Zillow Talk

Rewriting the Rules of Real Estate

Contributors

By Spencer Rascoff

By Stan Humphries

Formats and Prices

Price

$21.99

Price

$28.99 CAD

How do you spot an area poised for gentrification? Is spring or winter the best time to put your house on the market? Will a house on Swamp Road sell for less than one on Gingerbread Lane? The fact is that the rules of real estate have changed drastically over the past five years. To understand real estate in our fast-paced, technology-driven world, we need to toss out all of the outdated truisms and embrace today’s brand new information. But how?

Enter Zillow, the nation’s #1 real estate website and mobile app. Thanks to its treasure trove of proprietary data and army of statisticians and data scientists, led by chief economist Stan Humphries, Zillow has been able to spot the trends and truths of today’s housing market while acknowledging that a home is more than an economic asset. In Zillow Talk, Humphries and CEO Spencer Rascoff explain the science behind where and how we live now and reveal practical, data-driven insights about buying, selling, renting and financing real estate. Read this book to find out why:

It’s better to remodel your bathroom than your kitchen
Putting the word “cute” in your listing could cost you thousands of dollars
You shouldn’t buy the worst house in the best neighborhood
You should never list your house for $444,000
You shouldn’t list your house for sale before March Madness or after the Masters

Densely packed with entertaining anecdotes and invaluable how-to advice, Zillow Talk is poised to be the real estate almanac for the next generation.

  • "This book is fantastic. I am making every single person I know read it. Drawing upon an enormous database of housing trends and prices, Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff and Chief Economist Stan Humphries arm would-be home buyers and real estate addicts like me with the information and data they need to understand the new world of real estate. Smart, empowering, surprising, and a little bit addictive, Zillow Talk is a guidebook for any would-be home buyer or seller. It's also an awful lot of fun."
    -Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class, University of Toronto
  • "I thought I knew it all when it came to making money in real estate, but ZILLOW TALK proved me wrong. This book is a game changer for both buyers and sellers."
    --Barbara Corcoran, Real Estate Mogul and star of ABC's Shark Tank
  • "Spencer is one of the sharpest executives I've come to know, and fortunately for you, dear reader, he's in the residential real estate business. This book provides you with the breadth and depth of his knowledge on the subject, wide and deep as it is."
    --Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter
  • "ZILLOW TALK is an indispensable playbook for anyone interested in the new rules of 21st century real estate. Written by Spencer and Stan, the creators of the largest online database of housing information in the world, the authors transpose a wealth of statistics that only Zillow could provide, into an easy-to-read, jargon free guide to understanding the ever-evolving real estate market of the new millennium. Whether you're buying, selling, an industry professional, or you just love real estate, ZILLOW TALK is a must-read."
    --Dottie Herman, CEO of Douglas Elliman
  • "A fun and engaging must-read for home buyers, sellers, and renters looking to make sense of the ever-changing real estate landscape as they plot their moves."
    --Vera Gibbons, Personal Finance Expert and TV Commentator

On Sale
Jan 26, 2016
Page Count
304 pages
ISBN-13
9781455574759

Spencer Rascoff

About the Author

Zillow’s CEO Spencer Rascoff was listed as one of America’s most powerful CEOs under 40 by both Fortune and Forbes. He graduated cum laude from Harvard University and is an alumnus of Goldman Sachs and TPG Capital. He founded Hotwire, which he sold to Expedia at age 24, and was one of the founders of Zillow in 2005. He currently lives in Seattle with his wife (a pediatrician), three young children, and their dog, Fido.

Stan Humphries is Zillow’s chief economist and the creator of the Zestimate. Stan has built out the industry-leading economics and analytical team at Zillow and is a frequent commentator on housing trends for CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Fox Business News. Stan has a B.A. from Davidson College, a Masters of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in government from the University of Virginia. Prior to joining Zillow, he worked with NASA and the Peace Corps.

Learn more about this author