Zillow

About Zillow

Zillow is an online residential real estate service launched on February 8, 2006. Zillow provides customers with information and resources that previously had been available only to those who were actually in the real estate business. Zillow has international ties, specifically in England, with Sotheby's International. This came about through the expansion of Zillow's existing marketing agreement with the real estate giant Realogy on February 19, 2007.

Zillow prides itself on offering free services to its websites. Individuals and real estate agents can search for and obtain real estate data and information for free. Additionally, Zillow allows both real estate agents and individuals selling their own homes and properties to post ads on the Zillow website for free.

The main categories on the Zillow website are "Homes", "Mortgage", "Advice", "Local Info" and "More". The "Homes" category lists homes that are for sale by the owner, as well as homes that have been made available through foreclosure. In addition, they offer a section titled "Make Me Move Homes" and also provide information on recent home sales.

The "Mortgage" category includes information on mortgage rates, mortgage calculators, which let prospective home buyers get an idea of how much their monthly payment would be a help center and a blog site.

The "Advice" category offers tips and information on buying and selling homes, types of mortgages and the housing market. In addition, it provides information on local topics in the area where homes are located. Other topics in the "Advice" category include "Home Ownership", "Home Improvement", "Home Q&A" and a "Pro to Pro” section for realtors, agents and others in the real estate field. A "Tools" section allows users to ask questions or start discussions.

The "Directory" has listings for real estate agents and mortgage lenders, as well as other listings. The "Tools" section there invites agents and lenders to join the directory. The "Local Info" category offers just that-local information concerning people, home prices and values and even schools. There is also an opportunity to view photos. Additionally, statistical information is provided on homes and condos. The "More" section is a mixture of blogs and articles dealing with Zillow offerings and other subjects, with a "Tools" section which provides information on advertising with Zillow and adding applications to websites.

The Zillow web page features includes listings on homes for sale, places for sellers to post listings, information on home values that homeowners can access and free market listings for real estate professionals.

Zillow got its start when Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, who created Expedia.com, were considering their next business venture in early 2005. They began to consider real estate, due in part to Rich's ongoing obsession (which began as early as 1989) about introducing real estate to the online world. He went so far as to compose a written plan for a consumer real estate service, but it "fell by the wayside" for approximately 15 years.

Rich and Lloyd continued to look for new business ventures, although both were separately in buying houses. Lloyd's own struggles with the complexities of real estate-location information, composing data spreadsheets and trying to figure out exactly what a home was worth through difficult calculations-led him to consider how he could make it easy both for himself and others.

From there, he went on to ponder the further idea of letting consumers have access to the same information as real estate agents and the tools for making their own calculations and obtaining their own data on their most important investment-their home.

From this, Zillow ("'Z'illions of pieces of data about the place where you lay your head at night-on your 'P'illow").