According to an Inman News article today [ Zillow hands data keys to homeowners ] "Real estate Web site Zillow.com is allowing homeowners across the United States to update information about their homes currently displayed at the national site. " Zillow is a consumer "Automated Valuation Model" (AVM) that assists visitors to check their home's values against others in their market.
"Homeowners previously were able to make changes to their home's record, but could not share these changes with the public. Now, after an on-line process to verify whether a person is the actual homeowner, owners can correct information that may be out of date such as square footage and remodeling projects that could impact their home's value."
Zillow's intent is to engage consumers, giving homeowners a more active role in the site's real estate content. The company feels that this latest feature will help build a larger, "richer" database of real estate information.
However, as anyone in the real estate professions (appraisers, sales agents, brokers, assessors) can tell you, the homeowner is probably the least reliable source of data when it comes to size, quality, condition, or even location! I'm sure we've all seen the "Your House As Seen By . . ." cartoons and photos?
The problem with "Homeowner" data:
- Consumers have no training in measuring a home by any industry standard.
- As an owner, they lose objectivity in assessing the home's quality and condition.
- There's no means of verifying the data provided by the owner as accurate.
- Owners may intentionally falsify data to influence the AVM results.
- The database integrity becomes inconsistent when thousands or millions of different un-trained "homeowners" are supplying the data input.
Would ANY appraiser or assessment database consider using "homeowner" input?
Can you imagine an assessment (AVM) jurisdiction allowing homeowners to modify their data?
Are They Insane??!!!
Author: Brian J. Davis, RAA - Brian Davis & Associates - Brian has over 22 years of appraisal experience in Central, IL and hosts the Appraisal Scoop blog and the WinTOTAL Users Group an email forum for appraisers
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