realty

Find out about the home in front of you with HomeSnap

Curious to know what the homes in your neighborhood are worth? Or how much the current owners paid? Or the square footage or how many bedrooms and bathrooms there are? Snap a picture of a home with HomeSnap, a free iOS app, and you'll get all of this information and more. The app uses your iPhone's GPS and other sensors to figure out which house you are looking at, and then it pulls in MLS info to spit out a variety of data about a home. HomeSnap is so slick and provides so much information that you might … Read more

Home listings and property values

ZipRealty is an online real estate agency that's practically ancient in terms of Internet history. A survivor of the late 1990s dot-com bust, ZipRealty gives users home listings and values across more than 1 million homes. Home owners can also list their home right on the site, and have ZipRealty help sell it. The benefit to sellers is that there's usually a lower commission charge than they'd get from local real estate agencies.

The site also features a price-tracking tool to search homes with reduced prices, and a tool that tells you what your home should be … Read more

The 404 393: Where Natali's alter-ego is Motherboard

Today we're graced by the presence of an actual superhero. Yes, Natali Del Conte has been transformed into the marginally intimidating geek hero "Motherboard." Neither a mother nor a board, Motherboard was sent to this planet to fight crime with her magic gadgets. Too bad she must recharge every night on her magnetic induction bed. Find out the etymology behind our new superfriend and her trusty sidekick Green Show Boy, aka Mark Licea, by listening in!

Also on the show, we discuss the fallout from the Horizon Realty escapade and why the Wii has stopped selling so well.

Finally, we talk about Peter Jackson's latest complaint: the fact that Hollywood has run out of original stories. OK Mr. Jackson, we'll give you District 9, but we're pretty sure both King Kong and The Lord of the Rings may have been other people's ideas.

EPISODE 393 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS VideoRead more

The 404 392: Where we get spifflicated

Today, we're joined by two ladies: Ace Reporter Caroline McCarthy again and "Allie" of Heavy & Flo fame. This makes the two remaining boys of The 404 very happy. On today's show, we've got sex offenders, speakeasies, 1920s Prohibition, and Ashton Kutcher. Excited? We are.

So what does "spifflicated" mean? It means we all got wasted. According to 404 historian Caroline McCarthy, most of the terms we use today to mean inebriated come from the 1920s era of Prohibition. "Spifflicated" happens to be our favorite.

While Justin Yu was out, we found a way to track him using this new iPhone app, which will tell you where the closest sex offenders live near you. With the help of the girls, we come up with some more useful apps like an "Is she underage?" app, or a "Please, just cut to the chase. How much money do you make?" app. We wish there was an app to tell when you're about to make a mistake late one night at a bar. Apple? Anyone?

We chat a bit about the Microsoft and Yahoo deal, but we think it's funnier to ask the eternal question, "Why Ashton Kutcher?" We have no idea why nearly 3 million people are following him on Twitter. I mean, give us a break. We know you lucked out, and you get to wake up to Demi Moore every morning, Ashton. You don't have to rub it in our faces.

Finally, a woman gets sued for $50,000 because she Twitters out, "Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon Realty thinks it's okay." Of course, we think this a whole load of bull, but we are perplexed as to why this company, Horizon Realty, has decided to unleash the Internet because of its fairly asinine move to "[s]ue first, then ask questions later." So far, we've collected these tweets about our new favorite company we love to hate:

Horizon Realty is why everyone has AIDS. Also, I hear Horizon Realty kills puppies, is pro-cancer, and steals cardboard boxes from the homeless. Oops- Add me to the lawsuit. @Horizon_Reality Horizon Realty just tweeted that my mouse has herpes. I am suing for libel ans asking at least $50K

Send in your favorite "Horizon Realty" tweet to The 404 at the usual: the404 [at] cnet [dot] com. Also, leave a voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Peace!

EPISODE 392 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video

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Webware 100 winner: ZipRealty

Site: ZipRealty.com Category: Commerce

ZipRealty is an online real estate agency. A survivor of the late 1990s dot-com bust, ZipRealty gives users home listings and values across more than a million homes. Home owners can also list their home right on the site, and have ZipRealty help sell it. When sellers do that there's usually a lower commission charge than they'd get from local real estate agencies.

The site also features a price tracking tool to search homes with reduced prices, and a tool that tells you what your home should be worth based on its size, … Read more