Zillow seems to inspire one of three questions in people:

1. How did Zillow do such a good job zestimating the value of my home?
2. How did Zillow do such a bad job zestimating the value of my home?
3. Did they really hire people to digitize that many public records?

The answer to these questions:

1. They hired some darn smart people
2. Apparently not smart enough
3. A smell a conspiracy!

To understand how Zillow could possible get their hands on that many government records, it is important to understand that they must have had someone on the inside. I’ve suspected for a while that they had someone on the inside at one of the lesser government agencies, like the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but today I found proof that they have an insider at an even higher level of the government: The Treasury Department.

It seems that they’ve worked some type of advertising deal with the Treasury Department, and I’ve searched the web, but I think I’m going to be the one to break this story.

Zillow is now advertising on the one-dollar bill!

[photopress:zillow_dollar.jpg,full,centered]

Talk about prime real estate! Not even Microsoft has that kind of reach!

On a more serious note, if you were the Zillow employee who defaced the dollar bill and then used it to buy a lunch at Planet Java, you are welcome to contact me to reclaim the evidence of illegal activity (no questions asked!) before it falls into the wrong hands.