Tim Maitski of the Atlanta Report predicts that internet powerhouse Zillow might creep into the national scene to become a replacement for the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) operated by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

According to Maitski:

Zillow has the potential to be the standard national MLS system open and free to anyone and everyone. They just introduced a free listing system as a new feature. If they can entice a critical mass of people to put their listings into their system, then it will be a must for everyone who wants to sell a home.

I have a feeling they might have a hard time convincing all the Realtors to put their listings on there but their system is so easy to use that the sellers could very easily do it themselves. So the challenge to Zillow will be to try to become a household name. They seem to be getting a lot of free press lately so it might not be that difficult. In a few years if your home isn’t listed on Zillow it will be the same as someone without email or a cell phone.

I agree with Tim that the company with the best chance of succeeding with a national online MLS is Zillow. Over a year ago, I proposed creating a national online MLS. Since then, states like Maine have taken steps towards breaking down the NAR monopoly over MLSs, but the Zillow news is a breakthorugh.

I noticed earlier today that Zillow was now allowing realtors or homeowners to list their properties for sale. Since I’m currently selling one of my properties, I decided to give it a try and list on Zillow. It was very easy to do. The site is well planned out and the properties for sale addition will certainly raise the stakes for Zillow, but there are quite a few things which make me somewhat nervous. I’ll discuss the most important one, security.

Security Problems

The only security check to determine if you are the actual owner of the property is a dropdown list of names. You have to pick who the real owner of the property is, which takes 3 seconds to find out using public records. I could very easily just list a few homes for sale in my neighborhood on Zillow, theoretically raise the comparable prices for my property, then list my home and trick users into paying a premium. People believe what they see, which makes this “scam” an easy one. Trouble makers could easily game the system in its current form and harm innocent property owners.

At this point, it is still early in the process. Zillow could fix the security issues and other problems and grow to become a true giant - the National MLS. On the other hand, it might just continue to churn along, and sit amongst the crowd of other MLS coulda-beens. I guess we’ll soon find out!

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Tags: listing, MLS, multiple, NAR, national, Real Estate Websites, realtor, service, zestimate

Starting today, Zillow is allowing its users to get their say in what homes are worth by allowing them to enter their own price estimates alongside the site’s proprietary Zestimates. Apparently the move was in response to feedback from the users of the site.

I’ve heard much debate about the accuracy of the Zestimates, both online and off, and I believe that this is a good move for the company. The addition of a new set of “Owner Tools” allows property owners to confirm ownership, edit their home facts, and lastly, create a price estimate and make it public. As public records aren’t always accurate or up-to-date, allowing owners to share information about remodeling work or simply correcting inaccuracies will help to improve the usefulness of the site — something we were hoping for back in April - see post: Top 7 Coolest Real Estate Web 2.0 Sites.

As many of you know already, we partnered with Zillow a few months back to provide their Zestimates right here on BiggerPockets!

Tags: comparables, comps, home, homevalue, house, prices, property, Real Estate Websites, value, zestimate

We at BiggerPockets.com are excited to announce that we’ve joined forces with Zillow.com in an effort to continue to bring helpful tools and resources to the real estate community. Today we are launching a new tool Powered by Zillow, to help users determine the value of their Property as well as find comparable home prices. (See: Press Release)

By going to http://www.BiggerPockets.com and entering any U.S. address in the Property Values & Comparable Home Prices box, or, by going directly to http://www.BiggerPockets.com/homevalue/ users can instantly find out what their home is worth, see what properties in their neighborhood are worth, view a map or satellite view of their property from Google Maps, and find comparable home values.

The folks at Zillow have been very helpful to us, and we’re excited to be working with them.

In the upcoming months we will continue to bring innovative and useful tools to the real estate world. Stay tuned!

Tags: biggerpockets, home, house, real estate, Real Estate Investing, Real Estate Websites, realestate, realestateinvesting, value

Things are changing so fast online, and Web 2.0 is taking over. Mashups are the newest rage for now, and there will certainly be cooler stuff to come in the not so distant future. Hopefully these technologies will continue to make it easier to learn about, buy, sell, or rent properties. What are the coolest real estate web 2.0 sites out there right now?

UPDATED January 6, 2007

1)BiggerPockets.com

BiggerPockets (yup, that’s us!) underwent a fabulous Web 2.0 transformation, and created the Premiere Real Estate Social Networking site out there. With a focus on networking, dealmaking, and education, the site brings a professional approach to the world of real estate for both the consumer and professionals. Join the community and help build your real estate network!

2) Zillow

Zillow came out of nowhere and took the real estate world by storm. It allows anyone to find rough estimates of the valuation of their home by searching comparible properties. While values are not always accurate, the site continues to get it better.

3) RealEstate ABC

RealEstate ABC just released their Beta property valuation tool to compete directly with Zillow. It uses Google Maps in its technology mashup and allows you to do cool things like adjust values of properties given certain market conditions, web 2.0 style, something Zillow does not have. They seem to have beaten Zillow at their own game.

4) Trulia

Trulia scrapes real estate sites to find listings and brings it all together in a clean, well designed site. Using Google maps and RSS feeds, the site seems to have taken the lead in the future of online property listings. I’m looking forward to see how they begin to compete with Craigslist for FSBO listings.

5) HotPads.com

Hotpads.com is an apartment, corporate housing, and roomate search site for the next era. With interactive mapping, great graphics and free listings, this is one site to watch! (Note: they don’t have a ton of listings, yet, but this cool site will catch on)

6) Propsmart

Propsmart.com, is another site that scrapes the web for property listings. Like the others, it uses GoogleMaps for interactivity. Nothing really to write home about, IMO.

7) Google

Who better than Google to use Google’s technology for real estate? The 800-Ton Gorilla is jumping into the game, bringing fear to the hearts of real estate web entrepreneurs everywhere.

HousingMaps (Honorable Mention)
HousingMaps.com is one of the innovators of the real estate space of Web 2.0. Dreamworks software engineer, Paul Rademacher, created a blend of Craigslist and GoogleMaps to introduce one of the first recognized nextgen real estate websites. While not the most beautiful site, this creation kicked off the revolution. A salute to one of the forefathers is in order, I believe!

These sites are all worth keeping your eyes on as leaders in the web 2.0 real estate space. We will look out for any new ones and will certainly keep you posted!

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Tags: Ajax, mashup, real estate 2.0, Real Estate Websites, web 2.0, web20