Kopa Real Estate Blog - Eric Peterson

Zillow Class Action Lawsuit – What It Means For Buyers

Zillow is currently facing a class-action lawsuit alleging it operates an illegal kickback scheme by coercing its affiliated real estate agents to steer homebuyers toward Zillow Home Loans (ZHL) in exchange for valuable customer leads. The lawsuit claims this practice violates federal and state laws and harms consumers by denying them impartial advice. 

Allegations of the Lawsuit

The class-action complaint, initially filed in November 2025 and expanded with insider information from 12 current and former Zillow employees, makes several serious claims: 

• Illegal Kickbacks/Steering: The central allegation is that Zillow rewards agents in its "Premier Agent" and "Flex" programs with high-quality leads only if they meet quotas for referring clients…

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Goodbye 2025 - Hello, 2026 Real Estate Predictions

2025 was challenging in the real estate market. Thanks to your support we had a great year and have momentum going into 2026 with some beautiful listings hitting the market in January and we are optimistic for the rest of the year. 

It’s always fun to make predictions. Last year I nailed it when I recommended anyone planning on selling to get your home on the market early in the year. That turned out to be good advice as sellers who delayed saw increased competition and a softer market in the summer. 

What’s going to happen in 2026? Let’s fire up my crystal ball and make some forecasts/guesses. The best way to do this is I will give you my opinion about the forecasts made by some of the national housing forecasters. 

Keep in mind…

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Why I Would Never Refer My Friends To A Big Box Broker

The Economics of Selling Your Home

Anyone with a basic grasp of free-market economics understands you will get the best price for a product when you expose it to the entire market. But there are many large real estate brokerages that are using your listing for their own gain by only advertising it to agents in their own office. This violates rule #1 that exposing your home to the largest group of buyers will get you the best price. 

This text is from a Facebook post of an agent complaining about how they weren’t given information about a listing being privately sold by a large broker. 

Why Big Brokerages Limit Your Listing's Exposure

Why would they do this? For two reasons. The stock market rewards real estate companies for 2 things; the…

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How To Make Sure Your Sale Crosses the Finish Line

If there was one simple step that could help make your home sale a seamless process, wouldn't you want to know about it?

There’s a lot that happens from the time your house goes under contract to closing day. And a few things still have to go right for the deal to go through. But here’s what a lot of sellers may not know.

There's one part of the process where some homeowners are hitting a road bump that’s causing buyers to back out these days. But don’t worry. The majority of these snags are completely avoidable, especially when you understand what’s causing them and how to be proactive.

That’s where a great agent (and a little prep) can make all the difference.

What’s Causing Some Buyers To Back Out

The latest data from Redfin says …

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How To Sell Your Home With Less Stress & For Top Dollar In 2025

Attend our FREE Home Selling Seminar or Webinar to help you get the most money and get your home sold fast.

In only 1-1.5 hours, learn inside secrets from a top Real Estate Broker specializing in selling homes in the Central Texas area. Learn how to sell your home fast, easily, and put more money in your pocket. Reserve your seat and learn:

• How long will it take to get your home sold?
• What are the current market conditions?
• What are the updates that give the biggest return on investment?
• Do you really need to make updates or can you sell as-is?

In-Person Seminar Dates:

December 10th, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Moonshine Grill in Avery Ranch

December 11th, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Cedar Park Recreation Center

Online Webinar…

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That's Not Going To Work! Episode 1: Will Buyers Trust You?

By Eric Peterson

Last month I said I would start telling stories of all the homes where people who contacted me but went in a different direction. Here’s the first story from the series “That’s NOT going to work.”

One of the reasons we have a great business is people trust us. When you’re selling your home, something I encourage you to do is think about whether or not buyers are going to trust you. 

Earlier in the year I was contacted by a couple who are the original owners of a 25-year-old home. One of the issues they have is when the home was built the builder didn’t connect the tub overflow correctly. In all the years they lived in the home they never had that fixed and don’t think buyers will care about it. 

In reality it’s probably a…

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Why Some Homes Sell Quickly & Others Don’t Sell At All

A few years ago, inventory hit a record low. Just about anything sold – and fast. But now, there are far more homes on the market. Listings are up almost 20% from this time last year. And in some areas, supply is even back to levels we last saw in 2017–2019. For sellers, that means one thing:

Your house needs to stand out and grab attention from day one.

That’s especially true when you consider why the number of homes for sale is up. Here’s how it works. Available inventory is a mix of: 

• Active Listings: homes that have been sitting on the market, but haven’t sold yet
• New Listings: homes that were just put on the market

Data from Realtor.com shows most of the inventory growth lately is actually from active listings that are staying on…

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Common Misunderstandings About Taxes Keeping People Stuck

Because we are Real Estate Brokers you probably think we try to talk people into selling their home. That isn’t true, but what I do try to do is make sure people who contact me aren’t staying where they are due to misunderstanding how financial things work. This month there were 2 misunderstandings that seemed to come up frequently so I wanted to address them with you, too. 

Misunderstanding #1 – If You Sell And Buy Another Home Your School Taxes Will Go Up

This is a comment a friend made to a post on Facebook. 

"In Texas it rarely makes sense for a long-time boomer homeowner to sell a home to attempt to downsize because the frozen school taxes keep many in their older home."

Here was my response... 

"Thanks for bringing that up. I…

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How Much Does a New Roof Cost in Austin? Real Bid Examples

How Much Does A New Roof Cost In Austin?

If you’re a homeowner in Austin or Cedar Park, one of the most common questions we hear is, “How much does a new roof cost?” The truth is, roof replacement prices can vary widely depending on the contractor, materials, and your home’s unique needs. Before selling a home, many of our clients ask about whether they should replace the roof and how much it will impact the sale. To give you an example, one of our clients recently requested bids from three different roofing companies here in Central Texas—and the estimates ranged from $16,850 to $27,482 for the exact same house.

Real Examples Of Roof Replacement Bids

Earlier in the year one of our clients replaced his roof before we listed his house. He went…

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Yes, we are still selling homes!

Whenever someone asks me “How’s the market?” or wants to talk about interest rates, my initial response is to say how many homes we have under contract at that time. 

It’s my way of saying we aren’t waiting for the market to get better and we aren’t waiting for interest rates to go down. There’s so much negativity in the real estate market from the media and other Realtors so in large part this is my response because it reminds me to stay positive. It’s much harder to be negative about the real estate market when you have 10 homes under contract. 

The flip side of this is I’m not going to give anyone advice based on being unrealistically optimistic. In Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” he wrote about the “Stockdale Paradox.” The short version is…

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