Real Estate Agencies

Tech Crunch just posted that Zillow has filed for an IPO valued at 51.75 Million . While that number is simply a starting point and does not means much, it is interesting to note that Zillow has an accumulated deficit since its founding of over $78 Million. According to Tech crunch:

In terms of financial specifics, Zillow appears to be losing less money each year. The company lost $12.8 million in 2009, and lost roughly half of that ($6.7 million) in 2010. The company, which launched to the public in 2006, also revealed that as of December 31, 2010, it has an accumulated deficit of $78.7 million. Zillow forecasts that its revenue growth rate will decline in the future as a result of the “maturation” of its business.

A further look at the companys S-1 filing (and more specifically at the section on risk factors on page 11)  indicates two interesting facts:

The first is that the companys fastest growing source of revenue is from selling advertising to REALTORS as well as planned growth from advertising sales to mortgage lenders. Reevenues from RELATORS almost doubled last year alone.

The second interesting note is that Zillow acknowledges that without even further significant revenue growth, they anticipate continued losses into the forseeable future.

It appears that Citibank is underwriting the Zillow IPO.