WASHINGTON – Zillow.com is making it easier for potential homebuyers to find unlisted properties that are bank-owned and those that are in the foreclosure process.
The New York Times reports that millions of homes are about to come on the market either because the owner has fallen behind on mortgage payments and has received a foreclosure notice or the bank has foreclosed on the home but has not put it on the market just yet.
Zillow, an online real estate marketplace, has obtained information on some of these properties from public records and is making it available for free. In the past, sites that provided access to information for investors on pre-market homes usually charged a fee.
Zillow’s chief marketing officer tells the Times the new feature can give buyers a jumpstart on the purchasing process, allowing them the opportunity to make an offer to buy the property, to set up alerts on the website for when the property does come on to the market or even to reassess the value of properties in an area dense with foreclosed homes.
WTOP’s Veronica Robinson contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
