HouseValues.com requires users to give up a slew of personal information to get an estimated worth of their own home. They also must agree to be contacted by a real estate agent that pays HouseValues.com for the sales lead.
In contrast, Zillow never stores or shares your personal information and provides you not just with your own home's value, but that of your neighbors, your friends, even your boss. For now, all Zillow does for money is place Google ads next to the map of the homes a user is viewing.
Since Zillow will probably be able to draw oodles of eyeballs, however, it shouldn't be too hard to monetize some of those visitors via targeted ads. Chances are strong that local real estate agents will soon be bidding to sponsor any page that includes houses in their zip code. And discount real estate brokerage companies such as ZipRealty Inc. will soon run site-wide banner ads. "
In short, Zillow could become the eBay of home sales, receiving a small cut of every sale or a fixed price for every lead provided. If it worked, it would be huge, for the company as well as home buyers and sellers รข€” considering the fixed 6% commissions affixed to most home sales in America or even the still-hefty reduced commissions of the discount brokers.
1 comment:
If you checked out Zillow and weren't happy with their tax assessed "zestimates" check out www.HomePriceMaps.com
HomePriceMaps.com integrates Home Sale prices pulled from public records with google maps.
Post a Comment