AZ: No love for Zillow
In the kind of news you’re more used to see coming from places like Thailand or Brazil, the entire state of Arizona has decided to ban the Seattle-based real estate website zillow.com from operating there.
The problem? Zillow’s use of computer-generated estimates (sorry, ‘zestimates,’ retch) that rely upon a back-end data warehouse of comparative sales in the neighborhood to gauge the real-time value of your house. State regulators in Arizona consider that to be an appraisal, which requires special licensing (and, probably, license fees….)
We’re fans of Zillow ourselves [despite their lack of support for Safari - Ed.] For what it’s worth, Zillow’s [z]estimates accurately predicted the [astronomical] price increase of a townhouse on my block just this year when it sold. And after all, haven’t you always wanted to know the exact value of Bill Gates’ house? Answer: $135 million. That’s $12 million a bathroom. Or $2,700 a square foot. Take that, housing bubble!
Those obsessed with Seattle real estate prices can take comfort that Arizona’s nanny-state protections, in addition to its “dry heat,” don’t apply to WA.
Doesn’t Arizona opt out of daylight savings time as well? Those silly desert people. I look at zillow, but I also know that [z]estimates are just that, [z]estimates. People take things too seriously.
Wait - I don’t get how a Zestimate counts as an official appraisal. Zillow doesn’t charge for the estimates.
What if I set up a blog in which I estimate home prices in Arizona using comps. Would that blog also be banned by Arizona?
I don’t really understand how they’re distinguishing licensed appraisals. I would have thought that paying for the appraisal would be the key discriminator. But apparently not.
Weird.
I’m so glad that someone has finally drawn attention to the endless similarities between Arizona and Thailand. It is fairly well known that, Arizona, like Thailand, is an international epicenter for child sex trafficking. However, it is less well known that in the twelfth century Arizona was part of the Buddhist kingdom of Sukhothai, and today still follows the Buddhist Era calendar. Fascinating!
For the record, I lived in Arizona for awhile and never had sex with the Buddha.