I hear a lot of rumors, as you might guess. They’re usually way less than half the truth, but they can be useful for shaking the real truth loose, so they’re not entirely a bad thing. In any case, I’ve been hearing ugly rumors about Zillow.com in Arizona. Zillow Public Relations Specialist Amanda Hoffman has been working night and day to help me pin them down.
Like this:
- Q: Is Zillow being sued by Arizona homeowners who regret having used Zestimates as opinions of value? Anywhere else?
A: “Nope. Not true.” - Q: Are there any extant complaints about Zillow before the Arizona Board of Appraisal? In other words, have any real persons claiming standing as victims come forward?
A: “Not that we know of.” - Q: Do you have any comment about Arizona Senate Bill 1291? Has Zillow had any involvement with the debates on this legislation so far?
A: “We recently learned about the Arizona bill and we’re looking into what it may mean for Zillow users. We believe it’s important for home buyers and sellers to have easy access to real estate data and home valuation tools.”
I’m reading that last response to suggest that they might only have heard about the bill today.
The first two responses are significant because they argue that there are no self-identified injured parties appealing for relief from Zillow.com in Arizona. I don’t think offering an unwelcome opinion of value can be conceived of as a tort, but no one is complaining of an injury in the first place.
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Sock Puppet says:
Seems like the “injured party” is the AZ appraisers who seem to feel threatened by Zillow. The message I got was pretty much “oh no we’re about to be replaced by software, we better stop it!”
It’s a very odd stance to take really. Better would be to have the appraisers come out and say “Zillow is an incredibly shoddy valuation tool and it’s laughable that people think that it’s remotely as accurate as the serious effort of a trained and expert appraiser, and here’s 6 reasons why we’re better….”
If a zestimate was called a CMA would we even be having this discussion?
April 19, 2007 — 5:51 pm
Brian Brady says:
The answer should always be, “You get what you pay for”. Great comment Puppet
April 19, 2007 — 9:12 pm
Tim says:
FYI,
MLSPIN of Massachusetts just sent out this notice:
“RULES AND REGULATIONS REMINDERS:
I. Recently, the On-Line Valuation site, Zillow announced a new function being made available to advertise listings for sale on that site, whether or not you are the listing broker/agent. The MLS Rules and Regulations, STRICTLY PROHIBIT the advertising of another broker’s listings without their prior WRITTEN consent. The REALTOR&174; Code of Ethics, Standard of Practice 12-4 also prohibits the advertising of a listing without proper authority. Better safe than sorry; do not advertise another office’s listing anywhere without prior written approval.”
Without getting inot another circular argument about whether what Zillow is is “advertising” or “reporting” and the dubious distinction between the two, I wonder how many other MLS orgainzations around the country are sending out similar notices??
April 20, 2007 — 4:41 am
Todd Tarson says:
>I. Recently, the On-Line Valuation site, Zillow announced a new function being made available to advertise listings for sale on that site, whether or not you are the listing broker/agent.
Oh bloody hell, I’m doing the other broker and his/her client a favor by simply announcing a certain property is for sale with a dollar figure. All of the properties that I have done this for are included on the IDX package, and I have filled out the listing broker information on each.
It is still their listing.
But no… let’s protect the chance at a both sides of the transaction and commission at all cost. Yeah, that is so much better for the clients.
April 20, 2007 — 8:05 am
Todd Tarson says:
I still have appraisers tell me they hate the fact that licensed agents perform broker price opinions on behalf of banks and the like. They say that it is taking food off their table.
It is nice that the bill doesn’t call for an end to the practice of providing CMA’s from the real estate sales business. My guess as to why though is to get support from Realtors. If this bill passes and becomes law, I bet the same group challenges the real estate sales industry next.
April 20, 2007 — 8:11 am
Ashley says:
I’m wondering if this is going on in any other states. I’m not really sure what the point of this whole thing is. I definitely agree with Sock Puppet in that consumers just need to realize that Zillow is RARELY accurate simply b/c of the way it is set up to GET values.
When it comes down to it, only an appraiser or real estate agent is gonna be able to get you an accurate estimate. Anyone upset at Zillow for an inaccurate estimate really just needs to read the fine print.
That’s why, although sites like HouseValues and GetMyHomesValue get a lot of crap, at least they use real estate agents to get home values (so they’re actually ACCURATE) and they help agents out by giving them real estate leads!
April 20, 2007 — 8:59 am
Keith Jeppson says:
What a great series of posts on Zillow.
The Arizona movement is nothing but industry protection. And they should be a little worried. Do they worry about underwriters desk reviews? Why are there soooo many desk reviews going on now?
You nailed the real issue though. “For Compensation”. If zillow was getting paid there would be a problem. But, I’m not aware of any state that says you can’t give an opinion for free about anything. If that starts, free speech is in trouble.
It is the same issue on the realtors side. Anyone can present information about any real estate to anyone as long as there is no compensation. Whee we get paid is when we have to have a license.The benefit of compensation brings rsponsibility the accountability of agency …
I was on the bandwagon against zillow, but have begun to look for what possible value is there and how I can use the albatross to my benefit.
Thanks again for your indepth sphereical analysis of this beast.
April 20, 2007 — 10:39 am
Cathy Jager says:
Todd,
I learned all I know about appraisal laws and boards of appraisal (and protectionist state legislation) while defending BPO’s against them across the country 3-7 years ago.
In that playing field, we had a Federal law that pre-empted state laws in the types of valuations that lenders could accept for certain transactions. The broker price opinions we produced clearly fell within the scope of the Federal appraisal exemption.
It didn’t matter. It didn’t stop various boards from threatening us or the real estate agents who worked with us. I heard from appraisal board members: “The Feds don’t tell us what to do”, “The Feds will never enforce it against us” and even “I hope your plane crashes on your way home, Cathy”.
This from the “officials” enforcing the Law (their own).
Your cautious pessism is wise.
April 20, 2007 — 12:40 pm