Find an Agent

Lots of Saves on Zillow but No Showings? Here’s What’s Missing

Lots of Saves on Zillow But No Showings? Here's What's Missing

How Zillow Home Saves Work | Reasons You Have Lots of Saves but No Showings | How to Find a Better Agent | FAQ

If you have lots of saves on Zillow but no showings, there might be something wrong with your listing. Problems could include subpar listing photos, a listing price that’s too high, or even issues with your real estate agent.

We’ll break down the most common reasons sellers don’t get showings and what experts recommend you do about it.

Our #1 Tip for Getting More Showings

If you want to avoid the anxiety of waiting for showings, getting a good real estate agent on board early on can help put your home in front of the right prospective buyers.

Clever Real Estate offers a free service that matches you with top real estate agents in your area who can help you make your Zillow listing attractive and accurate — turning saves into showings and tours fast.

You’ll also pay just 1.5% in listing fees (a fraction of the standard 3%). The average home seller saves $7,000 and gets full service.

👋 Meet the best agents near you

How Zillow Saves Work

Once you claim your home on Zillow, you’ll be able to see views and saves from the last 30 days, plus the number of days a listing has been active.

A “good” number of saves can vary depending on the area, market, and type of home. An older Zillow study revealed that more than 50% of homes that are saved 40 or more times in their first week on the market sell for more than their initial list prices.[1]

Why Don’t Saves on Zillow Always Lead to Showings?

People frequently favorite homes on Zillow with no intention to see them or buy them, so the number of saves may not accurately reflect homebuyers’ interest in your property.

Many people browse Zillow for design ideas, new neighborhoods, or inspiration for their own home listing. “Zillow scrolling,” scrolling through Zillow just to browse, has become a new favorite hobby, and sometimes people are just looking for houses to send to social media accounts like Cheap Old Houses and Zillow Gone Wild.

In short, be realistic about how long your home has been listed. If you’re still well below the average days on market, don’t sweat it if you don’t yet have the number of saves or showings you expected. And if it’s been there a while, you still have options.

8 Reasons You’re Getting Lots of Saves on Zillow but No Showings

If you’re getting a lot of saves on your Zillow listing but no showings, it could be something as simple as low-quality photos or something more serious, like an unreasonably high list price.

Here are some problems you can fix to get the number of showings you want:

  1. You don’t advertise digital showings
  2. Your photography isn’t attractive
  3. Your home is priced too high
  4. Your home isn’t staged with buyers in mind
  5. Your home needs repairs or updates
  6. Your buyer’s agent commission is too low
  7. The listing info is incomplete or inaccurate
  8. You need a new agent

1. You Don’t Advertise Digital Showings

If people are scouting out a new neighborhood or even a new state, they may not be able to schedule a physical showing of your house.

More than half of recent homebuyers (55%) made an offer on a house without physically touring it or attending a showing.[2] That means that if you don’t have some way of showing the house to these buyers, you are eliminating almost half of your potential buyers.

💡 What Experts Recommend: Work with your real estate agent to advertise and set up virtual tours and digital showings for potential buyers who might not live nearby. Just about everything can be done virtually nowadays, so why not open yourself up to all the opportunities?

2. Your Photography Isn’t Attractive

If you have poor quality photos or too few photos, some potential buyers will move on without saving your listing at all — but others may favorite your home in case you add new images.

Pixelated images and photos taken from the wrong angles won’t do your home justice. Even high-quality iPhone photos can be problematic if they aren’t taken by someone with an eye for real estate marketing.

💡 What Experts Recommend: Use high-quality, professional photos that accurately represent your home. It may be enough to adjust the angles or lighting in your pictures to better represent the house and make it more appealing to potential buyers.

However, it may be necessary to hire a professional real estate photographer who knows how to get the right shots and edit the images to focus on the home’s best features.

3. Your Home Is Priced Too High

If your home is overpriced for the market, you might get a lot of saves simply because buyers are genuinely interested in the home but turned off by the price — so they probably won’t bother requesting a showing.

Some buyers also save homes to receive notifications about price adjustments. So, it might be waiting for you to drop your price, especially if your home has been on the market for a while.

💡 What Experts Recommend: If you’re not getting showings because your house is priced too high, start by reviewing recent comparable sales in your area (also known as comps). This analysis will give you an idea of what similar homes in your neighborhood are selling for, and it can help you price your home more accurately.

If you find that your home is priced above recent comps, you can reduce your asking price to better align with recent sales, make improvements to your home to increase its value and appeal, or try a combination of both. This is where an experienced real estate agent can recommend the best approach for your home and the local market.

🏡 Get a free CMA from a top local expert!

Clever Real Estate matches you with top-producing local agents who will provide a free comparative market analysis (CMA) as part of their listing proposal. This gives you the most accurate estimate of how much your home could sell for right now. Clever's service is 100% free, and there's no obligation to move forward with any of the agents you meet with.

4. Your Home Isn’t Staged with Buyers in Mind

Homes decorated according to the seller’s personal taste and not national trends may take longer to sell than professionally staged listings.

Potential buyers might save your listing out of curiosity but have a difficult time picturing themselves living in the home because of clutter or too many personal effects. Buyers also might save your listing if the home itself is attractive, but they might refrain from touring it if it doesn’t look clean or cared for.

» MORE: Is Home Staging Worth It? When to Spend vs. Save

💡 What Experts Recommend: Declutter and depersonalize as much as possible so that anyone can look at it and see themselves living there. Also consider hiring a professional stager to help your home look its best.

Someone with staging experience can arrange furniture and décor in a way that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional, which will appeal to buyers. If you have already moved out of the home, a professional stager can bring in on-trend furniture that will appeal to local buyers.

4. Your Home Just Needs More Work

If your home needs significant repairs or updates, you might get a lot of saves from buyers who are interested in fixing up a property. However, unless you’re priced competitively or are willing to negotiate on price, these buyers probably won’t bother requesting a showing.

This is especially likely if your home needs a lot of work and doesn’t appear to be livable while renovations are underway — like if you need a new roof, new appliances, structural work, or a total gut job.

💡 What Experts Recommend: First, identify high-impact repairs that will make the home less intimidating and more inviting to potential buyers. This may include things like painting walls, replacing light fixtures, fixing any broken appliances, and repairing or replacing flooring.

If the home will require major renovations, consider including them in the listing and applying for building permits so buyers won’t have to do as much paperwork to fix the problems.

5. Your Buyer’s Agent Commission Is Too Low

The buyer’s agent commission is usually listed in a Zillow listing and is visible to both buyers and their agents. According to a survey by the Clever Data Center, the average buyer’s agent commission is 2.66%.

If your listed commission is lower than the average or standard in your market, buyer’s agents may not show the home to their clients, even if there’s nothing wrong with it. Without proper compensation, showings may not be worth an agent’s time.

💡 What Experts Recommend: Offering a competitive commission is a simple fix — though it will cut into your sale proceeds. To appeal to buyers’ agents and their clients, determine the average agent commission for your area and make sure yours is at least equal to that.

6. The Listing Information Is Incomplete or Inaccurate

If the information in your Zillow listing is inaccurate, buyers may get confused or not even find the home at all. For example, if your listing says the home has three bedrooms but there are actually four, the house might not even appear in filtered searches for four-bedroom houses.

Buyers might not bother requesting a showing because they don’t have time to sort through the inaccuracies and have moved on to other properties that have clearer descriptions and suit their needs.

» MORE: How to Write a Compelling Listing Description

💡 What Experts Recommend: To ensure that your Zillow listing is accurate, start by double-checking all of the information that is listed. This includes things like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, lot size, and features and amenities. If you find any errors, contact Zillow or work with your real estate agent to have the listing updated.

It’s also a good idea to regularly check your listing for outdated information. For example, if your home has been on the market for several months, the listing photos may no longer accurately reflect what the property looks like. In this case, it might be helpful to hire a professional photographer to take new pictures of the inside and outside of the home.

7. You Need a New Agent

If your real estate agent isn’t doing their job well, your listing won’t get the exposure it deserves, and potential buyers might have a negative experience when they inquire about your home.

For example, if your agent is unresponsive to questions or showing requests, it will be difficult to get genuinely interested buyers through the door. Likewise, real estate agents who are already too busy with other clients may not have the bandwidth to focus on selling your home on Zillow.

💡 What Experts Recommend: If you’re unhappy with your current real estate agent, it may be time to switch.

But finding an agent who’s a great fit is hard work. It requires hours of online research, reading reviews, and asking friends and family.

Instead, you can skip the search by having Clever Real Estate match you with the best real estate agents near you. Clever’s agents come from top-rated brokers, including Keller Williams and RE/MAX. Plus, you’ll pay just 1.5% in listing fees, thanks to Clever’s pre-negotiated rates. The average seller who lists with Clever saves $7,000!

💰 Work with top agents and save thousands

Our friends at Clever Real Estate negotiate low listing fees to help sellers save thousands. You'll pay just 1.5% in listing fees and choose from pre-vetted real estate agents who provide full service. 

FAQ

What Does Under Contract Mean on Zillow?

When a home is under contract on Zillow, it means that a buyer has extended a formal offer on the property, and the seller has accepted it. Read our guide on how to get more showings from your Zillow listing.

How Many Saves on Zillow Is Good in 2024?

It’s hard to know how many saves on Zillow is good in 2024 because Zillow only keeps track of views and saves from the previous 30 days, and it fluctuates. But in a high seller’s market, a couple hundred Zillow saves usually means that your house will sell quickly and for a good price.

Zillow conducted research in 2017 that shows having over 30 saves means your home will likely sell at a little over the listing price, but the company hasn’t released any new research on this topic. Learn how to translate those Zillow saves into showings.

Recommended Reading

Sources

Authors & Editorial History

Our experts continually research, evaluate, and monitor real estate companies and industry trends. We update our articles when new information becomes available.

Interested in buying or selling?

We've improved the traditional real estate model with modern technology to cut costs, not quality.

Get started today