First American Core Logic, a real estate data company, claims that Zillow, Fiserv, Real Data and four other online appraisal- and estimate providers have and continue “to willfully, wantonly and deliberately engage in acts of infringement” on their 1994-patented automated valuation model (AVM) that provides quick property appraisals and valuations for clients.
How often do you use these services, and which, if any do you prefer?
Should that software be public domain?
Facebook comments:
Few industries are as profoundly impacted by the political machinations in Washington as the real estate industry. Whether it's old legislation like Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act or Barack Obama's massive mortgage bailouts, the U.S. political machine has a huge impact (usually bad) on the business of real estate.
Ideally, we could ignore politics. But here at the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter, we insist on seeing the world with clarity - including the reality of Washington's aggressive involvement in every facet of our business, from mortgage lending to real estate sales license; from loan modification regulations to appraisal requirements... every piece of our business is profoundly impacted by politics. So rather than stick our heads in the sand and ignore reality, readers of the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter choose to be informed and prepared.
Few things change more rapidly than the mortgage market, and with the increasing dominance of GSE's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the mortgage business, it's more important than ever to keep up. Here are a few recent mortgage news updates:
Bryan Ellis is an Atlanta-based real estate analyst and publisher of the widely read newsletter "The Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter". With over 200,000 subscribers - including real estate investors, agents, brokers, appraisers and other real estate professionals - the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter is among America's largest sources of unbiased coverage of politics and public policy for the real estate industry.
Bryan Ellis serves as editor in chief for the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter and is assisted by an extraordinary staff of writers, researchers and editors who are each real estate experts in their own right and who assure that the news we report is well researched, factual, and highly relevant to today's real estate industry.
Bryan is very happily married and has two wonderful daughters. He makes his home in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. You can contact the team at the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter here.
I use Zillow and Cyber homes to pull 90% of my comps. What else is there?
Anyways Zillow seem to me pretty inaccurate
I’ve always found their zestimate to be wildly inflated BUT their comps are awesome.
Recorded Public records like real estate belong to the taxpayers and I believe that no matter what methods are used to extract that data and present it, are not copyrightable or patentable
Zillow is OK for an estimate but their data isn’t very accurate based
on how they pull their comps and how the comps aren’t really all
that similar.
I’ve had clients & friends use it and then ask me to do a market analysis which was considerably different. Go figure.
I won’t miss it
Jerry
Zillow values are considered a joke to my firm, Cyber Homes/ Bing is slightly more accurate and provided rentals in the immediate surrounding area. My assistant uses the BOA appraisal program located on the website, it seems to have similar values as CyberHomes.
I use zillow for comps
I had a zestimate on a property I used to own for 320,000
I sold it for 700,000 enough said.
If a bank or appraiser uses any of these sites to arrive at value the consummer should refuse to pay and deny the appraisal. Only the MLS or the tax data base should be used. Just because zillow uploads from the tax data base means you should use it. If a appraiser has access to the mls and a tax data base they should use that not zillow
If these companies are using the same software, then they may have stepped over the line. I don’t think it should be public domain, but the data from the counties is. There is more than one way to compile the data and get good information from it. Certainly, you can’t stop anyone from taking the raw data and making their own formulas for use.
We do have to recognize that it was a cost intensive feat at teh time that it was done and they have earned the right to their proprietary programs.
It’s like Coke and Pepsi again. One may have started the cola beverage, but it is OK for the other to come up with their own version.
There is even more room for the implementation . Competition does breed a better product.
I use Zillow, Cyberhomes and Eppraisal. I think First American is just trying to do away with the competition. They all do the same thing don’t they? Gather information, these other sources are free, you pay for First American.
I would not shed any tears for Zillow. Their value estimates are
always wrong.
I wonder how they make their money and Who they are beholden to.
The data is public record but the methods used to gather and distribute the information is most definitely pattenable/copyrightable.
Zillow is no where near accurate most of the time. So not very missable to me. It is much more accurate and reasonable to just search the public records of the county one is looking at but not as easy. Very few places do not have this information online now and if the county is and exception and does not have it online, Zillow and this ilk do not have reliable information then either. Used a number of free and pay services for this and found them all to be questionable in several areas of the country when is comes to being accurate.
Most of these outfits are really far enough behind the curve of what is happening as to make them misleading at best.
The issue is not whether the information is public. The issue is whether the process is public. First American Core Logic is stating that the process of extracting public information by groups like Zillo et al. is similar to the process they created and copywrited.
I like Zillow also, but if they are infringing on someone else’s intellectual property rights, they either have to pay a fee or stop producing. Think about the Apple v. Microsoft case. Apple sued Microsoft for copying their windows design. The court found that there was enough differences between the two systems to find in favor of Microsoft. Let’s hope such is the case for Zillow and company.
I agree that Zillows value estimates were almost always way off, but as a former real estate agent who has grown sick of what has clearly become a sel-centered monopoly-DRE and NAR- I no longer support them. I as an investor, instead have a relationship with a title company for handling title searches on deals I am working on. This also allows me access to the same exact comp.’s used by real estate professionals. I recommend using title co.’s as a good source for comp’s and valuation.
I agree with JZ …
Public information sources…
…
Chalk another one up to zealot trial lawyers …
They will be the only ones who win this game…
Zillos Zestimates are usually off but I constantly use them for comps.
Accurate and easy!
I’m pretty sure we all realize that Zillow is way off. Finding a good title company to work with is the best way to go.
Ron Smith
Pennsylvania Short Sale Solution
I use Zillow, Cyberhomes and Appraisal.com, but Zillow usually seems to be the most inaccurate by a huge margin. Title companies are the best way to get accurate comps.
Ogal
hi family,
Being that the above has been said, what are the best comps researchers.
Whether or not the process is accurate, I wonder what took First American this long to file suit? Is the “process” that broad that another company couldn’t figure out another method of compiling data for use to the real estate industry?
I don’t see why anyone is worried about Zillow “infringing” on any intellectual property. Zillow is the most innacurate free “comps” I’ve used. I prefer cyberhomes.com and realquestinvestor.com, anyway. As bad as the AVM is in Zillow, this would be like the US Navy suing an inventor for inventing a submarine with screen doors.
IMO:
Eppraisal
Trulia
Cyberhomes
Zillow
in that order.
1st 3 are reasonable in their estimates, Zillow is usually a +/- 10% range (which can be quite a bit!)
Trulia is probably the easiest to use with Cyberhomes right there.
Not every house is on or available through every site
Then of course there are the county/town assessments if online…