Zillow.com Obtains MLS Real Estate License
Zillow.com, which recently launched a home valuation service covering some 40 million US residences, has obtained real estate brokerage licenses in a number of American states.
The means that the firm will be able to access up-to-the-minute MLS data just like any realty firm. It does not, however, have any intentions of selling property directly, according to vice president, Jorrit Van der Meulen.
The web-based company claims that real estate agents can rest assured that Zillow.com poses no competitive threat, and only wants the MLS data for the purpose of delivering more accurate home valuations.
MLS executive, Jack Johnson, however, says that there is nothing to stop the company, which is backed by $32 million in venture capital, from competing against traditional brokers.
“As time moves along, we will have to wait and see whether or not what they have in store for Zillow would be a concern or not,” he said. “We don’t know.”
Johnson did comment that if Zillow.com does choose to become a fully-fledged real estate broker, they will be treated the same as any other such company.
Barbara Hawkins said,
February 24, 2006 @ 11:30 am
This system does not have the ability to accurately define value in any given property, without knowledge of its physical condition, upgrades, appearance,
or other factors that will often affect a buyer’s attention, either positively or emotionally. The only logical approach to pricing a home is to find a range of prices of similar homes and then select an asking price that will draw attention to it depending on how many other similar homes are competing on the market at the time and how active the market is.