A few weeks ago, I asked a question on an open real estate forum.

“What do Real Estate Agents think about Zestimates?”

The response was largely negative, with most agents claiming that the pricing algorithms miss the mark so badly that the feature should be removed from the site altogether. There was, however, a minority of respondents who said that, while the feature might be flawed, it did attract interested parties, and in turn garnered leads. Having realized that beating Zillow was unlikely, they joined the ranks and leveraged the website’s dominance to reach more prospects and close more deals.

Homeowners have also felt the pain of these inaccuracies and that ill-will has manifested itself in the form of yet another lawsuit filed against Zillow. This time it is on behalf of a woman who thought that the low Zestimate was making it impossible to sell her home at fair market value.

REALTORS® already have a tough job. When prospects are armed with incorrect information it makes the appraisal/pricing process a lot more difficult. Zillow has acknowledged the feature’s shortcomings and is actively trying to improve its accuracy. With the company’s full weight behind the effort, Zestimates will surely improve over time. The bigger question is, what kind of role will Zillow play in realty as their technology becomes more pervasive?

Most agents hate Zillow, most homeowners are indifferent at best, and Zillow really only seems to care about rapid growth at the expense of the folks they ostensibly claim to help. Zillow has made claims in the past that it has no intent on becoming a brokerage, or getting directly involved on a transactional level.

Now they have unveiled Instant Offers, a program that allows home owners to sell directly to investors. It will require an agent to get involved to represent the investor, but the seller can go unrepresented. If a seller decides to accept the Instant Offer, guess who takes a cut? Zillow.

Now that they are rolling out Instant Offers, they are poised to become directly involved in the transaction, by buying homes on behalf of investors by giving sellers a cash payout (most likely under market value).

In much the same way Uber hires drivers while working at a break-neck pace to render them obsolete, it seems Zillow is determined to become involved in every aspect of the transaction, charging agents and brokers for leads,  while they, ironically, use that profit to create technology that will replace agents and brokers.

They will become profitable by undercutting so many of the great agents that have been the site’s only source of revenue thus far, by buying leads and advertising from the sight. If programs like Instant Offers and Opendoor become common ways to sell a home, will REALTORS have a place in this new world? How will the industry landscape change as a result? When a transaction can occur over the internet in a matter of days, why bother hiring and agent and have it take months?

But the most important questions agents have to ask themselves is whether or not real estate has been stagnant for too long, and has left the door wide open for a disruptor to come in and improve on an outdated industry? If that is the case, every agent can still make up for lost time, but they have to start yesterday. They have to wed timeless community expertise with modern technological programs to be competitive. The market shows that people are tired of the arduous process of buying and selling a home, and if agents don’t step in and fix it, there are some massive companies eagerly waiting to replace them.