A decline in the number of available properties, especially in California, prompted an innovative new feature at the real estate marketplace website Zillow.com. Late Wednesday night the six-year-old Zillow.com launched a free program that allows potential home buyers to view homes that are owned by banks or are in the foreclosure process but are not officially listed for sale.
Details of some 1.8 million homes in the foreclosure process are listed, including over 1.5 million that are still owned by their borrowers but in the process of being foreclosed on, as well as approximately 260,000 bank-owned properties not yet listed for sale, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The company provides contact details for real estate agents specializing in foreclosures and a foreclosure center on the website.
All of the information is public information, although it has never been so easily accessible. The names of people facing foreclosure will not be listed; borrowers can appeal any information they believe to be incorrect, according to a Zillow spokeswoman, as reported by The Chicago Tribune.
The Seattle-based Zillow.com gives anyone who creates a free account a tool, called 'Zestimates' they can use to look up individual home values, whether homes are for sale or not. Zestimates are based on public records, local real estate listings and sales information.
GeekWire reported in September that Zillow.com's mortgage business is booming, recording nearly 5.5 million loan requests in the first six months of 2012, equaling the number of requests made in 2011.
Today Zillow lists 110 million properties. The company went public in July 2011.
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