Zillow - Incredible Insight in Real Estate
September 21st, 2007 by Jeremiah Gall jeremiah@flipkey.comZillow.com is a fantastic service, packed with information that is useful to the general homeowner, vacation rental managers and anyone involved in real estate. Zillow began with the idea of helping consumers determine how much a home is worth by giving them access to data points and comparable home sales in the area. With an open platform for adding user-generated home listings and content, Zillow has created a vibrant community.
I claimed the vacation home in Mattapoisett, MA that my family has operated for over 25 years. Leveraging public database information, recent sales and other claimed homes, Zillow calculates a Zestimate for the value of our home. Through Zillow I can add to the description of the house, adjust/update house facts, and can even set a ‘Make Me Move’ price - the price I’d be willing to sell the house for. The community features allow homeowners or prospective buyers to discuss the area with neighbors.
This becomes interesting for vacation rental managers as a tool to monitor home sales in their region, cultivate community with their neighbors and generate more owner-clients. The map below shows my neighborhood with recent sales flagged in yellow.
Yesterday, Zillow announced that they recently closed a $30 million financing round, bringing their total funding to date to $87 million. Zillow has big plans for the real estate industry and we’re very interested in the tools and features Zillow will continue to develop.
As a proponent of the vacation rental industry, FlipKey continues to recognize the value in ancillary services to help promote the industry. We recommend that property managers and owners familiarize themselves with the bevy of free Internet tools in this space. There are many unique ways (some that we haven’t even thought of yet!) in which services like Zillow can help you with your vacation rental endeavors.
September 21st, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Great post on zillow, I’m a real estate agent and I actually rarely use them. mainly because I consider them my competition, for sale by owner = no job for me. I encourage people to do research on their own with sites like these yet I always try and have more information for my clients. I actually point my customers to http://www.HouseFront.com, it is a little easier to use (simpler interface), and their estimates blow away zillows, making it easier for me to explain the price differences to clients. So my recommendation is stear clear, but I agree it can be an alright tool for information. Great post!