Zip Realty (Ziprealty.com) Sucks

I work at a SaaS company, and someone from Zip Realty signed up for a free trail. I called him to answer any questions he may have, and he hung up on me while I was still talking! I called him because he was interested in our services. I was not rude in any way! The most irritating part is that me and my husband created an account to search homes... I won't be using them to even view listings now. The man I called is not representing his company well, and in this economy, he should be nice to everyone he speaks to--- you never know who is going to be your client.

Zip most certainly does have relationships with their inspectors. We trusted our Zip realtor's choice for an inspector and just found out that the home is not safe to occupy (three separate experts). Also found out that inspectors need no license and are not required to carry insurance.

Get out of the realestate business. now is not the time to sell homes.

Got news for you- they ALL work for the sellers agent- that is who pays them- unless you have a signed buyers agent contract - your agent is working with the sellers agent....
They will tell the seller how high you will go- anything to get the deal done- and paid- not at the best price for you.
As a esclusive buyers agent- such as the Broker I use to purchase property- they have to represent your interest solely-

I am a ZipAgent in the Bay Area (ZipRealty's "back yard")and have been one for several years now. I am sorry TJ had a bad experience, your agent should have poined out to you that the Listing Agent was only offering a 2% commision to the buyer's agent. Zip is very responsive (in my area) to client complaints. Zip is really geared to represent Buyers. Did you know most "traditional" agents believe: "If you List you Last and Buyers are Liars"? That is why "traditional" agents do not hold their own Open Houses, they delegate to inexperienced agents so they may get new buyer leads. At Zip, we represent mostly buyers, which I prefer. When you list a home for sale, you have to babysit sellers, as a buyer's agent I can be more critical and look out for my client, gain trust and deserve their future referrals. Yes, some agents don't think long term like me.
To say you are better off working with the Listing Agent is short sighted, they work for their seller client first and foremost. Why not work with your own Buyer's Agent, it costs nothing, a good agent will represent you well, not only to get other Buyer referrals, but help you sell your home in the future when you are ready to move on. Some of the comments in this thread really are sad. Hey Bert, if I try to convince a buyer to buy a home more than it is worth, the appraisal will bite me in the butt. D.H., yes it is tough to be an agent these days, but Buyers perhaps will not have prices and interest rates this low in their lifetime. If you disagree, please bring it on.

Footnote: I do not make my Buyer clients sign an exclusive agreement, as a buyer you can work with anyone you want, if I don't earn your trust in the first visit, then you are free to move on. I love this country!

It looks like it is time to end this. Very repetative!!
It has become a haven for negative Nelly's.
We get it= ZIP SUCKS and BUYER BEWARE.

I discovered this site for the first time today and am amused, disgusted, and all of my emotions run the gamut. I am a long-time ZIP agent. I have been with the company for over 6 years. I am not going to defend the company. I am going to defend however the purchasing of real estate in today's market. ZIP agents do not make alot of money. Period. You get what you pay for. Clients want the rebate, and they will get it if their lender agrees--it is simple as that. The rebate will be paid but due to RESPA requirements (look it up) we can not give a rebate unless your lender agrees AND IT IS LISTED ON THE HUD1 statement at the close of escrow. I am a licensed broker in California--not salesperson--broker. I have sold real estate for over 14 years in 3 states. ZIP Realty does have problems, no doubt, and chief among them is the poor commission splits. The ZIP agents you are so ready and willing to criticize and pounce on are making a pittance, and that is why turnover is so high. On an home priced at let's say $200,000, they are only making about $1000. I know that the commmission is higher, but by the time ZIP corportate takes their share and the rebate is given, nothing is left over.

The other reason turnover is so high because on average most homebuying clients want to see about 20 homes or so. This takes alot of time and effort, and with gas the way it is, it is just not worth it. The very nature of the beast...looking for homes online....makes people think that their is always something better....so they won't commmit and keep searching and searching and searching and looking and looking and looking and looking at homes which eats up the ZIP agents time, energy and money for gas. The agents simply can't keep showing so many homes without losing money, especially with gas priced as high as it is. We are REALTORS and not TOUR GUIDES. On average, most people who come to ZIP want us to give endless tours of homes, and cost efficiently we just cant do it.

Negotiation skills. Are you kidding? We have negotiation skills. At least the experienced ones do. But what you fail to realize is that the current market is controlled by the banks....and there is no "negotiating." The banks look at offers and respond. They don't negotiate with us at all...it is take it or leave it....we don't have the ability to even know who the seller is, much less talk to them. The only "negotiating" that is done is with a standard equity sale, so your comments about "negotiating" are from the 1950s and previously.

I just bought a home in San Jose via a ZipRealty agent. I thought they were professional, knowledgeable and honestly looked after my interest pretty well despite me being a picky buyer. While it is probably true they might be bad and greedy agents (as in any realty company) in Zip, I definitely got a good one. You should try to treat agents as individuals and not profile them all because one or two bad apples. I know I had agents from other realty firm that lied to me prior to using Zip (eg not sending out offers but tell me they did so).

Screw you TJ! Your original blog post is crap! Your telling people not to use Zip agents because of one substandard experience is like me telling you not to go to any Denny's because of my bad experience with one waitress in LA. I'm sorry for your experience but Zip is a big company like Coldwell Banker, ReMax etc. There are hundreds of good and not so good agents in every outfit. You could have had the same experience at any other brokerage. BTW, ALL inspectors have relationships with Realtors, to one degree or another. I use two termite, two general home, and one septic inspector, not because I benefit in any way but because they are all tops in their respective fields.

RE: Gronsong
If you want to write a guest blog about your Denny's experience I will make a page for that if that makes you happy. I'm sure your experience will help others make a decision when they are looking for a place to dine. Your post will invite others to post about their bad experience with Denny's and before long it will become a thread with many experiences about Denny's. However, every so often you will get a person who works for Denny's, or is just a fan I guess, that will post a comment in support of Denny's. This person will probably give no reasons to support Denny's but will probably use profanities or rants that make no sense at all if they only took time to read the original post and comments.

I will never use ZipRealty or ever let me friend use them. Our agent in Phoenix is horrible. He won't let us break our contract with him. We asked him to break our contract because we feel he does not have our best interest in mind. He said he would not do that and even after our contract was up he would sue for money if he was not the active agent. We then asked the broker to release us and he has yet to respon. When we were using the Phoenix realtor he was telling us to over bid (by like 10-20k) so our offer would be accepted. Then we would have to hope it appraised for a lot less. Another thing we didn't like was that he was very pushy for us to use his buddies company for the lending. I would never recommend him.

I feel neglected and uninformed with zip in las vegas. website sucks too.

I am an agent with 25 years of exerience. All the issues you have mentioned are issues with the agent not the company. I have seen them all from agents from every company. There are also very good agents with every company. I just joyned ZipRealty and find the company to be very strait forward and honest. They have discontinued the rebate program because people always expected it to be more than it was. The commission pie gets split up a lot. And, Yes, you do not understand how the process works. If you call the listing agent then they keep both sides of the commission because that is how the listing contract is written. The buyers/sellers agent split is a agreement between the brokers through the MLS. Depending upon what state you are in there are many things a buyers agent is reponsible for. As far as your offer price there is no usual, where you start depends on many things. The current market, who is the seller, how desirable is the property and who is the selles agent? Even in a down market a well priced, desirable property will still get multiple offers and sell for more than the list price. Your agent may or maynot have done a poor job of representing you but the person to take this up with is the agents broker who will review your transaction to make any corrections if needed or possible. Next timme spend a little more time getting to know your agent and making sure they undestand your expectations and that those expectations are reasonable.

RE: Dan

Are you referring to the original post? If so please tell me why I don't understand how the process works. Other than your statement about how my expectations may not have been reasonable your explanation went off to lalala land and has nothing to do with any of the original arguments.

You may want to hone your spelling skills before you start posting nonsense

My realtor Linda Johnson in Atlanta did'nt want to talk to me she wanted to talk to my father who was buying a home but I make the descision to pick the homes out. so I told her I only have on e-mail account that is mine so two days later I asked her about a home so she e-mailed me about do my dad's email and I told her I only have one which is my e-mail account. No More Ziprealty

Zip Realty doesn't give you much training at all. All they do is give you a week's training on how to use their system and then you are on your own. They set you up up with a team captain and if you have any problems you are suppose to call them. I am a visual person. I can't just be told over the phone on how to do something.

Typical American, gets part of a pay check and it still is not enough. Hate to break it to you would be real estate tycoons, not all banks give away their properties for 70% of value, cause guess what? They are usually already underpriced as foreclosures. If I had a hundred dollars for every person who wanted to write up a lowball offer I would be rich. Would also be rich on the ones who did not listen to me and lost out. Really resent the inspector comments, we all have a fiduciary duty to be honest on any deal. I did over 100 deals with Zip, and used the same inspector alot, NEVER got a complaint on condition. You sell a lemon, word gets out. Bottom line, I gave away thousands of the lousy commissions I got from Zip. Yes, sometimes we only get 2% of the sales price. Very rare to get more than 3%. You should have been happy to get anything, your greed shows me you are one of those people who will never be happy no matter what they get. And, just so you know, 66% of the rebate came out of the agent's pocket. Not Zip's. So they got 2%, a one third cut in normal salary, gave you 20% of it, and you are still not happy. Glad I am not married to you!

Who are you responding to? Who was asking for 70% of value? Is that just some general thing all real estate agents put in their comments when they try to defend themselves because they have nothing that actually relates to this thread?