SEATTLE – People who use Zillow.com could already find out how much their dream home might sell for; now they’ll also be able to see what the house and its surroundings look like.
Zillow, which provides free, anonymous home value estimates, has struck a deal with Microsoft Corp. to offer detailed pictures of homes using Microsoft’s “bird’s-eye” mapping technology.
The technology, which is the same offering found on Microsoft’s mapping Web site, provides photographic search results that are, in some areas, close enough to make out individual cars or the state of a neighbor’s hedge. Such pictures could be useful for would-be home buyers eager to know if their prospective abode abuts, say, a park or a junkyard.
Spencer Rascoff, Zillow’s chief financial officer, said there would be no option to opt out of having your house shown on the site.
He acknowledged that Microsoft’s technology, which is also still in test form, does not always show the correct house – an issue that may be less problematic for someone searching out driving directions that for a person who is considering buying a property. But Rascoff said he hoped that the photographic search results, combined with Zillow’s own maps, which show parcels of land and estimated values for surrounding properties, would help clear up any confusion.
Seattle-based Zillow, which launched in test form in February, uses county records and other data to compile its “Zestimates,” which are currently available for about 47 million homes nationwide.
Redmond-based Microsoft’s technology only covers some metropolitan areas right now, but the company is aiming to expand its coverage by the end of the year.
Rascoff said the multiyear licensing deal isn’t exclusive. He declined to offer further terms of the deal.
At least one competing product, realestateABC.com, also offers photographic search results using Microsoft rival Google Inc.’s online mapping technology.
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