For the past several months, I've been considering the pros and cons of selling my house and purchasing a less expensive property. My plan is to use my current substantial equity (resulting from the crazy 2004-2005 price increases) to buy down my mortgage in a new property that is less expensive to begin with, thereby doubly reducing my monthly mortgage expense. Since I have horses, my search for a new property will be slightly more complicated than the average buyer as I will need a home with acreage.

Early in my evaluation process, I discovered the single most amazing and useful real estate website I ever could have hoped for: Zillow.com. Before I tell you more about Zillow.com, let me assure you that I have absolutely no association with the website and have no financial incentive for telling you about their features. OK, with that fine print out of the way, get prepared to be blown away!

I first heard about Zillow.com on a popular cable business news show -- Your World with Neil Cavuto. Since the website was reviewed on such a high profile show, I decided to check it out and was very pleased to find that no registration is required! If you've ever tried to find web-based real estate tools, you know the most common model is a registration requirement (complete with phone number) before allowing you access to the online tools. Afterwards, you can expect repeated follow-up emails and phone calls from real estate agents looking for your business! Personally, I don't want an agent pushing me to act when I'm still in my decision-making stage, so I never register to use these tools. [Get a clue, agents... Most of us are onto your registration agenda!]

In contrast, Zillow.com is completely open for immediate and frequent use and requires no personal information to take advantage of the bountiful data they have compiled. Zillow.com's core functionality is to calculate accurate market price estimates for any address entered into the Zillow.com Zestimator. According to the website, a Zestimate is calculated using property tax records from the local tax assessor, combined with sales data drawn from recently completed home sales. The resulting Zestimate is an amazing array of information for the individual property that pops out of the Zestimator, including:

v  Current Zestimate (estimated market price, including a predicted price range surrounding the Zestimate);

v  Property Details (no. of bedrooms, no. of bathrooms, square footage, lot size, year built);

v  Satellite Map (shows general neighborhood, streets, and Zestimate prices/ property details for all neighboring properties); and

v  Recent Comparable Sales (in table form, shows comparable prices, date of sale, square footage, lot size, and year built).

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