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A comment on Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes.

Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by leothelocust on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:00PM (#16843923)
I get the feeling a company like this would only make this kind of leap because they have the data to show it will pay off. I.e. they can formulate algorithms to make the best purchases and the most profit. I foresee big gains from this
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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by yodon on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:05PM (#16843940)
It’s rarely a good idea to compete against your customers
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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by superquest on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:09PM (#16843966)
In this case it seems the customers are unlikely to revolt. Most won't even notice, right?
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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by caminante on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:15PM (#16843994)
Great point. For now, it is limited to AZ and NV and for wholesale purchases only. But it seems like a conflict of interest that's hard to prove isn't being abused.
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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by malloci on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:34PM (#16844113)
Isn't Amazon's marketplace similar in that regard? They compete with other sellers using Amazon's platform all the time.

Ethically, it seems a bit fuzzy for me given that one of Zillow's big features is there zEstimate. How can they demonstrably prove they aren't tweaking that somehow for their own gain?

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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by jacobkranz on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:38PM (#16844142)
I'd argue that Amazon's customers are the buyers of the products, not the sellers using Amazon's platform.
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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by bunderbunder on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:57PM (#16844246)
I'd argue that Amazon has many different groups of customers.
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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by AznHisoka on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:09PM (#16843964)
Why? BlackRock offers solutions to other asset management firms to make investment decisions. They use the same solution in their asset management division.
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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by caminante on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:15PM (#16843999)
Isn't there a firewall between the units?
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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by smt88 on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:08PM (#16843949)
Zillow has captured the user base so effectively that the customers will have no choice but to continue paying.

See also: Amazon

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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by paxys on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:13PM (#16843983)
Every big company does this in some way. The only smart move in business is to be where the money is.
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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by maxerickson on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:28PM (#16844082)
A testable prediction at least.

I wouldn't be surprised if they make a bunch of money and then make a big mistake and lose a much bigger bunch of money.

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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by notyourwork on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:15PM (#16843997)
This was my thinking as well, they can decide what they want to buy based on their data on prior listings and closing prices. It is an interesting advantage.
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Re:Zillow surprises investors by buying up homes by kelukelugames on Sunday April 15, 2018 @02:35PM (#16844121)
But how is this scalable? You need manual labor. This is a bigger headache than hiring agents as full time employees like Redfin.
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