Users Swamp Debut of Real Estate Website

“Crash” is not an image you’d want when launching a real estate website.

Yet crash is what real estate appraisal site Zillow.com did Wednesday within hours of its much-ballyhooed debut.

The Seattle-based start-up began a public test of its website at 9 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday. By 6 a.m. Wednesday, it was staggering under the weight of more than 300,000 page views, the company said. The site remained inaccessible until the afternoon.

“We weren’t anticipating such a huge demand,” Zillow spokeswoman Amy Bohutinsky said.

The problem was caused in part by users spending so much time on the site, which gives instant valuations on homes nationwide. Users can see additional information, including historical sales prices, appreciation (or depreciation) rates and physical characteristics.

Paul Furio was impressed despite the technical difficulties. The Microsoft Corp. software engineer said he checked the value of a home on which he and his wife recently made a bid. Zillow’s value estimate was within $7,000 of the maximum offer he was willing to make.

“The winning bidder got the house but overpaid by $50,000, easily,” he wrote on a blog created by Zillow. “We don’t live there, but at least we can rest knowing our offer was fair and reasonable, and our math checked out.”

Other users reported wide variances. A Manhattan Beach house currently in escrow for more than $2.2 million was given a value of $1.7 million on Zillow.

Zillow handled its inaugural downtime with humor. After the site came back online, this message was offered to viewers:

“Site seems slow? Close your eyes and envision your perfect home. By then maybe the server can handle our zillions of visitors.”