Zillow Becomes a Lead Vendor
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, those Zany folks at Zillow are at it again.
First they borrow HomeGain’s concept of the web-based instant Home Values tool, a product HomeGain first launched back in 2000.
From HomeGain’s March 9, 2000 press release: “HomeGain’s highly popular valuation tool, for example, gives home sellers an estimated home price value range of their home for free in just 10 seconds, including comparable sales figures for homes in their neighborhood.”
Six years later Zillow introduces “the Zestimate” and wraps it in a big “Z” to much fanfare, press notices and blogging adoration.
Today we learn that Zillow has taken another page out of HomeGain’s book with their launch of the Zillow Mortgage MarketPlace.
Take a look: the concept looks suspiciously like HomeGain’s AgentEvaluator program originally launched in 1999. The major difference being that Zillow’s lead generation program is for mortgage lenders.
Thank you, Zillow, we are truly flattered….. (as I suppose the people over at Hot or Not are about your “new” dueling digs feature, too).
What’s next for Zillow?:
- A move of their corporate headquarters to Zemeryville?
- The creation of BuyerZink?
- Or the adoption of a corporate mascot – perhaps they can call him Zach the Zilla Gorrilla!
Try the HomeGain Instant Home Prices tool.
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Indeed, indeed. What’s even more ironic is that while the Zestimate really popularized the notion of an automated home valuation (which, sadly, Homegain wasn’t quite able to do), here in their mortgage product they’ve gone away from using automated algorithms and back towards using real live human beings to give the quotes. Very ironic.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1052
Kevin you are right.
We took down our instant homevaluation in 2001 after it made no money selling ads around it and we chose to focus on Agent Evaluator instead, which led us to profitability.
Seems like Zillow is taking a similar path
We brought our original homevaluation tool back in early 2007. (but we’ve got bigger plans behind it than just selling ads-to be revealed in the coming months….)
April 3rd, 2008 at 1058
Zis is Zgreat.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1103
Russell Didn’t you know:
Zillow is Reinventing Capitalism?
http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=2887
More like Recycling….
April 3rd, 2008 at 1107
Louis, when you’re counting all the from “no cost” to “free leads”, where are you getting lost?
April 3rd, 2008 at 1110
I suppose I am getting lost in running a business for a profit.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1120
Well, Zlap me. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - maybe we can get some out-of-work mortgage brokers back to work opening email and answering phones - unless the unemployed travel agents will work for less, of course.
Or free.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1248
Zounds.
April 4th, 2008 at 0747
Steven
Zillow isn’t Zimitating HomeGain they are Zinnovating.
If their free leads supported by ad model works maybe they can license it to Real Estate Agents who want to forego their commissions and replace them with ad revenue.
Let the ad Zevolution begin
April 4th, 2008 at 1425
Zwesome.
April 4th, 2008 at 1816
Very interesting. I never knew about any of this.
Regards,
Rob Lawrence
http://www.battlecall.com
April 7th, 2008 at 0528
You might be right in having some beef with their Mortgage marketplace. Agents not being able to see your information is an innovative feature.
But the concept of getting an instant estimate on your house’s price isn’t an innovative concept. It’s probably the first thing any real estate site would want to do to attract visitors. It’s executing it well that’s difficult.
April 7th, 2008 at 0844
I suspect Zillow is getting the credit because their implementation is better. For example, Andover, MA has both a River Street and a River Road. I looked up an address on River Street on HomeGain and while the map location was correct, the nearby houses listed were all on River Road, and claimed the River Street house was sold in 2004 when it wasn’t. Zillow got everything right: both the map and the facts. Sorry, I prefer Zillow.
April 7th, 2008 at 1332
The solution is simple, make better products and steal the thunder from Zillow… complaining on a blog does absolutely no good
April 7th, 2008 at 1613
Matt
Good advice.You are absolutely correct-our main focus is and should be on our products and customers.
But we have to have a sense of humor from time to time too.
April 7th, 2008 at 1625
Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Think of it this way, HomeGain comes up with very innovative ideas. I’m new here and have enjoyed what I have read.
April 11th, 2008 at 1355
I think its time to out innovate them. If your strength is in your business model and you truly believe in it, then get agile and start releasing more innovative products and solutions for Realtors©. Take back your share of the PR pie. And then patent any proprietary methods/processes/interfaces, etc. that are unique to the new, innovative, HomeGain. Then you can Zock it to em’ and see just how deep their VC’s are willing to go… Or you can just try to squeeze them until it hurts and then snap them up for “fair value” when they beg.
April 17th, 2008 at 1659
Good advice Jonathan
On its way, on its way…
April 17th, 2008 at 1737
That’s what I hear… How about a sneak preview or at least an overview of the highlights?
April 17th, 2008 at 1743
The second of three new features out in less than two weeks will score higher on the Innovation-O-Meter than our last release.
http://blog.homegain.com/homegain-invents-agent-profiles
April 17th, 2008 at 1802
Personally, I’m waiting for somebody to offer a seamless integration (without links to their site)of some of these cool tools on agent websites.
April 20th, 2008 at 1705
Paul
How timely. Next week we will be launching the second of a planned trilogy of features that will do just that.
At Homegain the real estate agent is not a side show around which to sell ads.
There are not ads on HomeGain-the realtor is featured prominently and exclusively.
If you are interested in a demo of the second feature, email me at Louis@homegain.com
April 20th, 2008 at 1710
I’m late to this party but still I showed up. I don’t get it. I just don’t - I have this idea that a business is supposed to make money and provide some sort of valuable service… can someone remind me what Zillow’s rev model and their value proposition is?
But fear not, I think I may need to take a bite out of Zillow very soon. I really have acquired a taste for REtech companies lately - Trulia was kinda like Chinese food, I was hungry for more after only an hour but I think Zillow can provide me with so many more vitamins and minerals to keep my growing disdain for business stupidity sustained for a while.
February 6th, 2009 at 0955
I am confused who started this concept of property estimates anyway?
February 9th, 2009 at 2214
Barry HomeGain had the first online instant home valuation tool in 1999. It was taken down in 2001 for various reasons. Zillow then launched it in 2006 named online estimates Zestimates and started the myth making around how they innovated and created it
February 10th, 2009 at 0748
[...] the first website to provide free instant home values, today announced the results of an extensive nationwide home price survey of current and former [...]
March 6th, 2009 at 0613
[...] the first website to provide free instant home values, today announced the results of an extensive nationwide home price survey of current and former [...]
March 16th, 2009 at 1021
I think Homegain has a much more organic approach to Broker - Customer relations.
March 16th, 2009 at 1112
Is imitation really flattering? When people take my ideas and use them as their own, I am not flattered. I’m disgusted. Imitation in writing is called plagiarism. Feels the same when it’s about an idea. Now innovation and imagination…that’s something completely different.
March 29th, 2009 at 0627
I have yet to see Zillow’s estimates of home value be accurate! The house across the street from mine sold for $128,500 after ten months on the market. It originally listed at $145,900. Zillow valued the house at $178,000!! When I did the CMA for my neighbor, I told him it would sell for between $128,000 and $132,000. He didn’t like my valuation, and listed with a competitor (though the listing agent knew from the start he had taken the listing too high!) The house is very nice, in very good condition. That’s just the correct market value for it. Zillow was just as off target on the value of every other home in my neighborhood. Our market has NOT, repeat NOT, had any bubbles to burst, and the market has remained stable but relatively flat for the past few years, so the value differences have nothing to do with “the economy.” I hope Home Gain has a better valuation system. As for Zillow - what I think of it is Zilch!
May 1st, 2009 at 1747
[...] 2, 2009 HomeGain, the first website to provide instant home prices, launched Google Street View on its instant home valuation tool this [...]
May 3rd, 2009 at 0647
[...] CA (PRWEB) May 4, 2009 — HomeGain®, the first website to provide free instant home values, today announced that it enhanced its instant home prices tool with Google™ street view [...]
May 4th, 2009 at 0253
please i want google earht
June 1st, 2009 at 0908
“First they borrow HomeGain’s concept of the web-based instant Home Values tool…”
HomeGain is too kind! I think I would have used another term other than ‘borrow!’
June 10th, 2009 at 0928
With flattery like that….
Have to agree with Joe, I can do without that kind of flattery. I’ve had enough of it in the past.
June 11th, 2009 at 1629
I like HomeGain and think Zillow is a joke. However, claiming they stole that idea is like saying someone invented searching for homes on the net and then everyone else stole it.
Rob
http://www.atlantarealestateinfo.com/
June 13th, 2009 at 1313
HI Rob
Thanks for droppgin by.Good analogy. I think however, we said Zillow “borrowed” the idea
June 13th, 2009 at 1341
Good point. Sorry about that.
Rob
June 13th, 2009 at 1355
Can you tell me how many views you are getting on HomeGain vs Zillow.
Also I just visted both Zillow and your site to compare. Ran a test on value which was way off on both sites. Zillow has a three year old sat pic and your data base only had the cottage and not the house. Updated on your site (which I really liked) however your estimate was 600K under what is really selling on my street ….
July 3rd, 2009 at 0852