No, Zillow – My Listing Isn’t For Rent

Zillow has a “rental estimate” on the page for my listing in Charlottesville that is for sale, and it’s confusing enough that people are inquiring as to whether it’s for rent. Consumers – let this be yet another reminder that if you’re searching for homes for sale in the Charlottesville area, the two best places to search are my site and Nest’s site (archived: 2012). If you’re searching for rentals, start here and here. Searching for rentals? Start at Nest (archived: 2022) and then my site again .

My listing is not for rent.

But thanks, Zillow for making it easier to discredit you to my clients and consumers. One day, you might be right enough; one day.

First, Zillow’s customer service response time via twitter first then email is impressive.

My email:

1) It’s not right to display a rent estimate on a property that’s not for rent 2) Assuming you’re not going to stop displaying the rent estimate it would be honest to state explicitly that the property’s not for rent.

Zillow’s response is particularly unhelpful (bolding mine):

Thanks for contacting us! We include a rent Zestimate on properties, even when they are not active for sale or for rent listings, because we feel this information would be useful to a homeowner if he or she was thinking about renting out his or her home. Just as many homeowners are curious about the Zestimate for their property, the believe the Rent Zestimate would be interesting and useful to them as well. When a home is for rent it has a purple home icon and displays “For Rent.” When a property is not for rent or for sale we display “Not for Sale” with no color in the home icon. Please see attachments. Since displaying “Not for Rent or for Sale” would be redundant on each property, we default to “Not for Sale” for inactive properties on Zillow.

No. It’s not helpful or useful; it’s confusing.

As useful as a zestimate between $386k and $528k?

Or a rental estimate between $1600 and $2500?

No, those aren’t helpful either.

But, thanks for providing interesting “information.”

At least the “not for sale” states that a house is “not for sale.”