Zillow Talk

By: Spencer Rascoff, Stan Humphries

Narrated by: Spencer Rascoff, Stan Humphries

Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

THIS AUDIOBOOK EDITION WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AS ZILLOW TALK: THE NEW RULES OF REAL ESTATE. THE NEW TITLE IS ZILLOW TALK: REWRITING THE RULES OF REAL ESTATE.

How do you spot an area poised for gentrification? Is spring or winter the best time to put your house on the market? Will a house on Swamp Road sell for less than one on Gingerbread Lane? The fact is that the rules of real estate have changed drastically over the past five years. To understand real estate in our fast-paced, technology-driven world, we need to toss out all of the outdated truisms and embrace today's brand new information. But how?

Enter Zillow, the nation's #1 real estate website and mobile app. Thanks to its treasure trove of proprietary data and army of statisticians and data scientists, led by chief economist Stan Humphries, Zillow has been able to spot the trends and truths of today's housing market while acknowledging that a home is more than an economic asset. In ZILLOW TALK, Humphries and CEO Spencer Rascoff explain the science behind where and how we live now and reveal practical, data-driven insights about buying, selling, renting and financing real estate. Listen to this book to find out why:

• It's better to remodel your bathroom than your kitchen
• Putting the word "cute" in your listing could cost you thousands of dollars
• You shouldn't buy the worst house in the best neighborhood
• You should never list your house for $444,000
• You shouldn't list your house for sale before March Madness or after the Masters

Densely packed with entertaining anecdotes and invaluable how-to advice, ZILLOW TALK is poised to be the real estate almanac for the next generation.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2014 Spencer Rascoff and Stan Humphries (P)2014 Hachette Audio

Not very informative for real estate professionals

I felt the whole book could have been summed up in a couple pages. Turing one fact into an entire chapter over and over again was tiring. It's not a bad listen for new home buyers but it's not worth while for real estate professionals.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

Confused logic!

The authors regularly confuse correlation with causation, overestimate irrelevant indicators, provide what looks to me as contradictory data and loose the thread all together.
I couldn't force myself to finish the book (or should I call it the Zillow infomercial) but from the big chunk I endured I can say it is one of the worst in the genre.
Skip!

16 of 17 people found this review helpful

Enjoyable read, but questionable econ/stats assump

I really enjoyed their book. However, I am cautious when there is a lack of precise detail explaining casual relationships and the embedded assumptions in each models. One example, would be the case with Starbucks locations causing above average home price appreciation would be far more complicated controlling for than they illuded. Overall, I would recommend the book to a home buyer/seller or a virgin real estate investor. I would not dare recommend it to any economist or statistician.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Not as good as I hoped

It was ok but I expected more given all the data they have relative to incomes etc. they can do better

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Basically a long sales pitch to use zillow

Roughly 15% of the info in this book is new or valuable information about real estate, the rest is a drawn out marketing pitch for how cool Zillow and its algorithm's are and why you should use the site.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

A Real Estate 'Freakanomics'

Really enjoyed it, and as I'd hoped for. Multiple narrators kept it lively. While not a commercial for Zillow it did point out several tools they have I didn't know about.

Companion PDF to the audio book mentioned several times, will be audio useful since these findings are data driven. ...Though I haven't figured out how to access that yet through mobile. Maybe I'll have to use one of these "computer" things.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

A book everyone should read/listen

great analysis and insight, backed up with the right data all without getting into number overload.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Meh

The authors of this book are the founders of zillow.com and spend the first chapters continually reminding you how smart they are and how much their website has changed the face of real estate in the U.S. I found my self saying things like, "Okay, we get it!"

The narration is done by the authors. Out of 250 Audible titles I've noticed that whenever an author or authors reads their own book, it is never as good as other books that hired professional narrators. This is no exception. The narration both narrators is halting. One of the narrators is particularly annoying because he speaks in 3 and 4 word bursts. Next time put the ego away and hire a pro.

Lastly, the authors write in such a way that you can tell they think they are being clever. In most cases it doesn't work. Example, instead of just calling the southwestern part of the country the southwest, they repeatedly call it the "wild west." It gets old after the third time, let alone the fifteenth. Another example is the use of the made up word, Gayghborhoods, to talk about how gays living in an area affect surrounding home values. Com'on guys, just give us the facts. Stop trying to be clever. Save it for bedtime stories for the children.

There were a few eye opening stats, such as, only 2 out of every 15 home owners deduct the interest on the mortgage of their home at tax time. Other than a few obscure facts though, the book doesn't offer much beyond obvious statements such as low income neighborhoods don't appreciate as fast as upper class ones. Well no kidding...

The book is just not worth a credit.

17 of 23 people found this review helpful

Ok for homeowners doesn't help landlords or investors as much

Could have been more in-depth towards investors and multi family residential properties like 2,3 & 4 unit properties. Single family buyers don't look at their purchase in terms of an investment. But investors and landlords do. They should write another book for small time investors, flippers and landlords covering not just singles but 2-4 unit rentals as well.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good read for those in Real Estate

This book gave excellent insight from those who are changing the game of real estate. Zillow is a force; good, bad or indifferent. However, understanding how they function, what their viewpoints are and the things they perceive as advantages can truly help you gain a competitive edge.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful