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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

Use Redfin instead of Zillow/Trulia whenever possible. Starve the beast. (Zillow makes its money off of income from realtors seeking leads, RedFin makes its money off of actual real estate transaction fees [discounted compared to traditional commissions])

EDIT: Just read the end of the post: "Meanwhile, another organization that does understand copyright and fair use much better than Zillow is EFF. And EFF is now representing McMansion Hell."

Zillow has brought a knife to a gun fight.

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My wife and I bought our house using a Redfin agent. They were as hands-on or -off as we liked. We could look at listings online and schedule tours and we could ask the agent for any recommendations that might fit what we're looking for, but maybe not where we were originally looking. They also helped with negotiating and closing (as you'd expect of any Realtor, but it was nice dealing with the same 2 people the whole time).

> Zillow has brought a knife to a gun fight.

:) I wonder if this will have any outcome for ToS, as that's was one of Zillow's complaints.

To add to this point, I contacted a realtor through Zillow, had two email exchanges with him where I asked specific questions about a property. Each time, my questions were ignored, and his responses can be summarized as "are you pre-approved?" In the second email, he politely redirected me to another realtor that it appeared he was managing and I never heard from them again.

Redfin is a far better map in the markets where it's available.

Agreed! Their valuation tool is better than Zillow as well.

This being one of my favorite examples of why not to trust Zestimate - https://www.inman.com/2016/05/18/zillow-ceo-spencer-rascoff-...

I think Zillow brought a knife to a state where concealed carry is the norm and they're finding out how many people have guns :)

Zillow brought a crayon drawing of a knife to a gun fight - childish threats with absolutely no chance of doing any actual damage.

> Zillow has brought a knife to a gun fight.

I've never understood that expression. Counterstrike taught me that knives are useful in a gun fight.

New grad moving to SF. Thanks for this (:

And yes, I am absolutely posting this with the intent that someone from Zillow sees this and knows that this is costing them a real customer.

> Zillow has brought a knife to a gun fight.

Pillow to a gunfight, possibly?

Zillow was thoughtful, and brought their own coffin to a gunfight.

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