As I noted, there is no Zestimate for our area. But the price range Z gives on my home is a swing of over $100,000. On a $200K home, that’s quite a swing!

The questions still on your plate are as follows:

1. Does Zillow publish grossly inaccurate zestimates? I assume your failure to deny it means Yes they do. Don;t worry, we all know it’s true.

So now we get to the crux of the biscuit–

2. Is a grossly inaccurate zestimate false and misleading information? This one you have successfully dodged for quite a while. A simple yes or no answer will do it. C’mon David, give it a shot.

3. Are you saying it is impossible for a zestimate to be false and misleading because it is a opinion? This seems to be your defense but I don’t want to put words in your mouth.

4. Are you saying a “range” of value opinion is impossible to be false and misleading? (Remember, the zestimate “range” does not appear on every page a zestimate appears.)

3. Do homeowners have ANY of these exclusive rights:
* where their property is listed for sale (or not listed)
* how it is marketed and advertised
* not have false or misleading information attached to the home, and
* who will list, advertise and market their home as their agent.

As always, we appreciate your comments.

BTW, are you getting overtime for this thread

Public records on Zillow should not differ from those at your county. Please send me your address so I can investigate further (privately of course.) My email is [davidg AT zillow DOT com]

Tony –

Thanks! We do in fact have more people far smarter than I working on upcoming improvements to algorithms. That said; it’s important to have realistic expectations for automated valuations – and so we also put a lot of effort in to how best to communicate them to users.

I completely understand the need for TOU. However, with A/R there is a definite benefit to my contribution and I CHOOSE to use their services. Unlike Zillow, where the only reason I would be inclinded to enter information is to correct data which is incorrect and may be detrimental to my best interests as a homeowner.

As for the public records, they are correct per the county and per the MRIS tax records (which uses the county’s database). My husband and I built our home with our own two hands. We pulled our own permits…walked them to the county and everything. So I know the county records to be true. I don’t know where your information came from. Are you using a third party to collect public information? If you’re not getting direct public data from the individual jurisdiction, then I don’t see how this Zillow system can work consistently.

As for aerial views, are you talking about the aerial views from MSN Live Search, or Google, or Yahoo maps? If you are saying Zillow is a good place to come and get sort-a-kind-a-but-not-really-accurate-information and with it an aerial view of the property, I’d say you’re right – but not quite. The aerial view of “my house” showed my neighbor’s house two homes away…we are on 10+ acre lots.

If Zillow were a tool for getting “rough” estimates, then my neighbor, Farmer Silver down the street who’s lived here for nearly 100 years, would be better equipped to give an “estimate”. I would think most homeowners would see it that way. But I’ve been wrong before….

Please correct your post.

Thanks for the feedback about the T.O.U. The gist of that excerpt is that you’re responsible for the info you provide and that Zillow has the right to publish it. If you check your terms of use for your A/R blog you’ll find it’s quite similar as is the T.O.U. for most web 2.0 sites that accept user contributions. Use of these sites implies acceptance of their terms but I personally like the fact that Zillow reminds users of that fact when posting listings and claiming homes.

I’d need your address to investigate further but it sounds as though the public records about your home are incorrect. If that’s the case, you should note that that is not Zillow’s error and you can in fact have it corrected by your county. We’ve made it easy for owners to publish correct facts should they not want to bother with correcting the public record. Zillow is the only website of its kind where owners have this capability.

You’re correct that public records are, well, public … but as you know, they’re seldom convenient to access and don’t include the aerial imagery that our users love. I totally understand that Realtors don’t need Zillow to form an opinion of value – but I totally disagree that a homeowner should purchase an appraisal any time they want a rough estimate of home values. Zestimate values are in no way competitive to CMA’s and appraisals – they perform an entirely different function – they’re a great starting point for someone who is researching home values.