I’ve commented positively on the site Zillow before, with my only serious criticism being their zestimates can be way off. A fact which has led to legal challenges for the company in the past.

Yes, I realize these are just glorified computer estimates of how much homes are worth based on sometimes suspect data sources and maybe they are more accurate these days (haven’t checked in awhile), but after reading they just raised another $30 million for a total of $87 million in investment capital and have 155 employess, I have additional criticisms. The first is excessive manpower.

Maybe Zillow employee #156 will stop by to tell me how busy s/he is. At the rate Zillow is hiring, they should have enough warm bodies to generate non-mechanical replies to every blog post ever written about them. A Google blog search for “zillow” finds 48,158 posts as of this writing. Heck, that’s a mere 310 comments per employee.

Why aren’t investors asking what reasons a site like this need so many employees? This strikes me as an absurd number of people to run a website like Zillow. I’ve done contract work on very profitable websites that did millions of visitors a day with a fraction of the help.

This is another glowing example to me how most Web pooh point oh sites are not sustainable business models. Heck, many are not businesses at all. Another website/company that seemed to have excessive staffing (at least to this outsider) was Meetup. No clue if they’ve cut back on help by now, but for the bottom line’s sake, I sure hope so.

The money — which [Chief Executive Rich] Barton hopes will carry the startup to profitability — will be used for employment growth and new product development. One of the products — set to launch in the next three months — is a tool that will allow real estate brokerages to quickly upload hundreds or thousands of for-sale listings to the Zillow site.

Did I read that right? Their CEO “hopes” this move will carry them to profitability? Truth and transparency in Zillow’s profitability is my second criticism.

One would think a site like Zillow could operate more effectively (and perhaps closer to profitability) with 10-20% of the manpower currently being utilyzed. With the downturn in the housing market, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that Zillow is downsizing their staff within the next 6-12 months and blaming it on the market.

While it can seem like a health sign for a company to be bringing on a new people, it can also be a caution flag when more investment capital is being sought at the same time. Great things are on the way. You’ll see.

According to Zillow’s jobs page, they’re still hiring — for what? 12 openings, as of this writing, all for tech-related positions. See this ad for a test/quality assurance position which reads (emphasis mine, and backup screenshot made in case the ad is pulled down/changed heretofore):

Here at Zillow.com, we are transforming the way people view the real estate industry. We build scalable software — not “spec-ware” or “prototypes,” but real, useful, profitable, Web 2.0 solutions. We’re looking for people to help us change the way people access and use real estate information.

“Profitable” … really? Doesn’t the Seattle PI piece quoted above clearly indicate Zillow is not profitable yet? Why are they suggesting to their prospective employees otherwise? No, they aren’t getting an infusion of $30 million dollars from their unprofitable web 2.0 site, they’re tapping more investor’s pockets. Come on.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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