Valuation Saturation

We have another entrant into the world of online AVM. Joining Zillow, Eppraisal, Visient is Fidelity. Fidelity has branded their service "Cyberhomes" and launched Wednesday. It was just a matter of time. I'm sure with the coverage First American has with regard to AVM data, it won't be long before the pool rises again.

The site has a Web 2.0 look and feel, and of course, is branded as Beta. I'm pretty sure there's an unwritten rule in the Web 2.0 space that says no matter what condition your code is in, call it Beta. According to the article I read in Inman, they've been working on the site since June. The site already has banner and skyscraper ads.

One of the quotes from Fidelity's CIO in the Inman article said:

"We think the right way to (market) this is through the real estate industry and through our affiliates,"

The Cyberhomes web site says

Now you have access to the same data the professionals use. It's easy, free, and instantaneous.

Cyberhomes is a domain name that has been in use in one form or another starting in 1997 by FNIS. It was an early entrant into the world of real estate portals. If you visit the Internet WayBack Machine you can see the different derivations of how the domain has been used since then.

It will be interesting to see which players and eventual business models will emerge as victors in this new web category.