Another housing valuation site?

With all the hoopla surrounding the launch of Zillow.com, Richard Bartons the founder of Expedia.com’s newest venture, I was expecting something that might revolutionize the real estate industry in the way Expedia helped to transform the travel industry. Instead we get a website providing online home valuations??!! The website launch’s anticipation build-up by the media created a traffic frenzy that apparently took Zillow offline for most of the day yesterday.

I’m sorry, but online Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) just isn’t very exciting. The website looks nice and there’s an easy to use interface, but there are plenty of players already in the market offering similar services, albeit, not for free. For instance, HouseValues.com services come with the baggage that your contact information is fed to hungry real estate agents in your area. They make money off of referrrals, so I guess Zillow represents a step up for consumers in that regard. ElectronicAppraiser.com offers housing sale statistics for consumers for a modest price.

From interviews with Barton, it seems that the goal is web traffic and then turning that traffic into revenue in some form or fashion. The idea of capturing enough online viewers to make SOMETHING happen worked fairly well for Expedia. So what’s the end game here. It’s not apparent how the revenue will be generated except perhaps from advertising.

One is left to believe that there has to be another or two offering still to come from this website. Perhaps the free house valuation is a lead-in to other ventures. Otherwise, I’m not sure what all the excitement was about.

See Also

  • Zillow
    Founder of Expedia launches home valuation website