Thu 12 Oct 2006
Separated at Birth?
Posted by Marlow Harris under Real Estate
www.FastValues.com
“Enter your ZIP Code
to view recent home sales in your area”
www.ValueMyHouse.com
“ValueMyHouse offers prospective home sellers a FREE home value report, completed by one exclusive real estate professional. Following the introduction, the real estate professional has an opportunity to provide listing assistance.”
www.HouseValues.com
“….simply enter your ZIP Code/Postal Code in the box below, and we’ll take it from there!”
Are these other companies purposely trying to confuse the homeowner? Not to mix metaphors, but it seems odd to hitch one’s wagon to a dead horse like this.
House Values announced second quarter earnings and earnings per share dropped from 14 cents to 7 cents per share. HouseValues said it no longer expects to meet previously announced earnings projections, and has decided “to discontinue its practice of providing explicit guidance” on the company’s financial outlook “because of the unclear near-term impact of a changing real estate market, as well as entry into new businesses with which the company has less history.”
HouseValues will release financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2006 immediately following the close of the market on Tuesday, October 31, 2006. The company will host a corresponding conference call and live webcast at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Register for conference call.
Why would your average home seller enter all kinds of identifying information on an online form, just to get contacted by some real estate weasel, when they can go to Zillow and have their real estate data fix fulfilled with a couple of clicks of a mouse for free…..
More on HouseValues business model
October 13th, 2006 at 11:10 am
“Why would your average home seller enter all kinds of identifying information on an online form, just to get contacted by some real estate weasel, when they can go to Zillow and have their real estate data fix fulfilled with a couple of clicks of a mouse for free…..”
Yeah, very good question. Or at the very least, why not contact an agent yourself (one that you’ve heard is good) as opposed to leaving it up to (seemingly shady) sites like that?
October 13th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
I’m not sure the public realizes that these “value your house” sites are lead generators for real estate agents. A consumer would be better off looking directly for an agent that has either been referred to them or that has enough info on their website, blog, or other sources to give a clear picture of the agent’s services.
As to Zillow? I’d be careful of going to Zillow for valuation info. I used my former house (sold 2 years ago) and my current home (purchased 2 years ago) to check Zillow accuracy. Both were off in their valuation by over $20,000 (10%+ or -)! Not to mention that Zillow used comps for my current home that weren’t even in the same city and the closest one was 5.6 miles away! Not exactly accurate. An agent or appraiser is your most accurate source of evaluating the value of a home.
October 15th, 2006 at 8:20 am
Who has the most advertising dollars to spend? Housevalues does lots of television advertising.
Zillow has been riding the waves of free press since their launch.
Google the phrase “how much is my house worth” and Housevalues has the two top spots, one paid, one natural.
I agree with Bonnie, that an average homeowner doesn’t realize what Housevalues does.
BTW, I just zillowed my own home. They report a “one week change of -$8,159.”