Step 1: Realize that it cannot be done and don’t bother looking for step 2 or step 3!
All the data they use is in the public record and there is currently no way to get them to stop publishing it. (I confirmed this point with them!).
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Actually, it could be done. However, I think it would take an act of congress to repeal the Freedom of Information Act – 5 U.S.C. § 552in order to do it.
Short of that, I agree it can’t be done. But, never under-estimate the amount of havoc a few good lawyers can cause. 🙂
As far as California goes, all the information is held by the county recorder. Any one can go in and request records for any address. Real estate agents use title companies to find home values and to do comps for your home. The title companies do all the dirty work to keep up to date on recent home sales, and refinances. The only way to keep your information out of Zillow is to not sell or refinance your home, thus eliminating recent, relevant records!
Dustin,
You said what took me a whole bunch of words to say. But one thing that I mention at my post at http://houseblogger.typepad.com/houseblogger/2006/02/on_zillowcom.html is that the real lesson for Realtors not to watch Zillow.com’s product, but to watch their marketing. Because the marketing and Publicity is brilliant.
Whether you have an appraisal, CMA, Zestimate or local psychic report, it doesn’t mean you get to buy or sell a house for the asking price. There are so many MAJOR variables including comparable houses on the market.
Supply and demand determines VALUE. (you’d think with $32 mil you could afford an economist to tell you this). So, if you believe this economic theory, then in an up market the Z is worthless and in a down market the Z is equally worthless. So that leaves the Z valuable only in a stable market (what’s that look like) for a cookie-cutter house (I may have seen some of these).
Just becasue your Rich Barton and pulled off Expedia doesn’t mean you know what’s needed in the real estate industry. It’s not a flashy abacus.
I would rather have an engineer’s report, home inspection report, termite report, water, radon report and an appraisal report (because banks use appraisers not Zappraisers) and a DAMN GOOD BROKER. Look for my new company Zonker (named after willie wonker) . We are in stealth mode and will come out when we feel good and ready to. 🙂
You sure that’s not Zonka named after Willie Wonka?
yes you are right…you can be on the Board of Directors 🙂
3 cents, you crack me up. Thanks for the good laugh.
A few points…
1) Supply and Demand determines PRICE, not VALUE. What’s the difference? VALUE is a long term benefit to the asset owner and doesn’t tend to fluctuate with speculative forces as rapidly as price. Think VALUE INVESTING or INTRINSIC VALUE.
2) Jordan – real estate agents (at least here in Colorado) don’t use Title companies for pricing homes. We begin the process by looking up comps on the MLS. Where it goes from there depends on a realtor’s skills.
3) Can’t forget to plug my site.
The Title Companies provide comps, but I tell them not to bother. They work as well as Zillow. In fact, they are pretty much like Zillow.
I Zillowed a house in Cherry Hill NJ that I sold in 1991 for $175,000 and it is currently Zillowed at $184,000. I bought it for $115,000 in 1985. Looks like I sucked out all of it’s future upward potential 🙂
Thanks for the “price” correction Osman. Glad i could give a laugh.
A Zinger for Zillow:
In the words of a vice-presidential candidate:
“I’ve met Kelley Blue Book, and sir, you are no Kelley Blue Book”.
In my town, you can already go online and find out the house values of anyone in town. Of course, these are the values as estimated by the town for tax purposes, but I don’t think it’s that different than what Zillow will do.
After doing quite a few searches off of Zillow, plus doing a bit of research on how they are getting their figures. We have discovered it isn’t strictly tax assessment, or refi. Apparently, they feel they have come up with a “fool proof” formula for appreciation, market, etc. Unfortunately, their scientific approach to R.E. is seriously flawed. My office is in Edmonds. According to Zillow our 1.5 million dollar water front homes are next door to duplicate water front homes for 500k. One of my colleague’s refi’ed within the last month. Her appraisal for the refi came in at 680k. Yet Zillow has Zestimated her home is valued over 890K. Go figure? I have yet to find any .com that can do the service of an educated, qualified, and experienced Realtor.
Jennifer and Mover,
They are definitely using a formula that involves more than just the tax records. Zillow provides some background on their methodology.
What I find interesting about Z is that PEOPLE have to check it to see if it’s accurate…that should tell you something about the human brain v. Z
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Waterfront is clearly and blatantly overlooked by Zillow. In the area where I live, all waterfront properties are premium priced, but Zillow does not account for this. They only provide a small checkbox among other much less substantial factors and they only use comparable sales to come up with their zestimates. At least that’s how it appears to me. What I can say is that if you own a waterfront home and most of the other homes in your neighborhood are not waterfront, your home will be vastly under-zestimated, because in their secret formula they base the value of your home on comparables in the immediate neighborhood. When I had a realtor do a CMA, she had to go pretty far out of my neighborhood for comps, and she admitted that was an unusual thing for her to have to do, but there wasn’t anything in my neighborhood to compare my home to because it was the only one on the water, and my home has about 500 feet of water frontage, compared with pretty much zero for all the other homes in the neighborhood. Zillow fails to deal with this at all. This is a problem.
In my area, they are comparing homes in a different part of town but with the same street name. The houses that aren’t really therte show up in the mis=ddle of the street on the map (apparently because they don’t know where to put them) and all of these houses are in a cracker box development that is being foreclosed. The “real” houses are waterfront or near waterfront and sell in the $400k TO $880k range, while the houses that don’t really exist there are selling in the $100K to $200K range. The “real” houses don’t come up for sale much, while the “not really there” houses across town are in forclosure and are all getting sold in one way or another. Guess what… The “real” houses are now valued in the mid $200K range now. If soemone gets divorced and has to sell, they are screwed, and it is Zillows fault!!! I spoke with Zillow, got an intern that I showed the problem, and was going to “look into it” a year ago. Never got a call back, and when I asked again, Zillow said it was the counties fault. When I expalined that the county wasn’t using the data to estiamte value, they never responded back. Nothing has changed, and you can see these houses today. If someone has to seel there house, they are looked at on Zillow. If they sell at the faulty low price, it becomes a self fulfilling proficy. Zillow id a blight on home ownership and has destroyed Billions of dollars in value for owners…. Period….
well, if it is a public information, then, it cannot really be done. but yeah, just like robbie said, with good lawyers, maybe there is a way. you just need to make a lot of effort.