The Home Crowd

I came across Zillow a couple of years ago via a link to a page on their site, showcasing the actual locations of the TV homes we all grew up watching. The Brady Bunch house is there, as is the Bewitched house and the 90210 house (which was miles away from Beverly Hills near Pasadena actually), and also Archie Bunker’s House. But does anyone even know which of those houses was his? I remember quite vividly many row houses, shakily filmed from a moving car.

Immediately upon viewing this list, I remembered a good friend of mine and how she was a huge fan of the series “Charmed”. Personally, I was a huge fan of Alyssa Milano. Difference was, the house from Charmed was not actually in San Francisco as the show would lead you to believe, but actually nearby, a few blocks north of Downtown L.A., literally blocks away from Dodger Stadium. So we did a day trip and I managed to get a great ‘touristy’ pic of her in front of the house. It was a fun little trip and a great exercise in using a valuable web-based resource for real estate. (Not sure how well she’s coming along with getting me that pic with Alyssa Milano though)

Link to “Charmed” house page here.

If you’d like to see the list of famous homes Zillow has found, here’s the link – Zillow Famous Homes

But let’s say for instance, that you’re looking to sell your home, you could look it up on Zillow and get a ‘ballpark’ estimate of your home’s worth. I say ‘ballpark’ because based on what I’ve seen, I don’t feel the estimates are accurate, especially not in the current housing market (as of April, 2008). How would I know, you say? By keeping a close eye on what those close to me are buying and selling. Know someone who’s buying/selling? Look it up on Zillow and see just how closely their estimates match up to actual sale/purchase price.

For example, in February a friend was purchasing a home. It was a fixer-upper/distressed property in a neighborhood that at best could be described as “in need of redevelopment”. After touring the home, and seeing the condition it was in, I didn’t feel Zillow’s estimate was close, but that was probably just figured out by some equation of area value, square footage, number of beds/baths. I also didn’t feel it took into consideration the current housing market. It was overinflated, and considering the dire condition of the home, and the housing downturn, I imagined the price my friend paid was 14% less than Zillow’s estimate. Said friend had bought for less than that even, 16 % less than the Zillow estimate. That, two months ago, I found somewhat understandable, knowing that this site likely had no clue about the home’s condition. But after checking again on the same property this week, Zillow has raised the value 17% higher than the original estimate from two months ago.

So, if you’re curious about what your home is worth, or if you’re curious about a prospective home, give Zillow a shot. It’s free, there’s no annoying registration required, just type in the address of the property. Zillow has partnered over the last 2 years with thousands of real estate brokers and agents, and recently, has partnered up with Sears to expand resources. I expect Zillow will grow and eventually get a better grasp at actual value than artificial value. They’ll have to, or in this market, they’ll be so far off when it comes to numbers that it won’t be a reliable service.

Now, if you’re serious about what your home is worth, check out the site, then hire a professional appraisor.

In the meantime, I’m gonna try to figure out what I’m gonna have to offer to buy Tony Soprano’s house.

Link to house from The Soprano’s – here.

Thinkgeek has the best April fool’s gag I’ve seen this year. They usually have very obscure and brilliant gadgets and gifts, and these April fool’s day specials are no exceptions. I thought the Betamax to HD-DVD was a great deal for $29.99, until you realize of course that both are very dead formats. And also, it doesn’t really exist.

Here’s the page. The production value is great, looks like a real product you can buy with and “in-use” video clip and everything. Not until you try to “Add to cart” will you be notified of the April fool’s shenanigans.

Other great (Fake) products incclude a USB pregnancy test, which I can’t guess as to how well your office may appreciate having that plugged into the company hardware… And caffeinated breakfast cereal (for those really on the go). Come to think about it, I think my mornings could benefit from caffeinated cereal.

But my personal favorite of the bunch is the Super Pii Pii Brothers Wii game. Basically a party game/urination simulator along the lines of whack a mole. The toilet humor ends here, but yet another great false page with a hilarious video to boot.

Congratulations to everyone at Thinkgeek for putting together a great April fools day prank.

-Link to Products Page.