We’re now stable

20 Comments so far

1. Paul Furio on February 8, 2006 2:41 pm

   Great site! I went and looked up a house that I’d lost a bid on the other week. Your Zestimate was within $7k of the max we were willing to pay, a number I carefully calculated after doing lots of research on my own.

   The winning bidder got the house, but overpaid by $50k, easily. We don’t live there, but at least we can rest knowing that our offer was fair and reasonable, and our math checked out.

2. Cindi G on February 8, 2006 4:02 pm

   I just discovered Zillow today! I’ve been obtaining my home buying data from King County’s parcel viewer and the mls, but now you guys have compiled all that data for me. What a fun site. Thank you!

3. Daniel K on February 8, 2006 5:05 pm

   I looked up my home’s zestimate and it was low. The reason must be because an identical home two units down that sold last November for considerably more doesn’t show that sale, even though other homes in the area that have sold more recently are shown as having done so and the info is available in the public records. I’ve sent in detailed info about the issue through the feedback form, but it seems that a form for reporting errors would make sense.

   It would also be nice if the message text area on that form wasn’t so tiny (i.e. displayed more lines and allowed carriage returns).

   Otherwise, pretty cool site.

4. Chase D. on February 8, 2006 5:31 pm

   As a Realtor I have my eye on this rapidly changing business and determined to understand the changes and change with it. In short, Zillow.com has giving me useful information to better serve my clients and grow my business. Finally someone is providing MLS and FSBO information in one place for all of us to use. It’s a shame that the MLS just hasn’t gotten it yet. I’m hopeful that you guys at Zillow.com will be Realtor friendly as this site grows. Great job and I look forward to added features!

   Chase D.

5. Daniel J on February 8, 2006 5:32 pm

   Great site, thank you for bringing this to the public.

6. Joe Matthews on February 8, 2006 9:29 pm

   Great site! I read about it in the WSJ this morning and immediately ran to check out Cary & Apex, NC. It’s terrific! Great data, all put together. Even at this Beta stage, it is exciting and I can’t wait for more features. Makes my life as a Realtor easier and I am sure this site will benefit a lot of people.

   Thanks for a great job!
   Joe Matthews
   (919) 363-4418

7. Derrick Ruiz on February 8, 2006 9:51 pm

   Fret not fellow Realtors. Another web company that thinks they are going reinvent the real estate business. Unlike the travel or seurities business the human expertise factor in valuating real estate will never be replaced by websites. Yeah it’s a cool gizmo and fun to play with but after the hype dies down it will be just like every other company that thinks they can reinvent our industy.

   I love their use of the term “empowering the consumer” with this site. You want to empower the consumer? Hook him up with a local broker with expertise in the local market. Hook him up with a mortgage broker who can finance someone who wants to buy a million dollar triplex with 5% down and a Fico score in the low 600’s. That’s how you empower people.

   The business will always come down to this: Smart, hardworking brokers doing open house, sending mailers, cold calling, networking, emailing,
   creating websites, and answering the phones in order to meet prospective buyers and sellers. It is not rocket science but it works in every market in the country.

   I’ll be watching the development of this company to see what happens. Should be fun but I doubt earth shattering!

8. Ken Waters on February 8, 2006 10:19 pm

   Hey, great technology. But is there any way to correct wrong data, especially if it’s substantially off? Some info was amazingly dead on, other, way off — like bedrooms, baths, square feet. And that was with just TWO samples: mine and my parents home. How could “corrections” be verifiable? Homeowners hire a “Zillow certified” fact checker? (hint, hint) A new industry you’ve created as well!

9. Jon Bell on February 8, 2006 10:40 pm

   Joe Matthews:

   I worked as an assistant to a realtor in 1997/1998 in the Bay Area, and even then everyone was scared about this very kind of site.

   Yes, the personal touch is important. But what’s more important is being able to do some research on my own. Since I can’t access MLS on the internet, realtors have benefitted from being the main information source for checking out comps.

   I’m thrilled that zillow has stripped this information from the official realtors so that everyone can be more informed.

   We’ll soon see how important the human touch really is, now that the genie is finally out of the bottle.

10. tomdavie on February 8, 2006 10:52 pm

    This site is great. Its good to see that someone has finally created a comprehensive, easy to use tool for homeowners. Now everyone can see for themselves what their home may be worth.

11. Pete on February 8, 2006 11:20 pm

    If the goal is to make housing prices as transparent as stock prices why not try to analazye the P/E ratio? You could pull information on the going rent for houses/apartments and compare it to the zestimate. Rent information is readily available on Craigslist. A high P/E ratio would help show if the market is over inflated. I shared my idea with Domania and the guy who did housingmaps.com but they didn’t get it. Maybe you guys are smarter.

12. james haft on February 9, 2006 4:14 am

    Most the data for Manhattan and NYC seems to be for buildings, rather than apartments. Will this be addressed?

13. Jay Dwivedi on February 9, 2006 6:57 am

    An excellent website and great business model. Here is a suggestion, though. Your database does not have the latest data on all home sales. For instance, I know the sale price of a home sold next door a few months ago. It would be nice to add that information manually to view a better estimate.

14. Praveen on February 9, 2006 7:27 am

    A truly great site. MLS is one of the few outposts of monopoly that has successfully resisted the onslought of free information on the Internet. Zillow has smartly gone around MLS and tapped other available sources of information. I can see Zillow spurring a broader trend in providing consumers with timely and crucial information regarding what is often their most valuable investement and retirment account - their homes.

15. ken on February 9, 2006 8:41 am

    I thought this was really cool until I tried to find my house in SF and according to the site it doesn’t exist! You have the houses on both sides, but not mine. Nice try.

16. Gearspring on February 9, 2006 9:21 am

    Things are a little broken. I have had to enter a verification number 15 times, and the best result is a return to your home page. The worst result is no data. In between I get asked for a new verification code.

    Let me take a number, and like the deli, you will let me know when it is my turn to be served. Instead you have 300,000 visitors with a bad first impression.

    Your valuation is only as good as your data. In my one zestimate, your data was wrong. You trust public records which are provably wrong, but don’t trust your users. That is not web 2.0

17. Rebecca Smith on February 27, 2006 4:31 pm

    I just found your site and immediately attempted to look up information related to 3 different property addresses. Each and every time it indicated the site “couldn’t find the home.” I then decided to contact a local title company to see if they could get me the same information. I just received the fax from the title company….not as easy, but at least I received the information I was looking for….better keep working on it!

18. D. J. on February 27, 2006 8:15 pm

    As a real estate appraiser and a part time speculator, I was very interested in running some of my more recent appraisals and purchases in your program. In many of the cases, your values were coming in much lower than my values. This is especially true in neighborhoods where lender foreclosure sales entered in the Mls are a higher percentage of the neighborhood. The typical user would not be able to differentiate these sales from ligitimate sales and know to remove them from the comparison. When they are not removed the value is skewed sharply lower. I have not read the sites information, maybe you have disclosed this can be a problem. If you have not, it probably would be helpful.

19. James Lennox on March 1, 2006 10:18 am

    We fully understand the Start Up period.
    Your program has great promise and we are sure it will be refined continuously for a long time.
    Found errors in our evaluation and sent messages regarding these errors. Not sure how you will be able to handle the significant volume of messages. Good Luck and Keep a Large Pot of Coffee within reach of at least another year.

20. Leawood Real Estate on April 15, 2008 8:46 pm

    Wow, Zillow and the Zillow blog have come a long way since this post.