Zillow has been served a Cease and Desist order from the State of Arizona. Arizona claims that Zillow needs to be an appraiser to determine the information that they provide on thier website, www.Zillow.com. While I do think Zillow's "Zestimates" can often be way off the mark, it is reasonably apparent to me that they are not providing an APPRAISAL. As a local real estate agent, it is frustrating at times to do a full CMA (pricing on a house) and have the owner complain that Zillow says their house is worth much more (I never hear them say Zillow says their house is worth much less.) Zillow does not take in account the improvements that have been done on a house, especially those that have been done since the last sale of the subject property. Regardless, to me, Zillow is clear enough that it isn't an APPRAISAL, and I think this is a pretty frivilous case against them.
For more information, see the original article at http://www.columbian.com/news/state/APStories/AP04152007news126881.cfm.
There is a Forum Discussion at BiggerPockets.com:
http://forums.biggerpockets.com/viewtopic.php?p=30828
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