I want to thank Zillow. I may be a trouble maker but I respect outside of the box thinkers and weirdoes. It is wonderful to see those occasional products for real estate that are even remotely interesting and even a little imaginative . .
I have never been a fan of Zillow because of their business practices and because my sellers get ticked off when the “zestimate” is lower than the amount they have their home listed for and instead of contacting Zillow they expect me to explain it and fix it and of course I get tired of explaining to buyers that the home they found for sale on Zillow really isn’t for sale anymore. I am not saying Zillow is responsible for the crash of the housing market . . which started the same year Zillow started and grew as Zillow grew but it is an interesting coincidence.
Yet Zillow has done what no one else can do and it is because of Zillow that I get free information on foreclosed homes before they hit the market and I think that is wonderful because up to now I have had to pay for the public information that my tax dollars already pay for.
I can not help but wonder why Zillow was able to provide us with foreclosure information for free and the hugely expensive and complex RPR system could not. My guess is the NAR doesn’t understand what kind of information consumers and even agents need but Zillow does. Having the information about REO’s out in the wild is going to help dispel a lot of mythology about how to buy foreclosures. Let the games begin.
Also see RPR Vs. Zillow – I do a side-by-side comparison of a “zetimate” and an RPR valuation.