Can I sue zillow for incorrect data? They are significantly under the value of my home.

Profile picture for yatkel
Another home in my neighborhood sold at the same time as ours is 210k vs ours being listed as 198k we have same sq footage better siding, roof bathrooms and location in the neighborhood.  Our value is 1k more than a smaller less updated home a few doors down so the it doesn't make any sense at all!
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September 28 2011 - Corvallis
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Answers (31)

Pro Zillow supporters?   That must be Surbiton???   He posts he will keep advocating for Zillow to improve until it is 100% accurate.  Never have seen a stronger supporter for any company, or even any sports team.
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February 04
@caveat whatever

" The difference between me and pasa is: I get to the point.(no offense)"

Reading your comments illustrates clearly how anyone who questions the accuracy of zestimates is demonized by the pro zillow supporters on this Forum. It intrigues me how you can invent facts the way you do about a home you know nothing about, other than my complaint that zillow has incorrect information which zillow accepts. 

The fact that zillow refuse to correct the zestimates for my home, and all the others in my neighborhood which they map to a city 6 miles away doesn't mean Zillow is right. The current sales prices being achieved is totally unrepresentative of the zestimates. Every home listed for sale sells close to the listing price. It is sheer arrogance of zillow to refuse to correct the zestimates, or conceal them until they get their data correct. In my conversation with zillow we identified other errors which they subsequently 'fixed', except the zestimates for the homes they reinstated are so wildly incorrect that it raises more questions about 'how and what' zillow is doing.

You can peddle your nonsense interpretation of events the same way as pasadenan did, but bottom line is you have no facts just your own uninformed opinion. Have you ever considered that I might actually be right? Your obsession with someone else's situation is worthy of a case study as you have wasted more time commenting on it than I have in promoting my complaint.
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February 04
Profile picture for NicholasRibeiro
You can update your home facts on zillow which will effect the zestimate. The zestimate is only an estimate and not an appraisal so I would think a law suit would be tough. Let us know how you make out.
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February 04
Profile picture for Rchan81
Why would ST654 lie?  Beats me... I don't know what his motivations are.

Name these institutions that use Zestimate as part of their decision making process and we can verify if ST654 is lying.
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February 04
Profile picture for Caveat Emptor
yeah, well the truth sounds the same, no matter who's saying it huh. sure, you can flip it around or manipulate it a bit, but in the end it sounds the same.

you'd claim that homeowners are denied an appeal, yet you got several
you'd claim that zestimates cause harm, though they clearly dont
you'd claim that zillow's zestimates are infringing on your rights, but they arent.
you'd claim that zillow is using false data, for your home, even though you were told by a staff member that your house is fine.
you insist that people "rely" on the data, yet you can't find anyone who isnt a disgruntled homeowner to back up your claims.

and the sad part is that the zestimate will probably rise if its too low all on its own and you'll have just wasted your time. months of your time.

The difference between me and pasa is: I get to the point.(no offense)
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February 04
Profile picture for hpvanc
Is there any bank that will extend a home equity line of credit without an appraisal today?  I'm trying to figure out how ST654 was harmed, they paid the appraisal and apparently got the line of credit.
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February 04
Profile picture for wetdawgs
Strange, but I've never seen anyone accept Zestimates as gospel, simply starting points enhanced by value ranges and community trends.  
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February 04
Profile picture for Cindy Quinton
In fact, I believe the only way you could make zestimates even more inaccurate would be to allow owners to manipulate them.
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February 04
Seems similar to what that pasadenan character used to say when he used to post on here. I state the facts which is pretty easy when highlighting zestimate failings and with so many errors no need to lie.

Face it, you couldn't make up how bad zillow zestimates are for millions of homes. The flawed algorithm, the 3rd party data errors, the server synchronization errors, the data integrity problems, lack of technical and programming staff  - do I need to go on?. 
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February 04
Profile picture for Caveat Emptor
Why would surbiton lie, nonstop every day? because he THINKS it makes his case stronger.

Why would ST654 lie? ask surbiton.
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February 04
Profile picture for MikeEmery
Nice to know...Thanks for the info!
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February 04
"Sounds like a lie to me.  It is against Zillow's terms of use for their opinions of approximate value to be used for such purposes"

Why would ST654 lie? I find it amazing how people on here just can't accept what people tell them, especially as they tend to be the same people who accept zestimates as gospel when they are in fact all over the place.

And the whole 'starting point' argument is just a platitude to justify how erroneous zestimates really are without admitting it.
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February 04
"So far, I have been turned down for a line of credit against my house by two financial institutions because they both use Zillow to estimate equity in the home for a credit line." -

Sounds like a lie to me.  It is against Zillow's terms of use for their opinions of approximate value to be used for such purposes.  All the lenders have their own AVM's anyway (or a pay for AVM service from a company that offers that).  Since their in-house AVM's are proprietary and they don't like showing it, perhaps they just referenced a "free" one instead?  AVM's have been around about 3 times as long as Zillow, and still none of them but Zillow are publishing a tolerance range.

Regardless, if they violated Zillow's terms of use, report the specific loan officers to Zillow's legal department so that the loan officers and lending institution can be sued by Zillow.

Not to mention, Zillow makes it extremely clear that their opinions are highly influenced by the last sold price, and that they make absolutely no adjustments for condition nor improvements.  It is the responsibility of the user of the data to make those adjustments on their own.  That is why they call it a "starting point" for further evaluation.
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February 04
Profile picture for hpvanc
ST654

Don't you have to get/pay for the appraisal as a part of securing the line of credit Zestimate or no Zestimate?  The lenders were wrong in thinking that it wouldn't appraise, but allowed you to proceed anyway.
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February 04
Profile picture for Caveat Emptor
you can sue, but you'd lose.
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February 04
Profile picture for Rchan81
ST654 -  "So far, I have been turned down for a line of credit against my house by two financial institutions because they both use Zillow to estimate equity in the home for a credit line."

That is the biggest load of crap!  Not sure which institutions you are referring to, but using Zestimate as appraisal?  Just plain BS.
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February 03
Profile picture for ST654
Those supporting Zillow on this conversation should look a little closer. I purchased my house after it was foreclosed upon and bank owned. Got it for a lot less than the aappraised value and did upgrades to make it worth more. Zillow posted the value that I purchased it from the bank. I claimed my house as was mentioned, added comments about the things that were not correct and about the upgrades. No change from Zillow. They don't even have the courtesy of replying to me. So far, I have been turned down for a line of credit against my house by two financial institutions because they both use Zillow to estimate equity in the home for a credit line. For this reason, I will not support anyone advertising on this bogus website. Cost me $600 to get an appraisal to prove to the bank my house was worth more.
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February 03
A rep from Zillow came to my office recently to do a presentation.  I loved that he said "It is a Zestimate, not a 'Zappraisal'"  Of course they can't be exactly right, but don't worry-it will sell for what it's worth.
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February 03
Profile picture for nonon
Zillow should be held accountable for inaccurate value. It does, in fact, have an adverse impact. If Zillow wants to be considered legitimate they should make more honest assessment. I do believe they can be sued and should. I'd support anyone who would take them to test.
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February 03
Profile picture for sunnyview
It would be hard to sue an agent for a bad CMA or an appraiser for a low appraisal even if an owner paid for those. Zillow provides a free opinion of computer generated value based on public record. They do not make any representations about it other than that. Even the Zesimate is worth what you pay for it.

Zillow cannot see your house. All they have are numbers. Any automatic valuation system has inherent flaws, but Zillow is up front about those. I think a lawsuit for a free service would probably be difficult to make.
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September 28 2011
Profile picture for Pasadenan
Or this one?  With a machine generated opinion of approximate value of $197.5k and opinion range of $154k to $209k

Purchase date not posted.  (Likely owned before county started using digital records...)

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September 28 2011
Profile picture for Pasadenan
Or, this one?  With a machine generated opinion of approximate value of $198.5k and opinion range of $145k to $230k

Purchased 7/16/1999 for $112.9k?

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September 28 2011
Profile picture for Pasadenan
Or, maybe this one? (on a smaller lot...) With a machine generated opinion of approximate value of $198.5k and opinion range of $161k to $210k

Purchased 4/24/2003 for $129.9k?

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September 28 2011
Profile picture for Pasadenan
Perhaps this one?  With a machine generated opinion of approximate value of $197.7k and opinion range of $144k to $249k

Purchased 12/20/2010 for $181.6k?

There is no such thing as "free equity" no matter what any agent tells you.  The market value when purchased is the purchase price by definition.



If you wanted Zillow's machine opinion of approximate value to be higher, you should have paid the seller more.
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September 28 2011
Profile picture for Pasadenan
The tolerance range posted is about +/- 15%, and you are going to complain about less than 6% difference than a neighbor?

Opinions of approximate value are not "data" but "editorials", and they don't affect the market.  Realtor.com has been publishing false information for several years, and they are presently not able to affect the market.  Sure, they contributed to the bubble; but that wasn't just from publishing data nor opinions, bur rather lobbying for inappropriate federal government housing and lending policies.

And why complain about a $1k difference?  That is less than 0.5%!

Actually all you are saying is that you think everything in your area is over valued by Zillow's machine opinion.

What evidence do you have that you can sell your more than $210k presently?

Until the home sells, you don't really know the "present market value".  And Zillow doesn't provide "present market value", but only an opinion of "approximate value", WITH an approximate value RANGE.  Zillow also provides index trends for most market areas, which are the median estimates of all the ownership units in the selected region.
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September 28 2011
Profile picture for SGV_Realtor
Zillow's Zestimate [Z(illow) ESTIMATE] is just that, an estimate. No one should buy or sell based on that number. A proper CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) done by an experienced realtor will give a much more reliable figure of the true value of a property. As for suing them, you can sue anyone for anything but since they call it an estimate up front, I think you would have a difficult time proving your case and substantiating damages. If you want to sell your home, bring in a good realtor who can do a proper CMA to substantiate the value of your home to potential buyers. Don't lose any sleep over the zestimate.
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September 28 2011
Profile picture for wetdawgs
Zillow offers the following for disputing:

1.  An owner can claim a home and edit home data that are incorrect.

2.  An owner can provide information in the "owner's comments" on the Zestimate to describe why they think the Zestimate is incorrect.

3.  Perhaps next spring Zillow will again make available their "my estimate" feature to allow you to share with the world then new siding and other features that may add value.

4.  Zillow is consistent and uses the same numbers for every residential property (adjusted for local tax rules etc), and doesn't go by opinions on individual properties.

One of the numbers in Zillow's model that can cause substantial differences in two identical houses is the last sales price (adjusted for date).     I'm handling a relative's house with the last sale way way before Zillow records reflect such things and the swings away from the zip code mean are far greater than for houses that have sold in the last 10 years.

The only correct number for your house value is what a buyer offers you and gets to closing.  CMAs and appraisals are not exact values either.   Ask your agent for the statistics on their CMAs on their listings vs closing prices on houses in Corvallis over the last five years.

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September 28 2011
Profile picture for yatkel
Zillow is putting themselves up as a business that gives information.  Isn't there any accountability to give the best info possible?  They are beginning to affect real estate markets and there should be some way of holding them accountable for the damage they are doing to property owners who have no way of disputing the inaccurate info on their website!
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September 28 2011
Profile picture for yatkel
Thanks for your reply!  I'm frustrated with Zillow and want them to know that, since we have no way to set their records straight.  They've valued lesser homes as being more than ours and vice versa and I'm sure this is happening all over the U.S. and I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't sued over the moneys or potential moneys lost on homes due to this unwillingness to receive specific info reguarding homes on their website which is posted without owner's permission.  
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September 28 2011
Profile picture for wetdawgs
A Zestimate is not an appraisal or CMA, and is calculated from numbers and not from walking through your home.  It is a starting point for comparison of homes, only a starting point.    Zillow doesn't know about better siding, roof and bathrooms and/or other updates and even if they do it isn't part of their formula for the Zestimate

Of course you can sue Zillow, but many have tried unsuccessfully.



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September 28 2011

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