I’m a buyers’ agent for a newly-wed first-time-buyer couple. The seller was Zillow, which also has a real estate license. The Sanders Group real estate company handled the transaction for Zillow. Ashley H. was the agent I dealt with at the Sanders Group throughout the transaction. Dealing with Zillow was not good. Ashley H.’s help in completing the sale was awesome! On the FMLS listing for the house, it stated that it would be 2-3 days for Zillow to make any decisions regarding the transaction. That is not fair to buyers. On most buyer offers I’d give the seller 24 hrs. to accept. The only acceptance was an email stating Congratulations on your accepted offer with Zillow!”. I don’t know if that constitutes a legal offer acceptance or not. When the seller uses the FMLS or other form with the date, time and signature for acceptance, that is more the norm. When Zillow drafted the Contract and other forms, they had no Seller signature. Because of Zillow’s non-normal procedures and paperwork, I wasn’t sure if the buyers had a binding contract or not until a few days before closing one month later. The home inspection revealed a problem with the HVAC systems that Zillow did not disclose as law requires. They had an HVAC service invoice from Feb 25 stating the systems were faulty. The buyers did not have the first showing until about two weeks after that. The Seller’s Disclosure indicated no problems with the HVAC. I would recommend against dealing with Zillow. They were slow, unprofessional and mistake-prone. Real estate transactions are difficult and stressful enough without their shenanigans.
