Drawing partly on its relationship with Zillow, Yahoo! is launching an improved “HomeValues” section as part of Yahoo! Real Estate. It’s also integrating more community features (as Zillow and Trulia recently have) into the section:
Through an expanded partnership with Zillow.com, users can access additional home details, including tax assessments, sale history and neighborhood comparable sales, as well as educational content for home owners, buyers and sellers. In addition, new partnerships with eppraisal.com and Reply.com offer Yahoo! Real Estate users the ability to easily compare home valuations from multiple sources, all in one location.
In addition, integration with Yahoo! Answers and Yahoo! Local provides users social and local insights into home values and associated services..
- Specific Yahoo! Answers Q&As on home values can now be found directly on Yahoo! Real Estate. Users can view top questions and best answers from the real estate community to find the information they seek.
- With valuation estimates in hand, users can leverage Yahoo! Real Estate, to connect with top rated valuation professionals in their area from Yahoo! Local.
There’s an emerging cluster of features that are becoming required for competitive “Web 2.0? real-estate sites, especially community.
Greg Sterling is the founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, a consulting and research firm focused on online consumer and advertiser behavior and the relationship between the Internet and traditional media, with an emphasis on the local marketplace.
