Posted on 04/15/2007 6:31:41 AM PDT by radar101
Arizona regulators have ordered a Seattle-based online home price estimator to stop doing business in the state.
The Arizona Board of Appraisal issued two cease-and-desist letters to the company that operates the popular real estate Web site Zillow, saying it needs an appraiser license to offer its "zestimates" in Arizona.
"It is the board's feeling that (Zillow) is providing an appraisal," Deborah Pearson, the board's executive director, said Friday.
Zillow warns users the estimates it provides are not a definitive value but a starting point for consumers. Launched in February, 2006, the company claims it has 4 million users a month, including people wanting to how much their homes - or their neighbors' homes - are worth.
The site has been criticized by real estate professionals and others concerned about its accuracy.
A complaint was filed in October with the Federal Trade Commission by the non-profit National Community Reinvestment Coalition, alleging Zillow was misleading consumers and others with its estimates.
Zillow issued a statement Saturday saying it disagreed with the board's view, and pointed to an opinion issued by a national appraisers standards group that said online estimates aren't formal appraisals.
"We strongly believe that providing Zestimates in Arizona is completely legal and in fact an important public service, given that Zestimates are the result of our 'automated valuation model' and are not a formal appraisal," co-founder and company President Lloyd Frink said in the statement.
Zillow's director of communications, Amy Bohutinsky, said the company has responded to the board's letters and hopes to "engage in a productive dialogue with them."
On Saturday, the Zillow.com Web site was still giving price estimates for homes in the Phoenix area.
About what I'm looking for except for the "close to Dallas" part. Nothing against Dallas, I just don't want to move that far from where I am.
Zillow is crap... at least where I live. You trust that to give you a true value of your home you are going to be sitting on a property that won’t sell anywhere near their price.
Guess you could not understand the part about have a license and not having a license. Dumber than a fifth grader.
That is the probables, they are estimates at best, based on data that they have no ideal if it is accurate are not. And I would worry more about the local taxes being too high based on too high a value than I would some fly by night realtor.
Yeah, I just bought a nice house, with lots of upgrades, for 100K less than the Zillow ‘price’.
I'm still one bedroom and one and a half baths short of what's under my roof.
real estate agents protecting their 6% benchmark.
How about those automated lawyer programs. Perhaps we should ban those too.
The Guilds need protecting.
by the logic of this board, ANYONE who gives a value is guilty. If you ask your huband/wife “what do you think our house is worth?” then you are guilty.
If you ask a friend, GUILTY.
This decision is flawed.
westlaw and lexis will sell to anyone. The problem WAS that westlaw has excusive publication contracts with some jurisdictions. THUS since weslaw has their patented/copyrighted key cite system and only their books were published you could not get the books any other way.
HOWEVER, there has been a move which forces westlaw to provide keycite free publication online of public documents.
You can get most via http://www.findlaw.com
Most real estate agents are nothing more than glorified taxi drivers, with apologies to those who have to truly earn a living in yellow cars.
real estate agents protecting their 6% benchmark.
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This is one of many ill-informed comments about realtors, etc. on this thread.
Zillow is no threat and has nothing to do with anything, it’s a novelty, it’s an opinion, just like you can get an estimate on your cars value, etc. Why politicians want to legislate about it is insane. Are they trying to “protect” people from selling their house at 50% below market value if they get a bad estimate from Zillow? If so they should ban sharp objects as well.
It in no way threatens realtors, you can call 50 realtors in your neighborhood to get price opinions, you can click on Zillow, you can call an appraiser.
As for the 6% “benchmark”, how many realtors do you know who are rich? If it’s so easy why not become a realtor?? I’ve told many people who think we’re rich, well get your license, I’ll train you and on Fridays I’ll help you with the wheel barrows full of money. Don’t let me keep it all!
There is no realtor or broker who is threatened by this, just because you’ve gotten a Zillow estimate now you can sell For Sale By Owner? Wrong. Many For Sale By Owners whore out 3 or 4 realtors for a price before putting their sign on the lawn. By the way, the percentage of For Sale By Owners that sell is tiny, MOST homes sold without a realtor are father to son, uncle to niece, etc.
If you could get the same price by sticking a sign on you lawn as you could get multiple listing your home (with ANY realtor, from the worst to the best, it doesn’t matter) WHY aren’t 90% of homes sold this way? It’s been tried millions of times. Answer, because it doesn’t work that way, there’s no secret. If you put your house on multiple listing and open it up to every office and agent in the area you will get at LEAST 5-10% more than you can by yourself.
If you would like to sell your house without a realtor here’s how: Find out what fair market value is for your house, list it at 7-8% less than what it would sell for with a realtor and you’ll sell your house. Put expensive ads in the paper, have open houses, have people stiff you on a bunch of appointments, get 4 or 5 REALLY low-ball offers because buyers (like me ;))) know you’re not getting any serious action and you are the BEST OPPORTUNITY ever to actually get a home for 15-20% below market value, go ahead.
99% of the time you’re best case scenario is MAYBE netting close to what you would have gotten if you listed your home. Not to mention your expenses, headaches, and time.
There are so many smart people in their own fields who have ZERO understanding of the residential real estate market that it boggles my mind. I’ve encountered it thousands of times, you may own a million dollar home but it doesn’t mean you know anything about how and why homes are sold.
I know nothing of computers, web-design, InternetTechnology and would never when going to hire someone say: You make too much money, anyone can do it, I’ll do it myself, it takes you 20 minutes and you’re charging me $$$$$$$.
Imagine someone saying that to you about YOUR profession with no knowledge whatsoever, now imagine someone saying it to you every day!!
Realtors have NOTHING to do with the real estate market, the MARKET has everything to do with the real estate market. Realtors are just facilitators and middle-men, some better than others, some smarter than others, some more honest than others.
I have a question for those who use Zillow. I just posted my house, even though I am using an agent. The agent has done ZIP on the sale of my house, so I have been advertising on my own. If and when the house sells, I fully intend to give the realtor their commission because I AM under contract with them. They won’t be out a dime. Is it okay to use Zillow in that case? I can’t find an email or number to contact them.
It looks pretty accurate in my area (San Jose), but my mom thinks her house was estimated too low (Dallas).
It doesn’t take into account what updates have been done to the home, so it is just an estimate. However, it does base the price from comps of the area.
I imagine the more homes sold in an area, the more accurate the estimate.
>...Zillow’s estimates do not appear to be very accurate in my experience (too high).
I’ve found the opposite to be true. Zillow comes in way low. I think Real Estate people would love it!
Of course, Zillow doesn’t affect realtors. Pricing a home is only a small part of what a realtor does. Realtor market homes, hold open houses, set up inspections, and then help with making sure the homes closes.
We easily sold our old home (in fact we found the buyer), but our realtor still did tons of work.
I do know realtors that are well-to-do. I live in San Jose, and they make good money here. However, they have to be good. I know other people that are not good realtors, and they don’t make much money.
Are you suggesting that most or all licensed real estate agents in Arizona also have an appraiser’s license? It certainly doesn’t work that way in my state. A market value estimate produced by a real estate agent typically does not conform to the requirements of a true appraisal...
They really low-balled a neighbors home... one of the problems here in Arizona is you have a lot of homes built by owner on lots and one house may be worth a million and the next $200K — really..... estimates in these cities need a hands-on go out and see the house appraiser.
Most real estate agents are nothing more than glorified taxi drivers, with apologies to those who have to truly earn a living in yellow cars.
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See what I’m saying??? LOL, sorry I missed this gem, please refer to my post 33.
Please, please tell me what you do for a living.
80% of “realtors” fail and don’t work full time in Real Estate within 2 years, so most don’t make a living at Real Estate. I wonder what the attrition ratio is for Taxi Drivers?
My mother was a Real Estate Broker since the 1960’s, honest and blunt, no time for nonsense, tap dancing, lying, puffery, etc. You don’t like the honest approach, go up the street that broker will tell you you’re house if worth 50 thousand more than I said, call me in 6 months when your house expires.
I have the same approach, do you want me to lie to you and stroke you? Or do you want to know the truth?
I’ll admit that I am the exception in realtors, I know what I’m doing from a lot of years of listening, observing and doing. Many people who fail in other walks of like think, “Hey, let’s do Real Estate” Hence the 80% attrition rate.
A skilled realtor has to be able to know how to find a buyer what they’re looking for, able to convey to a seller what ACTUAL market value is for their home and the psychological ability to talk both parties off the fence when they get emotional and stand-offish.
As a rule of thumb there is ALWAYS 1 lunatic in any transaction, either the buyer or the seller. Making outrageous demands, going back on their word (always attributed to the realtor being a liar) and threatening to kill the deal every day for any inconvenience either real or imagined.
Sometimes you get 2 lunatics in a transaction, sometimes none. The average is 1. Don’t get me wrong, these people may not be lunatics in day to day life, but there’s something about your lifeblood, your home, that brings out the very worst in people, emotion rules over logic and often times it’s people like me who wind up being father confessor. Don’t get me started on divorce sales.
Also often against our wishes, people will hire the “best” lawyer. Great, he’s a certified trial attorney who won’t take anyone’s phone calls and hasn’t responded to an attorney review letter in 10 days already. (Realtors fault, LOL). In these transactions I know going in that I will be the attorney, negotiating all the things the lawyer is hired to do, why? Because he or she won’t and does NOT care and the house will never close, it becomes a joke. So either they get a new lawyer or I become the lawyer, they can’t be bothered to negotiate who will pay for the termite treatment or how much of a credit will be given for the roof, etc.
In a hot market it CAN be easy for someone to sell a house, the hard part is making it close. If I had a dollar for every client, (even if they weren’t my client, be it the buyer or the seller) who APOLOGIZED to me after looking at their behaviour with a clear head, I would be rich. This is AFTER telling everyone they knew what thief I was!
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