This means that there are enough pissed off people to be googling zillow sucks, and by God Zillow SUCKS the life blood out of the your real estate investment.
So Zillow, have you gotten rich enough making the rest of us poor? Maybe now you can take your filthy stinky money and buy and Island somewhere and take down the site that destroyed the AMERICAN dream and turned it into the American NIGHTMARE?
No not yet? OK maybe prison sounds better than spending the money you earned destroying the Real Estate Market? Keep at it, you will be taken down!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
ZILLOW HIT WITH ANOTHER LAWSUIT
LAWSUITS Zillow.com has been hit with another patent lawsuit. The Seattle online real estate company was sued last month by First American CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, California-based with more than 10,000 employees and annual revenue of $2.1 billion. The provider of business information services alleges in its suit that Zillow, along with seven other companies, violated patents related to automated home valuation services.
The lawsuit -- filed April 16-- was first reported today by Inman News. And it follows a separate lawsuit filed in March by SmarterAgent, which alleges that Zillow and other companies violated patents related to how consumers access real estate information on mobile phones.
CoreLogic's suit could be the more serious of the two since it impacts the automated valuations that Zillow features both on its Web site and mobile phones. The deep pockets of CoreLogic also could be a serious concern.
A spokeswoman for Zillow said they've seen the suit and they don't have a comment on it. In addition to Zillow, the patent suit names as defendants: Fiserv, Intellireal, Interthinx, Lender Processing Services, Precision Appraisal Services, Real Data and Realec Technologies.
As it relates to Zillow, the suit says:
Zillow slapped with patent suit
John Cook on Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 4:57pm PDT
The lawsuit -- filed April 16-- was first reported today by Inman News. And it follows a separate lawsuit filed in March by SmarterAgent, which alleges that Zillow and other companies violated patents related to how consumers access real estate information on mobile phones.
CoreLogic's suit could be the more serious of the two since it impacts the automated valuations that Zillow features both on its Web site and mobile phones. The deep pockets of CoreLogic also could be a serious concern.
A spokeswoman for Zillow said they've seen the suit and they don't have a comment on it. In addition to Zillow, the patent suit names as defendants: Fiserv, Intellireal, Interthinx, Lender Processing Services, Precision Appraisal Services, Real Data and Realec Technologies.
As it relates to Zillow, the suit says:
On information and belief, Zillow manufactures, offers for sale, sells, uses or induces the same, systems falling within the scope of one or more of the claims of the ’201 Patent, including, but not limited to, Zillow.com. As a result, Zillow has infringed, literally and/or by equivalents, continues to infringe, and/or threatens infringement of one or more of the claims of the ’201 Patent as defined by 35 U.S.C. § 271. Plaintiff has suffered damage by reason of Zillow’s infringement and will continue to suffer additional damage until this Court enjoins the infringing conduct. On information and belief, Zillow is contributing to and/or inducing the infringement of one or more claims of the ’201 Patent by offering to sell and selling its systems, including, but not limited to, the current and preceding versions of Zillow.com, to customers, buyers, sellers, users and others that directly infringe the ’201 Patent.The '201 patent -- titled “Real Estate Appraisal Using Predictive Modeling” -- was issued to the company in 1994. [Full suit here
ZILLOW GETS CEASE AND DESIST IN ARIZONA
Zillow gets a “cease and desist” order in Arizona
ARDELL on 04 19, 2007
[photopress:zillow_banned_arizona.jpg,thumb,alignright]Josh Dorkin of Bigger Pockets emailed me the other day and asked me to comment on his article regarding Zillow’s troubles in Arizona.
I delayed my response for a couple of reasons. Mostly because I do not share Josh’s view that disclaimers, of any kind, will resolve the problem. And yes, I do believe it is a problem, and do side with Arizona on this one.
As with any action, you have to look for the underlying reasons for the action, and not simply the specific legal issue used to support the action. I do not like to write about the negative sides of Redfin and or Zillow. I do, and have, told them both in person how I feel about their negative sides, but hate to highlight the weak points. I’d rather write about their stronger points. But this is “newsworthy” and so I agreed to Josh’s request.
To me it’s real simple, and I have personally told the people at Zillow how I feel about it. The Zestimate should pop up a RANGE of value. PERIOD! It is THAT simple. None of this “house is worth $723,000″ and then scroll down, look this way, no look over here, down there and around the bend and THEN you see a “range of value”.
There should never be a SINGLE value attached to a property in the form of a Zestimate any more than an appraiser can guarantee a “TO THE DIME” value, or an Agent can say stoopid things like, “I will make sure you don’t pay a dime more than the house is worth!”. AS IF a property can be valued “to the dime”.
As for “of course people know that’s not the REAL and EXACT value”…NO, people do not KNOW that, and they never know exactly what a house is worth, and they are always looking for some basis for value. So I have to agree with the State of Arizona on this one. Zillow Zestimates should be a range of value and not a specific number.
I think it’s Ok to say this house is worth somewhere between $700,000 and $800,000…maybe. It’s not OK to say it is worth $723,000 and then add a bunch of disclaimers up and down and around the number. So Josh, no. I don’t think the answer is more disclaimers, to help counteract the damage done to the homeowner in the first place.
I’m going to do a “How’s Zillow Doing” post after we get a bit more into this season and real sold comps from high season. My guess is most sales will have fallen within the range. My hope is that not too many have fallen AT the Zestimate and BECAUSE OF the Zestimate.
In the meantime, if every State bans Zillow because homeowners are being damaged by people’s perception that the Zestimate is meaningful. If Zillow is banned because buyers are actually making offers at the Zestimate price (and they are). I say let the States protect their citizens as they deem appropriate. It’s one thing to not want the Realtor Organization to cast aspersions at new business models. It’s quite another to not expect State Laws to protect their citizens, from broad monetary damage, on their constituents’ most valuable asset.
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