zillow is a sart. It will go thru the phases of brokers fear then realizing that it helps them as people can scout areas they are completety ignorant of and so on. It's considerably off on my house ( 17%) but the criterion is very general and only a base from which to build. It will take a broker to be property specific and show. All in it's a good thing and will generate business imo. The # of hits checking on family and friends houses must be enormous.
It should be illegal to see what other people paid for their house. It's not anybody's business what I paid for my house. Period. You should have to be a fully licensed appraiser to get that kind of data OR you should have to pay a pretty good fee to get this data at your local courthouse -- not just any old Tom, Dick, or Harry that wants to get into the appraisal business or who is nosey. Anyone can appraise. Look up comps and assign a value -- there's your appraisal. I've actually considered writing my state representative about how this is a violation of my privacy. I grew up in the Midwest (I now live in California) and if you asked someone what they paid for their home, it would be considered very very rude. It may be common discussion over at ye ole' water cooler in California, but in most of the country it's considered being all up in someone's kool aid...
what's your address, banjo? yes, i agree. its a decent ballpark figure, but can be way way off. surfer
...ah - this information has been part of the public record for decades. You can walk into the courthouse and look up this information any time you want to. Maybe you don't like that it is so easily available, but thats a different issue. . .
It's all public record. I grew up in the mid west also, Cleveland Ohio suburb, my people there get uptight when I talk about money or ask questions, I get that non of your biz crap. Anything is anybody's biz that wants to make it so. To prove to a brother in law what an ass wipe he was, he didn't want to tell me how much he paid for a car, like it's some big secret worth protecting, I paid a net site $300.00 and got his medical records, property records, credit report, dmv records, work history, current phone #'s, address etc. Got the exact amount for the car too since there was sales tax on it. The old days of privacy are gone and getting farther away with every heart beat, like it or not. What is available out there for a price is stunning. For about $1500 you can know how many hairs on somebody's ass and where they spent last nite. It's common for biz to use these sites for new hires if they are far enough up the ladder even though they would never admit it. Bottom line , if it's on a hard drive storage system somewhere it can be had for a price, legal or not.
Well, I think it should be pretty obvious that this type of thing strikes fear into everyone that makes their living off the real estate ecosystem. This group has attempted to control - through means that in my opinion should not be allowed just as it is not tolerated in other industries - the SFH market. The loudest howls will be from people that fear losing business. The days of having to use a realtor to transact real estate are coming to an end. The business has basically delayed the inevitable (to their credit) for the last ten years but that game is coming to an end. The zillow site appears to use more than a generic AVM since on my tests it correctly came with a few percentage points in markets that are currently undergoing rapid changes in market conditions........
House transaction prices are indeed public record - why the other poster did not know this is astounding ..... I have worked with very large fianancial organizations and believe me, you can find out anything on anybody......
Marketwatch did a interview with Zillow's founder. If his dream would come true, we might pay as less commission in real estate as buying stocks online. It doesn't make sense to me to pay a high commission even for a new home.
Its just ridiculous....I hope Zillow gets it's way and in fact does revolutionize the RE industry.... Michael B.