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18 Jul
Author: Joshua Dorkin • URL: http://www.biggerpockets.com/
as Uncategorized
With all of its might, the great Yahoo has moved into the home valuation game to compete with the guys at RealEstateABC.com, Realtor.com, and Zillow.com.
BUT WAIT
Yahoo is not going at it alone. Zillow is the provider of Yahoo’s valuations. While I appreciate Zillow and wouldn’t mind working with them (more on that in a minute), I would think Yahoo would come up with their own way of competing. I guess the guys at the big Z are destined to take over the universe . . . move over everyone. None of these sites have gotten it perfect yet, and I was hoping Yahoo’s entry into the game would force everyone to really push the envelope. There is still hope, though. We’ll just give it a bit more time.
Just a brief note on working with Zillow. I’ve sent a few email requests through their site to get in touch to discuss possibly partnering with thier site, but have yet to hear a response. In an attempt to be a bit more personal, I searched their site for some number or contact person I could get in touch with. Nothing. The only phone numbers I found on the site were for media inquiries. I don’t understand how a major player like Zillow does not publish their contact information. Just a bit frustrating. I sent an email to one of the media addresses I found to see if she could get me in. . . I’ll keep you all posted.

4 Responses
Comments
David Gibbons
July 19th, 2006 at 7:09 am
1Hi, it’s David G from Zillow.com
Thanks for the post — we’re very excited about the Yahoo! partnership and the opportunity to provide a Zestimate to a far larger audience.
My apologies that you’ve not received a personal response regarding the feedback you sent us. We read it all but to ensure that Zillow remains a free service, it is not in our plan to staff up a customer service team to personally reply to the thousands of users that send feedback each week.
If you outlined your business proposal in the messages sent to us, those will have been forwarded to the relevant business developer at Zillow. If not, please feel free to e-mail me the details and I’ll pass them on. Again, we’ve received far more interest in partnerships than we can begin to act on at this time — I appreciate your patience.
Thanks again.
Administrator
July 19th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
2Ahh…the power of blogging. Thanks David for getting in touch. I recieved your email and have spoken with the people you referred me to. We will discuss our ideas with your people and sort things out.
All my best, and again, nice to hear from you!
Josh
Greg Isabel
August 30th, 2006 at 8:56 am
3Zillow is way off on it’s estimate of my parents condo in Siesta Key, FL! I have written two e-mails explaining that every two bedroon at 420 Beach Road that has the same square footage should be valued at roughly the same price but to no avail (contacting Zillow to correct this huge discrepency is like personally contacting the President!). My folks have been there for 19 years in #707 and have a low accessed value from the City of Sarasota for tax purposes as they use the condo as their primary residence and qualify for the FL homestead exemption with a yearly cap on raising their condos’ accessed value. And yet their condo is listed at an appraisal of $846,000 while the exact same units on even lower floors of the building are valued at $903,000 to well over 1 million. Needless to say, they are trying to sell and have encountered some people who use Zillow. Zillow should do a little more to make certain of their “Zestimates” which seem as if they are really “guesstimates” at best!
Joshua Dorkin
August 30th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
4Zillow is merely a tool to help with the overall picture. You should never use the site alone or any other valuation site for that matter without doing your homework to get a real CMA. One of the best services real estate agents provide is the ability to come up with a relatively good price estimate for a property. Perhaps your parents should look at using one.
Good luck to you and your folks.
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