Loading ...The Arizona Board of Appraisal has moved to stop Zillow.com from providing online home estimates, known on their web site as “Zestimates”, in the state of Arizona. Arguing that these estimates are actually appraisals, the board is seeking to prevent Zillow from providing “Zestimates” in the state. Zillow states that these estimates are a public service, and not a formal appraisal. In fact, the company has disclaimers on their web site to that effect.
Frankly, I don’t agree with the state of Arizona. There is nothing wrong with online information. At the least, these online estimates are interesting, and provide a point of discussion. In my personal experience, they have not proved to be terribly accurate, especially with “emotional” ammenities such as views, oversized lots, location, and interior appeal. I have had some of the “zestimates” come in somewhere in the general range of value on homes I have sold, but others have been off, sometimes substantially. I had one property in Fremont that had a “zestimate” at $1,030,000, and it sold for $1,500,000. I know this because I had a buyer argue with me feaverishly that it was worth no more than $1.1 million, and kept bringing up the “zestimate”. Obviously, he was way off.
As long as consumers know that a “zestimate” is no substitute for an appraisal or a broker price opinion, then why not allow them. In the interest of fairness, we also had an appraiser tell the owner that the house was worth $1,650,000… he was off too.
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Arizona Moves to Ban Zillow.com from Online Value Estimates