Zillow Knows That Everyone Has A Price

Home listing site Zillow is making it possible to shop for homes that are not necessarily for sale with their new Make Me Move function, which launches on Thursday. Home owners who may have no intention of moving, but certainly would for the right price, can list information about their homes on Make Me Move so that gutsy buyers can try to make a deal.

“What number would it take for you to call the movers and hand over your keys?” said Lloyd Frink, Zillow’s co-founder and president, in a release about the new function. “Make Me Move is our twist on the traditional ‘For Sale’ sign.”

A homeowner can post a Make Me Move price without exposing any personal information. Zillow then enables interested buyers to contact the owner through an email “anonymizer.” The service is free.

Free is the magic word at Zillow lately because the company also announced that it will provide free listings for all home owners and realtors. Listings can include photos, and realtors can also create Web sites for each listing.

Zillow’s third new function is the Real Estate Wiki, which has hundreds of articles on buying, selling, financing, or any topic a owner/buyer might need. Wiki visitors can edit or comment on articles, or create new articles.

These new new announcements are undoubtedly Zillow’s efforts to continue hosting as much real estate information on their site as possible. It’s a sign that they have enough traffic to sell ads and do not need user money to survive. The company launched in early 2006 and has made major announcements all year, including 3D maps, open APIs, and many large rounds of funding. The company claimed 3.2 million users and 70 million home listings as of November.