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It's such a glaring red flag that one of the largest public resources for getting pricing information on housing is also buying and selling that housing. Come o
by jjice 5y ago
It's such a glaring red flag that one of the largest public resources for getting pricing information on housing is also buying and selling that housing. Come on, this is so glaringly abusable that any teenager could tell you what's wrong.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoCan you illustrate the mechanism of abuse? Pricing information on housing is readily available to almost everyone, outside of the couple stated that do not mandate it. Zillow makes it easier, but Redfin and realtor.com and countyoffice.org and other websites offer the same information scraped from municipal websites.
- afterburner 5y agoZillow could lie about regional home values and blame it on their "secret sauce".
- lotsofpulp 5y agoWhy would anyone trust Zillow’s opinions over anyone else’s opinion? Everyone has access to the same historical sales data that the market actually cleared at. In fact, it is has never been easier for the average person to research historical sales information. They can filter the parameters of the house they are interested in the area they are interested and find all the previous sales data, all while sitting on the toilet, thanks to websites like Redfin and Zillow. They can “lie” all they want, it makes no difference to what price a house sells for.
- afterburner 5y agoPeople tell outrageous lies on Facebook all the time and they seem to work. Deception works (especially subtle deception), and laziness is a thing. Also, Zillow's current value estimates are about "current" values, not past values.
- lotsofpulp 5y agoZillow’s current value estimates are their opinion (or what they want people to think is their opinion). Regardless, it is no different than a real estate agent or a cashier at target saying they think a specific property is worth $x. At the end of the day, a buyer and seller coming together and agreeing on a price is the only thing that matters. A seller pays as much as they do because they do not have a better option, and a buyer sells for as little as they do because they have no better option. Zillow cannot affect this.
- afterburner 5y agoPerception matters. Direction and rate of value increases in a neighbourhood matters. The perception of the neighbourhood affects the value of a particular property. Zillow can affect that perception. It is making calls about entire neighbourhoods, not just one property that it has a declared interest in. It is acting as a supposed uninterested party (valuing the market overall) and an interested party (benefiting from the valuing of a particular property). That's the potential conflict of interest. How much home buying do real estate agents engage in vs just acting as an agent, compared to Zillow (in relative terms)? I don't know, maybe it's similar...
- stjohnswarts 5y agoThe prinicipal of separation of concerns should be all you need for a legal reason for keeping listing companies like zillow from also participating in the market. Clearly they are a company, company's only limitations are they exist to make as much money as possible for share holders and they have no morals, only regulations and laws limit their actions. Therefore they shouldn't be in the business of buying/selling houses if their main goal is to list house values, that is a severe conflict of interest.
- morgante 5y agoSeparation of concerns is not a legal concept. Zillow does not have any fundamental control over the market. They do not have any obligation to show true prices. They are a private entity who happens to offer price estimates a service. Nobody is ever forced to buy or sell at that price.
- ianferrel 5y agoAnd yet they lost hundreds of millions, so maybe not as abusable as you might imagine.