Looks like the Zillow team has a little surprise in progress; this is what their home page says right now:
What could they be up to? I have a number of ideas, but since I have to run to a sign-off, I’ll have to put them in bullet form instead of elaborating on them.
Zillow has made it clear they have no intention of being a one-trick pony; both Lloyd Frink and Spencer Rascoff have said in public that they’re primarily a media company, and Rascoff alluded in an interview with Robert Scoble that Zillow has more “shows” in the works. Zillow is not a home price estimation site; that was simply its first hit show.
Here, then, are my quick predictions of what this surprise will be:
1) Community commentary — The ability for real estate agents (and perhaps civilians as well) to comment on neighborhoods, trends, homes, etc.
2) Neighborhood “experts” — For a fee, Realtors will be able to “own” a neighborhood and be the only ones to provide commentary on it.
3) Online billboard ads — While you’re looking at a map, you’ll see ads in the form of online billboards hovering over certain neighborhoods. Hey — another opportunity to put our mug shots up in public!
4) Price predictions — Realtors, and again perhaps civilians, will be able to put in predictions of what price certain properties will fetch, giving them an opportunity to go head-to-head with the Zestimate and establish credibility as the neighborhood expert.
What do you think is up?
Tags: Lloyd Frink, Real estate, Spencer Rascoff, Zillow
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Zillow Adds For Sale Postings, Make Me Move, and RE Wiki » Personal Insights on Web 2.0, Blogging, and Business // Dec 6, 2006 at 10:16 pm
[...] Kevin Boer took some guesses as to the product features we were adding tonight when he found our “Holiday Suprise” page (shown below). [...]
2 Wow! You leave for an hour, and Zillow changes the world at Three Oceans Real Estate // Dec 7, 2006 at 1:35 am
[...] Of my four predictions, only one turns out to be correct: community commentary, which is at least part of what the wiki concept seems to be. (Note to self: Keep remaining three predictions on file — maybe they’ll be part of Zillow’s next release!) [...]
3 miOaklandCounty » Blog Archive » My First Zillow Post Ever // Dec 7, 2006 at 7:05 am
[...] Well, I decided I need to go to sleep anyway, in spite of this very timely blog fodder. So I woke up this morning to a plethora of commentary going on out there in the blogosphere. Some of my favorite thoughts on the topic so far, are from Kevin Boer at 3 Oceans. I see merit in Kevin’s 2.0 approach. Well presented, Kevin. Thanks for doing some of my thinking for me. Otherwise I might have been yelling “the sky is falling, the sky is falling” this morning. OK, not really, but… Drew also is tracking the commentary on his blog. I’ll have to do some reading today. I have a feeling we will be talking about this for a while. [...]
4 Joel Burslem // Dec 7, 2006 at 9:54 am
Looks like you got the scoop Kevin!
5 bill // Dec 8, 2006 at 11:10 pm
The “Holiday Surprise” - from Zillow should have been somewhat realistic figures in inner city areas. As an example of Zillow absurdity - the property at 2653 S. Hoover in 90007 zip code is zillowed at $903,604 - it is around 4400 sq. ft. - thoroughly updated about 2 years ago. True price should be around $2,000,000. Is a bit north of USC campus. Home across st. - at zillow price $1,000,000 - probable true value in 1.5 million range. These “errors” are just too large - Zillow founders should meet with Reverend Jackson - at prayer breakfast - explain.
6 ehomesblog.com » Blog Archive » Zillow - the future for property listings online? // Dec 12, 2006 at 4:56 am
[...] Of my four predictions, only one turns out to be correct: community commentary, which is at least part of what the wiki concept seems to be. (Note to self: Keep remaining three predictions on file — maybe they’ll be part of Zillow’s next release!) [...]
7 “Wisdom of Crowds” Meets Real Estate: Introducing My-Currency.com // Feb 1, 2007 at 3:26 pm
[...] Simple, really. Those who are consistently more accurate than others in predicting property prices become neighborhood experts and get highlighted more. For real estate agents, that’s great publicity. For civilians, it just feels good. (Regular readers may remember that this very concept was my prediction #4 on what Zillow was releasing on December 6th. Zillow may not have heeded my hint, but perhaps Karim Tahawi, My-Currency’s CEO, perhaps did?) [...]
8 TRANSPARENT REAL ESTATE (www.TransparentRE.com) // Feb 6, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Everything you need to know about the new Zillow in 15 minutes!…
Zillow’s new site overhaul (announced at 9:00PST) is tonight’s cover story. Here are the principal new features of the new Zillow: allows agents and consumers to post listings free provides a real estate wiki covering real estate…
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