In the face of online home valuation sites such as Zillow, Eppraisal and Reply, Coldwell Banker Real Estate last week debuted its own Home Value Estimator — part of a new tool called Home Tracker. Coldwell Banker’s system is similar in that it uses recent comparable sales data to come up with a value range for a given house. But the company claims that its version is an industry first: here’s why. In addition to having some added credibility due to its affiliation with one of the nation’s leading real estate companies, it allows consumers to combine current real estate data with actual or planned improvements, generating a dynamically updated estimate of a home’s market value. For example, the Improvement Calculator is deigned to tell you how much a $50,000 kitchen remodel would increase the home’s value based on local or regional data.

Other bells and whistles include a Maintenance Log, which allows users to store improvement and maintenance information (you can even request a reminder by e-mail when the next maintenance is “due”). You can ask to be alerted of changes in home value and recent neighborhood sales. A Notes and Documents section allows consumers to store any home-related materials for future reference (receipts from the purchase of major appliances and electronics can also be scanned and saved here). And the Photo Album feature can be useful for before and after pictures of renovations, or for insurance purposes.

Coldwell Banker is taking strides to stay ahead of its competition. The Web is where most people start their home search, so developing the best online tools possible is a common-sense way to market your company. I’m sure that whatever the investment was to develop Home Tracker will pay dividends down the road.

To see the press release, go to: http://www.realogy.com/media/pr/show_release.cfm?id=447

To use Home Tracker, go to: www.ColdwellBanker.com