Complaint to FTC consumers Zillowed? : Discover Columbus

Discover Columbus

Oct. 26, 2006

Complaint to FTC consumers Zillowed?

This is getting zilly... Zillow is loved one moment and jeered the next... my head is spinning...

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) made a complaint against Zillow.com with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) today. Who is the NCRC?

"NCRC MISSION STATEMENT

NCRC’s mission is to increase fair & equal access to credit, capital, and banking services/products because discrimination is illegal, unjust, and detrimental to the economic growth and well-being of our society. NCRC seeks to support and provide long-term solutions which include providing tools to building community and individual net worth."

The NCRC website has press release via .pdf about their complaint to the FTC. and a copy of the actual complaint via .pdf also.

Just this morning Inman News real estate news for the real estate industry and consumers had an article about brokers and agents using Zillow's Zesitmate API to create traffic on a website. RealLiving.com has what I think is a Mashup with Zillow... It was praised as good marketing... I called it a match up when I wrote about it earlier this month... never having heard of a mashup...

I saw Roberta Murphy's report Zillow Gets Zinged first... just a week ago I read the news on Roberta's blog about Allan Dalton of Realtor.com ridiculing Zillow .....over inaccurate values.

Before the Zillow beta was introduced Zillow was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread... it could replace real estate agents and appraisers... When It was introduced, it was a hot website, lots of traffic. Many said the Zestimates were inaccurate... this summer Zillow's creators were lauded by Inman News as part of the Top 100 Important People in the real estate industry. In September Zillow made a change, sellers could now change the information on their property. The wisdom then was the websites tool itself was flawed but the marketing value of the tool was still valuable.... last week Realtor.com head Allan Dalton ridiculed Zillow comparing it to a Carnival act to guess weight or age. The zilliest ...I mean silliest ofall the words starting with Z in hyping Zillow. Forgive me...the first time I mentioned Zillow I wrote "ztupid." One great word 'Unzillowable' was coined by Sellsius° Blog.

Who will buy Zillow poll ..... yesterday Russell Shaw of ZDNet was polling who would buy Zillow, AOL, LendingTree, Google....

There's never a dull moment.

c. 2006 Columbus Best Blog

Comments (6) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
View more entries tagged with: Zillow, Real Living, Ncrc, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Inman News

Oct. 26, 2006 - re: Complaint to FTC consumers Zillowed?

Posted by dave

I think all appraisals are a scam. The fact they don't get triggered until an offer is made is the first obvious bias. They always seem to come within $500 of the offered price so basically the bank is lending based on a person's ability to payback the loan rather than the value of their prospective investment.

I'm just bitter because I hate the process of buy/selling a house I guess.

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Oct. 26, 2006 - re: Complaint to FTC consumers Zillowed?

Posted by Maureen McCabe

You can do an appraisal without an offer to purchase. They are done all the time for relocation, probate, divorce and other reasons. The appraisal done for a mortgage is done when the property goes in contract but over the years I have seen plenty of cut appraisals. They were low because the value is not there. Usually with FHA or VA loans but I've seen cut appraisals on conventional financing too. I have also sold homes that have appraised for well over the purchase price. One this year appraised for over $10,000 more than my buyer was paying for the house. The seller brought over $40,000 to the closing because he'd refinanced the house and already spent his equity before the market changed. Thanks for the comment. Good luck!

Edited by Maureen on October 26, 2006 at 5:41 pm

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Oct. 26, 2006 - re: Complaint to FTC consumers Zillowed?

Posted by Michigan Maureen

I admit, I was all a-twitter with fear when I first heard about Zillow. Zillow is an excellent marketing machine. Now, mostly when I think about Zillow, I think Zzzzz as in "I need to catch some Zzzzzzz." Zillow=yawn

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Oct. 27, 2006 - re: Complaint to FTC consumers Zillowed?

Posted by Maureen McCabe

Thanks for the comment Michigan Maureen (Maureen Francis of Birmingham MI.) I still love Zillow in a geekyfascination kind of way that the word algorithm brings out in me. I love to say "unzillowable." I think it is a fine internet toy.

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Oct. 27, 2006 - re: Complaint to FTC consumers Zillowed?

Posted by dave

Good to know Maureen. Thanks. I'm have to work on becoming less cynical.

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Oct. 27, 2006 - re: Complaint to FTC consumers Zillowed?

Posted by Maureen McCabe

Dave keep up the good work! Commenting and working on cyncism! Drat my darn smilies are not working and it is starting to grate on me to have to do them the old fashioned way but here goes ; - ) Maureen

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Discover Columbus is a site about Columbus Ohio. Originally named "Columbus Best Blog," it was never the best blog in Columbus Ohio. It was a blog about the best in Columbus and Central Ohio! Best restaurants, best real estate company, best schools, best neighborhoods..... written by Maureen McCabe a licensed real estate agent with Columbus Ohio's best real estate company, Real Living HER. Discover Columbus is just a site about Central Ohio.