The inside dirt on houses

Home buyers generally want to learn everything they can about a house before signing a contract. Many pose those questions to their realty agents. Some talk to the sellers. Now, there’s another way to get information.

Home Q&A;, a new feature on real estate website Zillow.com, allows registered users to ask or answer a question on the Web pages of any of the more than 70 million homes in its database -- whether that property is for sale or not.

The site (www.zillow.com) launched the new feature on Wednesday.

And in the same vein, StreetAdvisor -- www.streetadvisor.com, which launched its public beta version Wednesday -- invites visitors to become, in effect, hyperlocal tour guides.

“Let the world know what you REALLY think about your street,” the site invites. Who lives there, are the neighbors nutty, what’s the street vibe? So far, most pages are empty.

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gayle.pollard-terry@latimes.com