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Zillow. Zillow. This could be the term that the traditional real estate agent will dread, much as Expedia is the name that helped put thousands of travel agents out of work. The worst part for your neighborhood realtor, the same guys that started Expedia are behind Zillow.

No one really knows what Zillow will do. It is being kept hush hush, but the word on the street is that it will be the search engine for real estate. It will allow many new types of services to be automated that will cut into the present real estate commission schedule.

But no one underestimates the seriousness and ingenuity of Barton’s team, who single-handedly transformed the travel industry with the introduction of Expedia in the late ’90s.

The timing seems to be right; there hasn’t been a well-capitalized online startup in real estate since HomeGain and HouseValues opened their doors in 1999. These two firms changed how the industry thinks about lead generation and Web marketing.

Now, the next generation of change seems to be upon us with the vast majority of home buyers and sellers starting their real estate searches online and the Justice Department’s investigation of the real estate industry clearing the decks for new business models.via Inman News

Is this the beginning of the transformation of the traditional real estate sales market? Or a flash in the pan. We will do our best to stay on top of Zillow and all that it means.

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