Zillow Beta--Scooped!

Seattlest got scooped by Gothamist on this one; they've already been poking around the beta and giving their impressions. We'd like to offer our own first-person report, but as you can see, the Beta is having its way with Zillow's site currently.

We'd been aware of Zillow for at least 7 months, since some minor press started eeking out about them, and they were hiring like banshees around Seattle. But they've been tight-lipped about their business model for their specific offerings within the online real estate market. So our curiosity was piqued, and with Expedia's Rich Barton at the helm, the buzz was, well, buzzy.

The result? "Automated" online appraisals funded by pay-per-click advertising. That whooshing sound you just heard was the wind going out of our sails. Currently, we're underwhelmed.

BusinessWeek reports that initial analysts are saying it is a pretty nice tool, but not earth-shattering. Perhaps Zillow still has more rabbits in their hats that they'll roll out over time. Mostly, we were suprised that none of the press on this included the other Seattle online real estate venture RedFin in their comparison of competitor offerings. Granted, they only serve the Seattle market, but according to a recent Seattle Times article, they now allow you to move beyond their excellent mapping UI that shows current homes for sale and recent past sales, to making an offer online with RedFin's help in filling out the offer forms.

Their model, which they have been tweaking over the past year, appears to be really pissing off local real estate agents. The lynchpin is a salaried--not commissioned--agent, who presents the offer to the seller and negotiates the sale. Purportedly, buyers who do their own search online at RedFin could receive up to 2/3 the commission that the seller would pay to a traditional buyer's agent. Given that we found our home online on our own, even while working with an agent (who we really enjoyed, actually), this process could have saved us $5,000; that's what we ended up paying for the new roof on that joint.

Update: The Seattle Times has joined the Zillow fray as well this morning.