For sale by Zillow

Zillow.com recently allowed homeowners and real estate agents to advertise for-sale properties on its Web site at no cost. The Seattle-based company, which rocked the real estate world this year when it began offering free online valuations of almost 70 million U.S. homes, made the announcement recently.

It also announced a feature called “Make Me Move” for owners who’d consider selling if the price were right. If it catches on, this could create a shadow “for sale by owner” market with the potential to bypass formally listing homes or paying agent commissions, which are already under pressure.

Homeowners adding “for sale” or “Make Me Move” data can upload photos, neighborhood commentary and enhanced descriptions of the property, potentially justifying a price higher than Zillow’s estimate, or “Zestimate.”

Real estate agents can add contact information and link to their own Web sites for free.

For an industry that’s long sought to control for-sale information, “it’s a pretty radical approach, although it also seems obvious in a way,” said Brad Inman, founder of the real estate news service Inman News.

Historically, Inman says, online real estate companies have sought permission from multiple-listing services or real estate companies to display listings.

Now, Inman predicts, “agents will jump at the chance, particularly in this market,” to bypass that step. It’s already happening on other sites, such as craigslist, which allows posts of for-sale properties, complete with photos.

“Homes are on the market longer and agents’ commission dollars aren’t as fat,” Inman said. “If someone is going to give them a free alternative online, I think agents are going to flock to it.”

A 2004 National Association of Realtors study found that Realtors’ median income was $49,300, and that they spent a median $1,150 annually on promotion and marketing expenses, although almost 20 percent spent $5,000 or more. This was on top of marketing expenses paid by their parent real estate companies.

With Zillow offering free advertising, pressure may be put on real estate agents to cut commissions, which are about 6 percent of the sales price, paid by the seller. Agents argue that the complexity of real estate transactions justifies that cost.

Marketing homes directly was Zillow’s plan even before it launched in February, spokeswoman Amanda Hoffman said.

“There are already so many sites that offer homes for sale,” she said. “This just makes our site more complete.”

Zillow logs more than 3 million visitors a month. Founded by Lloyd Frink and fellow Microsoft alum Rich Barton, the site’s goal is to make money through online advertising by lenders and real estate companies.