HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--If you're embarrassed about the value of your house on Zillow, don't fret. You can upgrade it.
The Web site, which tries to determine the value of houses and then serves up the data through its site, has a process in which users can add additional information about their homes that may not be reflected in the public records the company scours, according to Amy Bohutinsky, director of communications at the ThinkEquity Partners' Think Tomorrow Today conference taking place at Half Moon Bay, Calif. (not to be confused with the I Know You Are, But What Am I symposium in nearby El Granada).
Thus, if you've had a major kitchen upgrade or turned the garage into a Jungle Room, you can submit the information to Zillow. In turn, the amendments can upgrade the value of your home.
So far, around 700,000 homeowners have done this, she said. You can learn about the process here.
She also whipped out some interesting facts about the site. Around 33 million homes have been viewed at least once. 90 percent of its users own a home and 50 percent are currently buying or selling a home (which explains why you may want to get those amendments in).
She also said that the price estimates Zillow produces are within a 7.2 percent margin of error on average and are within a 4.3 margin of average within the San Francisco Bay Area. Thus, if Zillow spits out an estimate of $430,000 on a tumbledown shack near a fish processing plant in Sausalito, it's probably pretty close.
SEATTLE--Many homeowners use Zillow to get a quick sense of how much their house is worth, the mega-rich included.
Speaking at a conference for Microsoft's top digital advertisers, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said he has even used the site to check the value of his lavish home. "Oh yeah," Gates said. However, he said Zillow's estimate is far too low.
"If you bid that number on my house I won't sell it to you," Gates said. He noted that Zillow's technology, while it does make good use of Microsoft's Virtual Earth for maps, has an algorithm that doesn't necessarily scale well to the high or low end of the housing market. "They are great for the part that counts," he said.
Update: As noted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Zillow lists Gates' house for $135 million.
To many in the real estate establishment, Zillow appeared to embody all the threats of online displacement that the industry feared most when the site was unveiled earlier this year. Yet, for all its potential and the addictive nature of its mashups, it wasn't obvious to us how such services would make money other than advertising revenue.
Now, another online real estate challenger has answered at least part of that question. Viewr uses AJAX and other Web 2.0 technologies to go where Zillow and others seem to have left off (at least for now) in its quest to "create a unified, global real estate community."
Like many other sites of its kind, Viewr aims to be a one-stop shop for all real estate needs, from maps and virtual tours to market research and agent networking. But one thing makes it stand apart: the creation of an international community where buyers can post exactly what they're looking for and sellers can meet their specific needs. If done effectively, this feature could drastically reduce the endless searches buyers must typically endure while scouring disparate listings and Realtor sites--a key function of agents today.
Once buyers post the requirements for their dream homes, for example, they can set up email alerts and other mechanisms to inform them when a potential house is entered into the database. Conversely, aggressive sellers can seek out buyers based on those requirements. Viewr plans to make its money through fees for listings, video services and research data, as well as some ads.
CEO Karl Lingenfelder uses the term "empowerment" a lot when he told us about Viewr, and that extends to agents, as well as buyers and sellers--which is an important approach to note. Rather than trying to put agents out of business, such sites as Viewr and Redfin are seeking to work with them.
That seems to make a lot of sense. Unlike industries such as the travel business, where consumers can easily replicate the work of agents (booking flights and hotels), home buyers and sellers face a daunting process upon completing a deal. Even though such do-it-yourself services as ForSaleByOwner.com have proliferated, many consumers remain intimidated by the endless paperwork overflowing with legal jargon.
We bet that it won't be long, however, before the Viewrs and Zillows of the world include those closing services in their core offerings as well, doing them either by themselves or through partners. The big question will be who gets that business--and for what kind of commissions.
To say that start-up Zillow has created a buzz in the real-estate industry could be one of the understatements of the year. It has already generated so much interest, in fact, that at least one blog (HouseHunting 101) has begun tracking what other blogs are saying about it.
Why so much interest? Easy. Even though other realty sites have been around for awhile, Zillow raises the bar significantly by crunching its own numbers and coming up with a potential price tag for your home--something that sellers usually pay real estate agents for. But Zillow also raises the prospect of providing related services that go well beyond home valuations, greatly easing the daunting procedures of buying and selling homes in today's complex market.
Translation: A lot of people in the real estate food chain feel threatened. Appraisers are the most obvious potential victims, but the housing ecosystem reaches far and wide: Think, for example, how much easier it is to search for a home in desire areas Zillow's satellite maps, rather than hunting through classified ads in the newspaper that have few photos and give no sense of neighborhood, property history or comparable values.
So even though Zillow may have some early problems--the most comment criticism seems to be the accuracy of its "zestimates"--it represents the kind of game changer that can revolutionize an industry.
Blog community response:
"As accuracy improves, Zillow may spell the end of appraisal fraud. A quick Zillow search of a suspect appraisal will easily shine the light on a padded value. Even with the current margin of error, underwriters can use this tool to identify other comps in the area, and see the overall estimated value of the neighborhood as a whole."
--lenderama
"Zillow doesn't help me track the transaction, order the inspections, schedule showings, deliver the contracts, ensure the financing is secure, inspect the title, coordinate the closing, manage client anxiety, advertise the property, create the property-specific Web sites, hold an open house, set up an estate saleĀ...or do any of the hundreds of specific tasks necessary to successfully close a real estate transaction."
--Twin Cities Real Estate Blog
"One common development idea is new search engines which are specific to particular areas of search where they can specialize and provide much deeper and current information than Google, Yahoo, or MSN are able to manage. Zillow is one such search engine invading the Real Estate industry. They've come under fire from real estate agents who are concerned that Zillow may have the same damaging effect on their business as travel sites had on travel agents."
--SEO Litaracy Consultants
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