Eppraisal.com Kicks Zillow While They’re Down
eppraisal a new automatic valuation site in the vein of Zillow or HouseAmerica. It launched in Beta today, but will be officially launched next week at the NAR convention in New Orleans. It’s brought to you by the guys at Realty Thoughts.
Before we dive in to the site however, we need to check and see if it passes the Web 2.0 litmus test…
- Soft pastel colors. check
- Wet floor reflections. check
- Gradiants. check
- Ajaxy goodness. check
Good, we can add eppraisal to the Real Estate 2.0 big board. Up she goes.
Seriously, the site looks good and works smoothly as advertised. Agents who want to put their eppraisals on their web sites can contact the company though their eppraisal.com Professional site. In return for spreading eppraisal’s valuations, agents are added to eppraisal’s pool. Users are automatically assigned an agent once they create an account on the site.
My only critique of the site, is unlike Zillow, eppraisal uses a value range rather than a specific dollar figure. While this is probably a safer route to take to avoid some of the pitfalls Zillow is running into; at least in the case of my house, the value range was so broad it was almost meaningless. They may find they have trouble gaining some consumer traction if this is universally the case.
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7 Comment(s)
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Ubertor | Oct 31, 2006 | Reply
Ubertor has a house in Seattle. I went to check this site to see what their valuation is of the house but I could not get past the first screen as I’m on the road and can’t remember the Zip Code of the home. I do like that Zillow does not require the Zip code and it can find the place quickly. Makes for an easier search.
Erik | Oct 31, 2006 | Reply
Thanks for the coverage Joel. We’ve had the luxury of watching the other movers in the real estate industry and we think our partnership with real estate professionals is the right track. Consumers definitely want a “snapshot valuation” tool, but it’s completely useless without the experience of someone outside of the real estate industry.
We did think that a range was a little more fair for the a general estimate of a property’s worth. We’re continuing to tweak our algorithm to make it more accurate too - even here in our hometown of Orlando (or, especially here) there has been some wide fluctuations in real estate values over the last 12-24 months, which makes it difficult to pin down.
@ Ubertor - Look for continued improvements like city/state or zip code in the future. We put a “beta” stamp on it because we knew it needed it.
Ubertor | Nov 1, 2006 | Reply
Great. I saw the beta stamp. Anyway, found my Zip Code as I wanted to play around. Site looks great. Will be interesting to see where this goes. Any plans of opening it up in Canada? This is a common question I receive from our clients asking about Zillow.
Cheryl, Broker in L A, CA | Nov 1, 2006 | Reply
~~”Users are automatically assigned an agent once they create an account on the site.”~~~
Sorry. This part does not work for me. When I’m searching for info … I do NOT want to fill in a contact form and wait for a pesty salespeople to email or phone me back! I do NOT want to be sold as a “lead”. And as a broker, I’m not interested in companies that want to sell me leads.
At least Zillow got that part right.
Erik | Nov 2, 2006 | Reply
Cheryl, we understand that, but our business model is built on a specific need within the industry. We try to be as upfront about the way we do business as we can be, and frankly it will work for some and not others.
One thing I do want to be clear about is that when you sign up you are assigned to ONE real estate professional who you can choose to do business with or not. We strongly believe that a real estate professional should be involved in the real estate buying/selling process - we’re trying to create that virtual handshake to get that relationship going.
You’re a broker. My question for you is would you like to have a tool like eppraisal as part of your own website? Visitors could see a snapshot of their homes estimated value, and you would be able to call them/email them to discuss it in greater detail. Isn’t that what they’re on your site for? Isn’t that why you have a website?
Victor Lund | Nov 6, 2006 | Reply
Data Matters,
E-appraisal seems like they want to do the same thing as Zillow, but I did a search for a few homes - 10 in different areas of California, and did not get any results.
Zestimates, eappraisals, or what ever you want to call them are all opinions of value - right or wrong. Although these electronic opinions can sometimes be accurate to withing 5% of a REALTOR’s opinion, they are still just opinions.
The winner in this category will the the company that has the most data, and can generate enough revenue to maintain sustainability.
So far, that is Zillow
Austin Real Estate Blog | May 26, 2007 | Reply
The range is pretty crazy. The zillow range for my house is pretty useless. Then again the actual zestimate is pretty off as well. I dont know if zillow will ever get that accurate. Time will tell but their are some significant hurdles. Zillow has a hard time looking at condition, comparing different views, city rules affecting a property.