The Zillow Debate Continues…

I know, I know, no one is reading this because I’ve alienated all of my readers (including my husband and father) by not posting for months. I apologize, of course. It’s been a busy few months. I found out in January that I’m pregnant with number three! And by Saturday morning I will be able to tell you what flavor of baby is next on the menu (we have that exciting gender ultrasound Friday late afternoon). So basically, I hate the first trimester of pregnancy. I’m sick and miserable (though I was definitely less sick this time… some are taking that as a sign of other possible differences in this pregnancy… like I don’t know, the gender, maybe? Or maybe this one has three arms… who knows?) and tired, and miserable and stressed, and miserable. But I’ve passed all of that, and just recovered from a nasty stomach virus and have moved on to the cheerful, energetic, eat all the time part of pregnancy. So beware of expanding waistlines.

Anyway, I just wanted to stop by real quick and post a link to this article I saw a couple of weeks ago and thought was relevant. I posted when Zillow.com first came out about my tests of it and how I don’t believe that it is in any way a reliable way to get information on the value of your home. Apparently the State Board of Appraisal is in agreement.

However, apparently the House of Representatives is not. This is the latest from them. Which is fine. The National Association of Realtors has long held that as long as we don’t charge for value estimates, we can give them. And it would make sense that the rule applies to Zillow.com as well. But we all know that if you ask 10 Realtors what the value of the home is, they’re not all going to have the same answer. For your own protect, I suggest you think of Zillow.com as the two year old Realtor who’s really just picking his estimate by pointing a chubby little finger at a list of numbers he doesn’t understand. It’s about that accurate.