Real Estate Website Zillow Prepares for IPO

Another website-based company is preparing for their initial public offering, this one with quite a bit of influence in our corner of the business world. Zillow, the Seattle-based real estate-listing information service, has upped the proposed price range for their IPO, going as high as $18 per share.

Zillow's website is an information service, allowing user to list and search for properties, gather information about a home's past and receive price estimates. (Interesting side note: Zillow absolves themselves from blame for bad estimates, saying they pull vital information from other services and websites, so any misinformation isn't their fault.)

While this isn't the first website to IPO, in fact professional networking site LinkedIn did mere months ago, it's the first real estate-specific site to do so, which may give a window into how Wall Street is viewing the industry---at least a part of it.

The company will offer 3.46 million shares at $16 to $18 apiece, raising as much as $62.3 million. Alongside the IPO, Zillow will place about $5.5 million worth of shares with two private investors, Technology Crossover Ventures and PAR Investment Partners. Assuming the placement is successful, and the offering goes for an average of $17 per share, that would value Zillow at $458.3 million.

So what is website traffic worth? In May, Zillow boasted 22 million unique visitors through it's website and mobile apps.