By now, you surely know that Zillow has added virtual for-sale signs to its home valuation site.
Some great commentary by the blogosphere already on this:
Liz Gannes, GigaOM: Zillow Shows More of Its Cards
Natali Del Conte, Techcrunch: Zillow Knows That Everyone Has A Price
Greg Sterling: Zillow Adds Free Listings, Other Features
Also, you must read Greg’s bang-on analysis and Galen’s take on the new feature set too.
But, the thing that really caught my eye was their new Make Me Move program. I’ll let Zillow President Lloyd Frink describe it:
Here’s the concept: Think about a price that would entice you to hand over the keys to your home and move. We think it’s a unique and creative way for homeowners to test the waters and gauge interest in their home
Great idea! Homeowners are going to go mad for it! But wait a tic. Haven’t I heard this before?
Finnish site Igglo pioneered the model last year, but wasn’t Redfin also pursuing a similar strategy?
Digging back through their archives, I came up with this post from earlier this year, Buying Houses That Aren’t For Sale:
This has been an idea that Redfin has been pursuing over the past nine months, after filing a patent application in summer 2005…
So, is Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman steaming at the preemptive move pulled by his cross-town contemporaries today? Does Zillow’s move sink Redfin’s goal to launch a similar service? My guess is that it does.
More importantly, if Make Me Move takes off in a big way for Zillow, will Redfin’s patent application come back to haunt Zillow?
