metaViper

If you’re looking to buy or sell a house, sometimes it’s difficult to determine a fair price. Beyond that, it can be useful to understand market trends. For example if there are a lot of houses selling in a particular region it may be a signal to investigate.

That’s where Zillow comes in handy. The site immediately presents a couple of search boxes to identify what area you’re interested in. After that it generates a map showing homes that are for sale, recently sold, or make me move (for those with deeper pockets). There are also a variety of filtering options on a left nav bar and each property listed shows price and many provide pictures and detailed descriptions.

This is making some folks in the real estate business uncomfortable as one of their value drivers is providing the same statistical information Zillow now hands out freely.