Zillow users can now keep track of the popular real estate portal’s listing inventory with daily or instant email alerts triggered by either a new listing or a price reduction on a listed home that matches a particular saved search.
Saved searches on Zillow — which can be filtered by type of for-sale or “pre-market” home, rentals, home type and other common home identifiers like price, square footage, number of beds and baths, lot size — can track to a city or ZIP code.
Users can choose to receive either instant emails throughout the day or a single email at the end of each day, alerting them to new listings or price drops. Zillow will send out a maximum of 15 instant-alert emails in any 24-hour period and send any additional notifications in one email per saved search at the end of the day.
Screen shot of Zillow’s filter options on home searches, which can be saved and now be used to trigger an email alert when a new listing pops up or the price drops on a listing that matches the search criteria.
Jay Thompson, Zillow’s director of industry outreach and social media, pointed out in a blog post on Zillow that saved searches give agents a powerful tool to conveniently and instantly track what’s happening in a city or ZIP code where they’re working and possibly drum up sellers in inventory-starved markets or listings from sellers dipping their toes in the market.
Agents, Thompson explained, can choose to follow homes listed for sale on Zillow by their owners (FSBOs) and those whose owners list a price at which they might consider moving (“Make Me Move”), which offer them the opportunity to cultivate new avenues where they can prospect for business.
Zillow rival Trulia, which does not list for-sale-by-owner listings, also allows users to sign up for daily email notifications for homes matching a saved search that are listed for sale, recently sold or have an upcoming open house.
