It would be an understatement to say that looking for a new home in which to move one's self or one's family can be a challenge. The home has to have the right mix of size, character, location and price, among other considerations.
This whole process can be made even more difficult when decisions have to be made from a long way away.
That's where Zillow (ZG) has helped many people. It shows home photos, values, history, and specifications searchable by address and location, making it easier for prospective buyers to short list properties before even visiting them.
One family has an extraordinary story of such an event.
A Mansion Literally on Fire
A Zillow listing of a mansion for sale, completely engulfed in flames, went viral in January.
One man, Mike Thakur, saw the listing as an opportunity, though. The mansion -- selling for $1.5 million in Franklin, Tenn. -- was in his desired location. He considered buying it in spite of the fire damage and working on fixing it up as a big project.
Thakur, a native of the U.K. and now living in Houston, saw it as an opportunity that few would take.
"It's incredible," he was quoted as saying on BBC. "It's the house on top of the hill."
So he bought it.
The Photo of the House Went Viral
Thakur posted a photo of the house on fire on Instagram after buying it.
Accompanying the photo was a rather incredible message.
"Did something a little crazy over the weekend and bought a burned down mansion," he wrote.
An Instagram account called Zillow Gone Wild had also posted the image of the engulfed mansion. That post has more than 26,000 likes as of Jan. 25.
The Zillow page listing the home shows 407,314 views, also as of Jan. 25.
