HouseValues Inc. (SOLD)

From The Stock Masters

HouseValues Inc. (SOLD) is down 6% today, trading at $5.50 a share just 50 cents above it’s 52-week high. Bargain shopping America? Think again, yesterday they posted a net loss of $5.3M and Q4 revenue was down 15% to $21.5M when compared to the qtr last year. 2006 revenue was up 13% at $98.2M but last year was not a fun one for HouseValues. In 2006 SOLD’s president and chief executive resigned, and the company decreased 12% of its work force. The question you have to ask HomeValues is just one…heard of Zillow?

It’s all about Zestimates and coming behind that maybe ZipReality (ZIPR). But Zillow does it better than anyone, when’s the last time you checked the price of your home? Did you use HouseValues.com? No you didn’t, you used Zillow.com. Sure MOVE is making money fromRealtor.com and TopProducer.com but does this company and stock really have a future for investors? The only thing the Masters would consider with MOVE is possibly they could be an acquisition target, but who would want to buy them? It’s Zillow all the way here Masters, and they aren’t a public company. But if Zillow.com ever does go public and IPO, we’ll be on that bandwagon. Zillow provides a free evaluation of their property’s value, and there’s no rediculous membership or annoying "Create an Account with us and we’ll spam you for life" routine, just put in your address, and you get an estimate of your home’s worth. Their current plans are to create a Web page for every home in the United States. Owners can contribute their own content about their property by allowing visitors to post a price that, in essence, says, "Make me sell." Zillow is now inviting agents and brokers to post their listings online at no charge. While Zillow’s traffic continues to climb, traffic at Realtor.com is decreasing. Rather than visiting Realtor.com, buyers and sellers are now more likely to visit a brokerage or an individual agent’s sites, better yet, try Redfin.com if you live in Seattle or San Francisco. Wake up HouseValues, it’s game over.

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