Zillow Announces Big Changes for Walkthrough Videos

Hello Snap2Close Realtor Clients,

We do not normally send out emails just to announce something new from Zillow, Trulia or Realtor.com, but we feel the information in a Zillow email we received recently needs to be shared with you.

Starting Tuesday, May 5th, Zillow will discontinue the Zillow App Video Walkthrough.   

The Zillow App Video Walkthrough allowed Zillow Premiere Agents and Zillow Certified Photographers to use the official Zillow App on iPhones and allowed us to record up to 2 minutes of walkthrough video and directly upload it to Zillow. The videos were typically very poor quality and had no sound. Beginning May 5th Zillow will discontinue offering this feature on their app.

How this affects our Enhanced Walkthrough Videos

In the past, Zillow also allowed their Certified Photographers, like Snap2Close, a way to create their own higher quality videos, professionally edit them, add graphics and music. They also provided us with special upload folders on their ExaVault storage system. We have been calling these videos our “Enhanced Walkthrough Videos”. This system worked great until the COVID-19 pandemic started.

Like many other businesses, Zillow was unprepared for the extreme demand for walkthrough videos due to the pandemic. As a result, videos uploaded to Zillow spent as many as 10 days sitting in their ExaVault storage system before being reviewed, processed and linked to your listings. Even one of our client’s videos was somehow totally lost in their overworked system.  

Zillow’s New System  

Moving forward Snap2Close will be able to directly upload our videos to the Zillow web addresses of your listings. An example would be https://www.zillow.com/homes/11011-N-92nd-St-%241020,-Scottsdale-85260_rb/68538332_zpid/

The agent will then receive an email directly from Zillow notifying him/her that the video has been uploaded.  The listing agent must then login and publish the video to their listing from their listings page on Zillow.com .

Yes, this requires an extra step by you, the agent, but it does ensure your videos are pre-approved by you and published in a timely manner. In other words, you are the one in control and not the overworked Zillow reviewers.

Summary - Starting Tuesday May 5th

  • The Zillow Mobile App Walkthrough Videos will no longer be available.

  • Zillow Certified Photographers, such as Snap2Close, will be able to directly upload our professionally edited videos to your listings.

  • You, as the agent, will receive an automated notification from Zillow that the video has been uploaded to your listing.

  • You must then approve the video and accept it by logging into your Zillow account.

We know this is quite a bit of new information to absorb, so please feel free to contact us if you have further questions or for those of you who want to read the Zillow informational letter that was sent to us, you can do so by clicking here .

We hope everyone is staying safe!!

We look forward to working with you on your next listing.

Charlie, Sharon and Bill