. Well, you need to use a here we can just show you exactly what that is. This is the I'm QR code version and it's, I guess it's a mouse pad. It's out of neoprene and they will send one to you if you want it. Check the link in the description if you would like to be sent one. Or you can also use a sheet of paper. So that's the sheet of paper. And you put that down on the ground and then you set it one-and-a-half feet from the mod pod. And that is how you do the calibration step as you start this, you can't wait and do it when you get home, you have to do it at the property. So definitely make sure you familiarize yourself with that and for the next time you go out to do one of these tours. The updated something that I think is interesting. I'm still wondering if this is a somehow a silver lining for us, which is that realtors can have their names also show up when we are showing those tours, not just the photographer's name. And so I liked it when it was just the photographer's name, but now it's going to also be the realtor. So co-branding, which was never a bad thing, but it's just a lot of information for somebody just trying to digest quickly and get to the information that they want. Back to the shareholder report, this now is interesting. So I've got this part highlighted for you here, which is showing what's going to happen in 2023. So it's showing time plus will offer two new tools to help agents when their next listing. We already talked about that listing media services of photography service and that's what's ShowingTime Plus and they will also offer listing showcase, a complete media policemen package that puts the listing agents brand front and center using interactive technology. So that's, the other thing that we're talking about is the listing agent really being the their client here? So I also think it's interesting, Let's see if I can get this here going. So they also say, given how this year has played out, we continue to feel that we made the right decision Exiting I buying 12 months ago with no inventory remaining on our balance sheet as of September 30th. So they feel really bullish that they were. Let's move this back over. And they feel really bullish that they were able to exit out of I buying and that they have stayed committed to the use of artificial intelligence is very interesting. So next, my question is to you guys. Matterport acquired VHT because they wanted to get into the services part of this, they couldn't fulfill everything. There are many reasons, but they obviously had enterprise clients that they needed to fulfill on more than just Matterport. And so they acquired VHT a couple of months ago. Now, Zillow has also gotten in this game of Media Services and they've acquired VRX. And so this sort of marketplace, a booking, but Matterport is not a marketplace. And so they don't have the eyeballs. So think about that when you're wondering, well, what's Matterport potentially going to look at an acquisition target later? And Zillow has followed suit with Matterport, also getting into the services business, which I think is fascinating because the services business is impossible to scale. That's the whole point, is that it's very difficult to scale and you basically start commoditizing your product and you have to commoditize especially the prices. But these are people, this is services. And in places like California, where if now VRX and photography is now core to Zillow is business. Zillow may be forest, I would think to comply with laws like a B5, which say that a person who is doing your core business is your employee. And so the whole contractor model, I think gets blown up when you look at this in states like California. And I'm also looking at Redfin going, what are they going to do next? Are they going to get into the services business as well? And I believe they use VRX and they have other service providers that they refer to. But right now they've gone more of the financing and mortgage and equity side of the business, which I think is very smart because it puts them close to the money. Now, Matterport and Zillow or they Lyft and Uber. Are we all going to be Lyft and Uber drivers? Is that the end game here for these two companies? And again, I'm trying to look for the silver lining and to see if the rising tide raises all boats. But I think the jury is out and I want to hear what you guys have to say about this. VRX is not hugely active in our market. Maybe they're active in your market and you can shed some light. So I hope you found this video and my thoughts helpful. These are just some of the things that I reacted to when I saw this. And I wanted to make sure that folks also let it sink in that there's another big acquisition. I don't think that everything's going to change overnight, but certainly there will be changes and consolidation of the way that media is purchased for some percentage of brokers. Now, will this be your top broker? Will it cannibalize some of your business? Will you have to shift what you do and pivot a little bit in order to react to it. You might I don't know what the timeline is on that, but I think it's really good to think about threats to your business and opportunities as well. So if you want to hit the notification bell, then you will find out every time I post a new video, and thank you so much for watching. And please put your comments down below so I can hear from you. And like I said, the forums were all blowing up on this because there was a lot of mixed, really mixed and probably negative commentary on it. But I want to know if maybe there are some other insights people have. So feel free to share those and thanks so much for watching. Have a great day. Bye. |
||
| Post 6 • IP flag post | ||
|
leeverdon private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Apologies, I hadn't realized this was already a discussion on here. I'm late to the party. | ||
| Post 7 • IP flag post | ||
|
WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @leeverdon How might Zillow acquiring VRX Media affect you? What are your concerns? Dan |
||
| Post 8 • IP flag post | ||
|
WGAN Standard Member Las Vegas |
VTLV private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Verifiable links from large traffic sites are helpful for SEO and losing our Zillow Photographer link to on Zillow to our webpage as Zillow suggested we make last year won't help us any. @Hopscotch - Great piece on where is the barometric pressure going with this. I recall Zillow Offers started by referring to about 14 companies that would offer on homes prior to killing that idea and doing it themselves. They've set the hook on having to use their links for virtual tours killing any chance of smaller companies getting virtual tour clicks on our own sites. I thought I read that Newscorp had a strong investment ownership into Matterport who also own Move.org who owns Realtor.com. So the relationship to mimic Zillow actions with Realtor.com could be the angle with VRX. Realtors in my market don't trust any of the top 3 (redfin, Zillow and Realtor.com). I've used a couple services with Showingtime for myself and clients - we were immediately spammed by other agents like we all experienced with Matterport Sales Team poaching our clients. It appears, the Uberization of Photographers and Real Estate Agents appears to be inevitable with AI and Tech company investor relations. |
||
| Post 9 • IP flag post | ||
|
Deano private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Yes, not only will we be uberized, but agents as well. The truth is that Zillow will simply get properties ready for sale using inexpensive gig labor and then offer the property on their platform for a small commission or even a flat fee. They've already come out and said that they believe that they can increase their percentage from 35% to 50%. They can only do this if they marginalize the agent. User can then select service and increase service levels as necessary. A big component of listing is the spend on marketing and since agents often don't want to outlay this cash, Zillow will offer a very inexpensive way to allow sellers to test the waters before even getting an agent involved. This means that your agent relationships will be less meaningful as less people will start with an agent. If agents replicate this 'pay as you go' strategy, then the big loser is obviously us. |
||
| Post 10 • IP flag post | ||
 WGANStandard Member Los Angeles |
Home3D private msg quote post Address this user | |
Zillow and Redfin will seek to Uberize photographers any way they can. Go to VRX Media's home page and scroll down. You'll see this: If this was "founded by photographers" it might be boasting about Quality, not "most affordable" a nice way of saying "cheap". Remember the unbreakable rule: FAST, CHEAP, GOOD - PICK TWO! If you love making virtual tours and have an artist's mentality (meaning that quality matters), I recommend movement away from anything that can be Uberized. Learn how to make high-quality bespoke tours and market yourself to businesses that want something unique and different. Team up with others, too. Ross Zanzucchi of 3DRoomSpaces (Grayslake, IL) and I just teamed up to create a custom tour for a high school - Carmel3D.com We planned this together, Ross pitched the project, Ross shot everything and our team here in Los Angeles assembled the tour. Ross does great work and the client appears thrilled with the results. Notice the tour has two credits down in the corner - teamwork in action.  |
||
| Post 11 • IP flag post | ||
|
WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Video: THE END OF REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHERS? | Zillow's Big Plan | Video courtesy of Zac Gudakov YouTube Channel | 16 December 2022 | ||
| Post 12 • IP flag post | ||
|
WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Video: Has Zillow Changed The FUTURE Of Home Tours? | Video courtesy of The Real Word Clips | 15 December 2022 | ||
| Post 13 • IP flag post | ||
|
WGAN Forum Founder & WGAN-TV Podcast Host Atlanta, Georgia |
DanSmigrod private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Video: Zillow launches Showingtime Plus. What is Showingtime+? | Video courtesy of Tristan Ahumada YouTube Channel | 26 September 2022 | ||
| Post 14 • IP flag post | ||
Pages:
1This topic is archived. Start new topic?