Zillow.com First Impressions

Zillow.com launched today, and since our place is still on the market, I thought I’d check what Zillow’s estimate for 2701 31st Ave NE was. Huh, Zillow puts the marker above the 189,900 we started the listing at. Cool.

Overall, the site is zippy and filled w/ ajax-y goodness (and I can therefore forgive the initial Safari incompatibility). The maps draw fast and come up with more info that I expected.

Outside of finding and refining the value of a house – I’m not sure what else I’d do here – explains the text and banner ads sprinkled across the site.

Of interesting note, I can update house data, add improvements, and choose comparable properties all without creating an account or logging in. The numbers are in Zillow’s terms, “your own private worksheet”. Nice way to provide value without the irritant of another login/password.

The real estate industry is ripe for reform, and Zillow is a much needed start in the right direction of transparency and immediacy. Speaking of transparency, yes, Zillow has a blog.

5 thoughts on “Zillow.com First Impressions

  1. Darrel

    Seems OK. It appears the valuation is based on taxes, not selling prices, so it’ll always list your house as being higher than you’d likely get for it.

    That maps seem nice, but are highly inaccurate, placing our house a block away from its actual location.

  2. Jason

    I went and tried Zillow on my home, big disappointment. It had the price I originally bought my home for in 2003. I added in some details about the home and then it way over-inflated the price. I think their algorithms need some improvement.

  3. renee

    I seem to be having trouble with the website after I put in an address nothing comes up. Used it the other day and everything was fine.

  4. Blondie

    this is a useless website .
    I got no useful information , only assesed values for taxation .
    another over hyped site

  5. SUE

    CHECKED FOUR NEIGHBORHOODS AND ONE WAS APPROXIMATELY CORRECT. THE OTHER THREE WERE JUST BIZARRE!!!!

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