Article: Instant appraisals; A popular new website promises fast and accurate home valuations for free and with no obligation, but is an appraisal through the ether as accurate as one by an appraiser or your local real estate agent?(HOMES)

Byline: Aimee Blanchette; Staff Writer

A new, Web-based real estate tool can tell you how much your home - or your neighbor's - is worth faster than you can look up an appraiser's phone number.

It's called Zillow.com, and it's the latest entrant into the online real estate world, already crowded with websites offering everything from discount mortgages to worldwide sales leads. This one promises free, up-to-date home-value information without the threat of a sales call from a mortgage broker or sales agent. During the first eight hours of operation on Feb. 8, more than 300,000 people visited the site, causing it to crash for more than four hours. "We've ...

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