Comments on: Zillow Gets Mo Money

By: Ron Asteak

Ron Asteak — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:34:13 +0000

Zillow “Guess-Idiots” appear to rely on public tax records that in some cases haven’t been updated in twenty-five years. The zestimator is a sketchy tool to rely on. I believe it’s best to use a Professional Appraiser when valuing real estate.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:32:23 +0000

I agree with Ellen H., Zillow has gone downhill, maybe they really needed this money. Because their website isn’t very good. I hadn’t heard of iggyhouse.com (but it looks pretty cool). for my valuation/information I go to housefront.com or trulia.com….zillow who? (maybe they will make something of themselves with this new money…we’ll see)

By: Ellen Hanson

Ellen Hanson — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:58:14 +0000

I prefer IggysHouse.com to Zillow.com. I also like Trulia.

By: India Web 2.0 News

India Web 2.0 News — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:34:04 +0000

Interesting approach to real estate. It's amazing that they've been able to grow in a terrible housing market. I hope they are able to expand to different cities... this is a service that I would certainly love to use.

[linked to this article via India Web 2.0 News]

By: nonbeliever

nonbeliever — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:21:53 +0000

They raised a total of $87M. How are they going to exit? Getting bought out for $1B? I doubt someone will pay $1B for this. IPO? Unlikely.

By: Don Jones

Don Jones — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:58:23 +0000

The famed Bill Miller of Legg Mason led this most recent round for Zillow. Didn’t know he dabbled in traditional venture capital.

By: john andrews

john andrews — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:35:09 +0000

I have no contact with Zillow, despite living nearby and wanting to have lunch with Vanessa Fox someday. However, Zillow obviously has huge upside due to the very real leadership profile they have in their market, and the amazing monetization potential they obviously understand as a web company. Zillow can be more of a commerce driver than an IYP and if you were combine a decent local IYP with Zillow… ka’ching! Movers, packers, stagers, home improvement, lenders, babies and kids and CofC style lead gen. etc etc etc. Social media aspects aside (which they “get” as well, given some of the people they’ve brought onboard) on-page ads are soooo not that important. Housing slump? So what? They’ve got the flexibility and now they also have the money to do it right for the long term.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 18:06:48 +0000

I suspect Zillow is the real deal. Not all companies are created alike. Real estate is a massive, massive industry that rolls in downturns as well as upturns.

By: anontroll

anontroll — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:53:13 +0000

@Artashes - let me turn up the heat a bit: 50 employees ~ $1mil/month burn. So that's 10 months not 9 years! But they're doing maybe $2mil/month in ad revenue, so that stretches the money for a couple years.

Here's what I wonder. How does zillow go back to the VC well (with a straight face) and say, "we need an up round" when:

they have zero (at best) traffic growth? http://siteanalytics.compete.com/realtor.com+zillow.com/?metric=uv
The site is already tightly packed with advertising so the easy CPM increases are done.
They might have some innovative advertising products coming (I hope so), but 95% of their traffic has to be for their basic zestimate queries, not for plumbers, so incremental revenue is likely to be marginal.
Valuation is now higher than any of the established public players, which have lots more revenue.

So it's all got to be on Barton's reputation, right? But isn't he goofing off with a hedge fund or something, is he actually running zillow? I guess big exits have been made for less. And I suppose we'd all be lucky to have an asset like that. Whatever it takes.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:35:54 +0000

I’m no expert by any means, but I’ve always been taught that raising, and raising, and raising is a bad thing, not a good one.

By: David G from Zillow.com

David G from Zillow.com — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:53:43 +0000

Hi, it's David from Zillow -

The number one question here seems to be; "how can Zillow grow advertising revenue while the real estate market is down?" Consider that more than 80% of home buyers start their search online, yet less than 15% of real estate advertising revenue is currently spent on the web. A downturn in the housing market actually increases the focus on ROI from advertising and should therefore accelerate the trend to advertise online - where the buyers are. Further, Zillow's audience represents a wealthy demographic that appeals to a broad range of advertisers who aren't impacted by the changes in the housing market..

buckpost - that's a theory shared by Bill Tanner from Hitwise. He said he measured increased interest in online valuations when the market started to turn.

Mr. Chips - Thank You!

By: Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin » Zillow Gains VC and Google SEO Goodness

Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin » Zillow Gains VC and Google SEO Goodness — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:51:28 +0000

[...] Zillow.com has secured a fresh round of money, the venture capital kind: $87 million to date in VC … [...]

By: Mr. Chips

Mr. Chips — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:33:53 +0000

I do some business in the Real Estate industry here in Miami Beach, and Zillow is one of those companies I would pay to get their services.. so I believe it is going into the right direction!

By: Craig Mische

Craig Mische — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:23:34 +0000

I was surprised to read about them getting more money.

By: Artashes

Artashes — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:26:30 +0000

@ Peter:

/ start of sarcasm.

Who cares what their revenue is? 155 employees x $70,000 (salary each) = They can operate for 9 years without worrying about that.

/ end of sarcasm.

By: Erik

Erik — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:04:37 +0000

Unless they’ve got a secret plan for distressed property, I see this ending VERY badly.