[zyxley]

> But I don't understand what Zillow brings to the table.

As an end user (albeit a window shopper so far), the map-based searching on both Zillow and Trulia is really nice. Map-based searching on Redfin feels kind of clunky and slow by comparison.

[jwcooper]

Problem is the data is so sketchy on Trulia and Zillow. I'd be interested in a house only to find out it already had a contingent offer accepted. They need to figure out how to get realtime data from the MLS systems.

Trulia and Zillow do have the best meta-data on houses though. School info, crime, purchase history, walk scores, etc.

[davepeck]

(A lot of the metadata data is provided through third parties. For example, walk scores are provided via... well, Walk Score, a Seattle startup. http://www.walkscore.com/professional/walk-score-apis.php)

[smackfu]

Honestly, this depends totally on whether you are in a hot real estate market or not. If homes tend to be on the market 30 days, scraping MLS data is OK. If homes tend to be on the market 3 days, not so much.