Zillow

Zillow is an extremely cool, innovative, useful and addictive Internet application which recalculates your home’s value every week. It is the brainchild of former Expedia execs Richard Barton and Lloyd Frink.

It pulls together public records of home sales, valuations across a given zip-code, tax assessments and ‘zillions’ of other sources to come up with a “Zestimate value”. The results help buyers and sellers make deals without resorting to a middleman. Of-course this does not settle well with the real-estate agents and they condemn this service while everyone else is hooked! Either way, whether buyer, seller or agent, they have to constantly check it just because its out there and it affects them and also have I mentioned it enough before that it’s addictive?

Even if you are not a homeowner or don’t plan to be one, zillow hooks you in. Everytime I drive by a house in my neighborhood or anywhere else that catches my attention the first thing I do when I’m back home is checkout the ‘Zestimate’ of the home just out of curiosity. There have been many times before Zillow, when I saw a home that I loved or dreamed of, I would wonder how much such a home would cost in that area or how much a similar home would cost in other areas in my state. Zillow spots and feeds this exact curiosity.

There used to be no other way except contacting a real-estate agent to find out the insider details of the home. And often the agents don’t take you very seriously unless you have the intention of buying a home in the very near future. With Zillow you can literally browse through millions of homes not only in your home state but all over the country without any pressure of being forced to take any decision.

I love it and I’m addicted to it! If you want to check it out Click here.

4 Responses

  1. Hi Supriya, it’s David from Zillow,

    I’m so glad to hear that you like the site – thanks for blogging about us!

    Next time you see a home that interests you, you don’t have to wait to get home to get a Zestimate. If your phone has e-mail, just send the address to z@labs.zillow.com and we’ll reply with the Zestimate and home facts.

    More details about Zillow mobile here;
    http://www.zillow.com/labs/ZillowMobile.htm

  2. Check out HouseFront, they are a cool tool similar to Zillow, except you can access it with text messages.

  3. Hi David, Thank you for your comment and response. You know by now that I’m a big fan of Zillow! And thanks for the tip about Zillow mobile.

  4. Hello Chris D, Thanks for the tip about Housefront, I just checked them out. Pretty neat tool ! And mobile access of such sites seem to be the new thing.

Leave a comment