• by Judy Warner , December 7, 2006

Free real estate listings and a provocative feature called "Make Me Move" are among the new enhancements being launched today on Zillow.com, already one of the most frequently visited real estate Web sites.

The Seattle-based company, founded by former executives at Expedia just 10 months ago, compares itself to a cable network and says the site's new features are its programs.

Rather than spend money to advertise, the 10-month-old Seattle-based company is putting its money into developing content that its users--real estate agents and homeowners--find irresistible, all to support its advertising-based business model and its mission to provide cutting-edge tools to assist in the buying and selling of residential property.

Case in point: it raised $54 million in venture funds and spent a chunk of that improving its mapping and visualization tools and adding new user-driven content. Using Microsoft's Virtual Earth images, visitors to the site can now get a "bird's eye view" of any of the 67 million home in Zillow's database.

So far, interest in the site has exceeded expectations, according to marketing vice president Spencer Rascoff. Company founders projected one million unique visitors by August, and instead saw five million unique visitors in just three weeks. What has made the site attractive to advertisers such as Lendingtree, Washington Mutual, Bank of America and dozens of others is the quality of its visitors: 84 percent own a home, most are affluent, and they're concentrated on both coasts. Last week, according to data compiled by Hitwise, Zillow ranked No. 7 in share of market for site visits in the real estate category.

"These new features will grow our traffic significantly, Rascoff said, "which will result in CPM growth over time."

The Make Me Move feature redefines what it means for a house to be for sale. It allows the homeowner to list a dream price and describe the home without disclosing personal information. Zillow then enables interested buyers to contact the owner through an e-mail "anonymizer." For free.

The Kelsey Group's Matt Booth, briefed by Zillow on the site's new features, said he believes the site will continue to grow in popularity, and will appeal particularly to realtors and lenders because the Make Me Move feature will draw in homeowners well before they have listed their home for sale. Free real estate listings--perhaps not so good for newspapers' already beleaguered classifieds listings--will be a boon to Zillow, brokers and homeowners.

"I think it's pretty positive for realtors because this takes advantage of internet distribution and gives them a marketing platform...they will get more traffic and more calls. I also think the quality of calls is good. [Site visitors] have been able to do some research and are pretty decently qualified already."