From today's Arizona Republic:
An Arizona regulatory board has ordered Zillow.com to stop offering its online estimates of home values.
The Arizona Board of Appraisal has issued two cease and desist letters to the popular real estate Web site, claiming Zillow needs an appraiser license to offer its "zestimates" in Arizona.
"It is the board's feeling that (Zillow) is providing an appraisal," said Deborah Pearson, Board of Appraisal executive director.
This is just plain idiotic and asinine.
Have cease and desist letters also been delivered to Coldwell Banker, Bank of America, Domaina (Lending Tree), Devenio, National Property Value, Homegain, Home Appraisals USA, RealEstate.com, or any of the other similar sites offering automated valuations that are scattered all over the Internet?
Have cease and desist letters been delivered to all of the 47,675 licensed real estate agents and brokers in the Phoenix area? I'm assuming they all offer free CMAs (Comparative Market Analysis). Let's be ridiculously generous to the Arizona Board of Appraisal and assume only a fourth of the licensed agents offer such a service (and I'm certain it's significantly more).
Two cease and desist letters down, 11,989 to go.
Sites that provide Automated Valuation Methods (AVMs) and agents that provide CMAs aren't doing appraisals. I guess the AZ Board of Appraisal and/or their members see it differently and feel threatened.
“We have responded to the letters from the Arizona Board of Appraisal and hope to engage in a productive dialogue with them,” said Amy Bohutinsky, Zillow director of communications.
Good luck Zillow. You are obviously dealing with people that are clueless, and dare I say, stupid. "Productive dialog" is difficult to engage in with people of this intelligence level. After all, we're talking about a governmental body whose home page highlights a copy of their newsletter — from June of 2006.
If you need an Arizona agent to "testify" for you, you know where to find me…
Hat tip to Bloodhound, via Adam and Sharon.
Technorati Tags: Zillow, Arizona Board of Appraisals, numbskulls
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Jonathan Greene 04.14.07 at 11:47 am
Like the new theme. Looks nice. Did you do it yourself?
Jay - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy 04.14.07 at 12:22 pm
Thanks Jonathan! I keep getting comments on it so I’ll throw up a short post.
That way I can stop typing the same stuff and give a little public credit to the guy that did the header graphic (I did the rest).
jf.sellsius 04.14.07 at 7:25 pm
Agree with you Jay. I think Arizona is wrong on this one. A zestimate is not an appraisal and Zillow does say that. It all boils down to the adequacy of the disclaimer. Agents who provide CMA (also not an appraisal) are required in some states (NY, PA, MD) to add a “non-appraisal” disclaimer in the largest typeface used on the CMA. We did a post on the CMA legal requirements in these states. Don’t know if Arizona has a similar diclaimer requirement. I think that is zillow’s only exposure.
http://tinyurl.com/3ypt8z
jf.sellsius 04.14.07 at 7:27 pm
PS: I like your new template—very open and light. But I miss the color a little.
Dave Marham 04.16.07 at 4:52 pm
So if my home is for sale and I have had a professional appraisal, why would I want this “toy” called Zillow messing up my potential buyers with their stupid Zestimate that shows my home value 50k below market value.
Right on Arizona. Zillow is a joke
Arizona Tax Liens 04.17.07 at 2:29 pm
Zillow does not offer appraisals on their website. Plain and simple. They only offer estimated values based on comps in the area. They don’t claim to offer appraisals and clearly state that on their website.
Zillow is a nice tool that offers one data point on property values. That’s all it is. Just one of 10 data points a certified appraiser would use in estimating the true value of a property. No where on their website does Zillow claim to be the authority on property prices.
Keep in mind that the data in Zillow can be up to 6 months old, as that is how long it can take for purchase/sale data to be registered by the state (of which Zillow taps into and places on their website).
With that in mind, the Arizona Board of Appraisal has obviously come under pressure from Arizona appraisers and wanted to show a “symbolic” gesture to support them.
In reality though, any lawyer will tell you that their cease and desist letter holds no legal ground.
After all, I could send my own cease and desist letter to the Arizona Board of Appraisal, telling them to stop hassling Zillow. It would result in the same response as Zillow will give the Arizona Board of Appraisal, ZILCH!
Rudolf_Mine 05.01.07 at 7:03 pm
Great site. So many useful info.
Really perfect!!! I’ll bookmark!
Jim Lippard 10.25.07 at 6:25 pm
Dave Marham: I think you mean $50K above market, and climbing (or rather, standing still as property values drop).
Looks like Zillow stopped updating for Arizona on 9/11.
Paul 11.21.07 at 1:13 pm
What right does any court have to refuse someone (or a website) from expressing an OPINION? ESPECIALLY when a disclaimer is present stating that it is only an opinion! Let’s review what “Market Value” means. Isn’t that actually a compliation of OPINIONS that someone makes into FACT? So let’s try and keep an open mind when it comes to opinions and ESTIMATES. And there’s no use crying about how ONE OPINION says your home isn’t worth as much as ANOTHER OPINION. Actually…go ahead and cry.
Scarlet 05.07.08 at 4:33 pm
MY dad just got served with a cease and desist and I found this site in google
George B. 05.17.08 at 5:39 am
I know for a fact that many business entrepreneurs - plumbers, housepainters, marriage and travel planners, many more - who, before quoting a price, will first check zillow home values to see how much a potential client’s home is worth!! I’m sure this practice is much more widespread than anyone cares to admit.