Zillow

Before Zillow, a homeowner who wanted to know what their house was worth had to call a real estate agent. The agent controlled the information. Rich Barton launched Zillow in two thousand and six and gave it away for free. Type in an address, get an estimate. Two hundred million properties. No phone call, no agent, no obligation. Within months, checking your home value became a habit. The Zestimate was not particularly accurate — margin of error ran five to seven percent. It did not matter. People came anyway. Two hundred and twenty million visits a month. They checked their own home. Then the neighbour's home. Then homes in cities they might move to. Curiosity was the drug and Zillow supplied it free. The money came from agents. When a visitor clicked "contact an agent," Zillow sold that lead. Small markets cost twenty to sixty dollars per lead. Major metros cost hundreds. An agent converting twenty percent of leads at ten thousand per sale made the maths work.