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Seller sue over bad data on Zillow?

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Group Member
Dec 5, 2008 7:37:16 AM
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I just did an audit of over 150 of our offices' listings on Zillow.
About 15% of them were being marketed by other agents/offices and had bad information. Price did not reflect price decreases and sometimes even basic home info (bedrooms, sqft, etc) was incorrect.
Could a seller sue a broker if they think that their property did not sell because of bad data on Trulia/Zillow? Esp. if the seller notified the agent, and the agent never corrected it?
It seems to me that the brokers have a liability exposure in this area.
For example: A seller sees that Zillow has their house listed at $1.5m when they decreased it to $1.4m several months ago. The seller notifies their agent (who is not internet savvy) and the agent looks into it but quickly 'forgets' about it. Another month goes by, the seller sees that the info is still wrong and says that it is partly to blame for their house not selling. So they sue the agent AND the broker.
What's your thought?
Group Member
Dec 5, 2008 9:36:40 AM
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They would need to prove actual damages. The posting party is the most logical party of liability

Group Organizer
Dec 6, 2008 4:56:22 PM
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There are several areas an attorney would want to check before rendering an opinion. One would be whether the agent/broker acted below the standard of what the reasonable licensed agent/broker would do in the particular jurisdiction. Another area is state licensing law to see if it contains provisions regarding Internet advertising. Some states hold the licensee responsible for failure to take steps to correct errors in listing data, in some cases within 7 days of the change. Where the agent does not control the web site, the agent must make reasonable efforts to persuade the displaying web site owner to make the changes.

In your Zillow example, did the broker upload the data to Zillow? Was this a Zestimate?

Group Member
Dec 6, 2008 5:04:26 PM
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In my survey of 150 of our listings on Zillow, 15% were posted by other agents or websites and had bad information. Usually price and size!

In my example, the seller sees that the price reduction made a month earlier is not reflected on Zillow and tells the agent, the agent, who is not internet savvy does not follow-up on it and a month later the seller still sees the same information on Zillow.

I don't think this would be sole cause for a lawsuit, but could it help the seller establish a pattern, along with other factors, of negligence and not taking resonable action thoughout the listing period?

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