I've been working in the mortgage industry for the past few months and have learned a bit about the business. What Zillow does with its Zestimate product reall

I've been working in the mortgage industry for the past few months and have learned a bit about the business. What Zillow does with its Zestimate product really isn't that novel. There is a whole class of products available called AVMs (Automated Valuation Models) which are used in the industry which pre-date Zillow's Zestimates. What Zillow did which was innovative was brought this type of product to the general public, for free. In some cases an AVM is all that is needed to secure certain types of loans such as HELOCs.