Zillow Real Estate Data Coming to a Site Near You
alain
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Real estate search company Zillow has opened two APIs to allow other sites to utilize its data on homes around the US. The company made news last month when Yahoo! became one of the earliest users of the pre-launch API on its real estate site. There were more than 30 pre-launch users of the API in total, also including Prudential Northern California and Nevada, ZipRealty and Redfin.
In addition to its own data, Zillow now includes home information uploaded by home owners.
The site also offers mobile access and a 3-D view of homes based on Microsoft’s “bird’s eye view.” If you haven’t tried entering a few addresses into Zillow before, I recommend doing it for fun if nothing else.
Now third parties will be able to access and incorporate on their web sites either of two data sets, one on home valuations and the other on property details. Use of the APIs is free and users can make 1,000 per day by default. This is a very smart marketing move on Zillow’s part. One of the best ways for small web sites to grow in functionality and sophistication is to offer rich data from off-site integrated into their own offerings. That’s happening with everything from video search to syndicated photographs as well. The move towards highly portable data makes this a very exciting time for small web site publishers, who are more easily than every before able to wrap a feature rich environment around their own core value proposition.
Seattle based Zillow has raised a massive $57 million in venture backing and launched its beta site in February of this year. To go from launch to being one of the major providers of data to top sites in your field in 8 months is impressive. That’s made possible in large part because of Zillow’s executive team, lead by Expedia founder and former CEO Rich Barton and former Expedia senior vice president Lloyd Frink.
Other startups doing similar work include Trulia , RealEstateABC, and Redfin.
I love this site. It’s simple and easy to use. Spent a lot of time when it first came out looking up Zestimate of houses in my neighborhood. While the Zestimate is just an estimate, I still think it’s useful information to have when you’re in the marketing for buy a house.
Nice that they raised lots of money to keep developing the project, anyway was thinking that they could make work their site correctly on web browser Safari too for very cheap…
Zillow freakin’ rocks. My favorite thing to do is to run a WHOIS report on an e-commerce store and find out the owner’s address. Good way to see if they’re making good money!
Steve, nice one. I like that. However, a lot of times the WHOIS info isn’t for the owner/CEO but that of some admin/tech person.
Actually, the new API does not allow third parties to access information uploaded by the home owners, but deeper information about a property that zillow already had. This includes sqft, bed, bath, county, last sale date, last sale price, type of home, and year built. Comparables can now also include this information. So yea, just wanted to point that out.
Hi Stefano,
This is Bryan from Zillow.com and I just wanted to elaborate on why Safari isn’t currently supported. As a Mac user myself I understand the frustration of not having Safari support. The good news is that we’ve been working with Apple to ensure the next version of Safari is capable of supporting our site.
Stay tuned for an update following the next release of Safari.
Thanks
Bryan.
We will be tied into the API, should provide our users with some great data.
does anyone else think it’s a turning point that homeowners can now enter their own descriptive data about their property (subjective, in their control) and append that to the zillow data (objective, out of their control)?
i notice windows live maps allows one to do something similar by letting you add text and descriptive information to a destination pushpin on the map so it’s there the next time you check out the route.
it looks like the power of group contributions and interaction is making its way into the most mundane of tasks so now we should really see things begin to change.
of course i did just have a lot of chocolate so it could be the sugar talking.
I don’t see any listings up here in canada - we can only drool!
Too bad they got hit by a FTC complaint today. Zillow’s Zestimates are coming under fire.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.....source=rss
wow, $57mm into Zillow is kinda scary. Sounds like they’ve gotten a few naive VC’s to drink the Kool Aid. Maybe the $57mm is a “Zestimate” and it’s actually some sane amount like $10-$15mm.
Quote from the text: “Use of the APIs is free and users can make 1,000 per day by default. This is a very smart marketing move on Zillow’s part.”
I realise thats a lot of houses, but the $57mil might not be so strange if you keep that part in mind too.. real estate is big business with a lot of money going around in it.. if Zillow can manage to get on top of the whole bunch that 57 is quickly going to turn around into something with a zero behind it I’d think
This is great. I’d like to use the API to create a service that allows you to monitor the declining value of your home.
It’s a great site, however in my neighborhood their “Market Assessed” values were WAY old, and far below what the homes are going for. A nearby home was assesed on zillow (not a zestimate) at 127k, and it recently sold for 276k.
My worry is that with this “old data” and trying to pin specific values on specific homes, you will have a lot of buyers in the market with unrealistic expectations.
Plus, my home was built 3 years ago, and the listed value on zillow was for what the builder financed to build it…not for what it was worth after construction.
Steven -
Hi, it’s David from Zillow. The Market Assessed Value is not a Zestimate, it is calculated by your county apraisor’s office. We display the market assessed value when we don’t have enough data to calculate a Zestimate.
Sorry for the confusion. Here’s a post that explains this in more detail:
http://www.zillowblog.com/zill.....zesti.html
With varying values, it is all the more reason why buyers need an exclusive buyer agent to help analyze sales data and negotiate the best price for a home.
Sorry if I’m missing it, but I’ve been using Zillow for a while, and the one thing that I’d really like doesn’t seem to be available…. ability to zoom in on an area, and see what homes are currently on the market.
I understand that Zillow is about home valuations (amongst other things), but it would be really nice to zoom in on a few blocks and have icons pop up based on homes currently on the market.
If this is available already, my bad, I’ll go back and put on my training wheels.
As it is, Zillow is one piece of the house-hunting process, as opposed to a “one stop shop” (which they do not claim to be, don’t get me wrong).
I know all about the MLS, etc… (I live in Los Angeles where real estate is out of control & house hunting is a full-contact sport) but if someone knows where he/she wants to live, why not just let them bring up a map & put up icons where homes are on the market.
I can’t be the first one to think of this. Does anyone know of such a site?
Dan -
It’s David from Zillow. You’re right - we don’t have “for sale” properties (today). Stick with us. In the meantime, I think you can search your local MLS online here: http://guests.themls.com/
Very entertaining issue. I haven’t heard of this one. It will be necessary to visit you on a thicket!