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And no one is actually foolish enough to believe that buyers are not diverted from properties they would like to see, or dissuaded from the value therein.
By a website? I can 100% buy that there are unethical real estate agents out there not willing to show a property with less than 3% commission or trying to encourage buyers to look at properties they're selling.
The great thing about Trulia or Redfin or Zillow is that there are no external influences misleading the consumer. It is them and the raw data. No one's commission is on the line and no one is trying to help out a friend with a deal. To the extent that the details in the listing are accurate, these tools are as objective as one can possibly get in the home buying process.
Actually, you are in significant error in your aggressive misconceptions.
It isn't brain surgery or rocket science, but to market effectively with great presentation does take some effort, and not every home is a 56x28 rancher.
I read a tape pretty well, but hire an appraiser for listings to get a great job done for my clients.
And no one is actually foolish enough to believe that buyers are not diverted from properties they would like to see, or dissuaded from the value therein.
Welcome to CityData, where similar complaints of poor service for buyers far outnumber those worrying whether the family love shack is popped onto 195 syndicated web sites, or 325 web sites.
I think the more egregious misconception is the belief that if the zillows of the world of the world didn't exist that their would be no exposure or information available online. In actuality, all the same information would still be available but it would be consolidated on different sites. So I don't believe that sellers would get any more or less exposure if those 3rd party sites were gone. This is the mistake that too many buyers and sellers are making. I'd rather have 1 reliable site than a 100 questionable ones. And it exists-it's the local MLS and the public feed of the MLS.
[quote=Rakin;18114039]This has not been a discussion of restricting the public from the information but who gets to use the private information belonging to a company quote]
What information would that be? Are you suggesting that when you take a listing, you actually own the information such as the address and listing price?
This has not been a discussion of restricting the public from the information but who gets to use the private information belonging to a company quote]
What information would that be? Are you suggesting that when you take a listing, you actually own the information such as the address and listing price?
The most important "information" would be the pictures. Without those, no one is going to any of these third party sites. Those pictures ABSOLUTELY are the property of the listing Broker/agent. The descriptions, the measurements, the text of this listing. All these are the intellectual property of the listing Agent/Broker, and all thses are used by those same third party sites. Courts have ruled time and again that the COMPILATION and PRESENTATION of data, including data that is freely available, can be owned, even copyrighted, by the creator of that compilation & presentation.
The great thing about Trulia or Redfin or Zillow is that there are no external influences misleading the consumer. It is them and the raw data. No one's commission is on the line and no one is trying to help out a friend with a deal. To the extent that the details in the listing are accurate, these tools are as objective as one can possibly get in the home buying process.
Oh yeah because the data on trulia and zillow comes from little fairies. Hello? where is this RAW DATA coming from? Seriously, think about it? (hint:the answer lies in the thread you didn't read)
Let me tell you a little something about about these "objective" sites. Take a 5 bedroom historic house with a view of the ocean and 5 bedroom crack house with boarded up windows in the same zipcode and average them together - then apply your fudge figure to ANY other house in the same zip code and VOILA there's your good 'ol objective data! Do you think anyone at Zillow and Trulia knows anything about any of the homes on there? no - it's just a data feed with some algorithms plugged into it, tied to a bunch of marketing gimmicks to lure you into plugging your data in so they can sell it...
Oh yeah because the data on trulia and zillow comes from little fairies. Hello? where is this RAW DATA coming from? Seriously, think about it? (hint:the answer lies in the thread you didn't read)
Since 95% of the content on the site is pulled from listings, the data is as accurate as the information provided, as I stated.
The other 5% is pulled from various sources to feed into proprietary services like Zestimates that are based on an algorithm. You can dispute the accuracy of those algorithms, but the algorithm cares not for your personal situation. It is a solely objective measure. Things like Zestimates are probably not reliable for pricing a specific property, but they will tend to be accurate in aggregate - which areas are more expensive than others, which areas are trending up in value vs down, etc.
By allowing a consumer to sift through this information the buyers can intuitively understand where tradeoffs in cost will buy them better locations or bigger properties. They should still retain the services of an agent to go after a specific property, because as you pointed out, you have to see enough deals and condition of properties to get a feel for what prices are fair. But in the housing search process, you shouldn't feel threatened by an empowered consumer. They may be able to better define their needs or suggest things that a real estate agent didn't think of. That is, assuming real estate agents aren't perfect.
If there was an agent's site that had all the information that the Zillows and Trulias had I would be more than happy to go there. And I'm not talking about the stupid stuff like zestimates. I'm talking about being able to see price reductions, good mapping features, comparable sales, comparable listings, etc.
But in the housing search process, you shouldn't feel threatened by an empowered consumer. They may be able to better define their needs or suggest things that a real estate agent didn't think of. That is, assuming real estate agents aren't perfect.
When the algorithm is flawed the data that comes out is pure garbage. I'm not afraid of an empowered consumer I'm concerned about a tragically misinformed one that isn't buying because they are being spoon fed garbage by a mathematical formula. In my experience people see that the recent sales information is correct and think the rest of it is. In my market, we have everything from waterfront mansions to seasonal shacks in the woods. Most of our buyers live hundreds of miles away and they are so desperate to learn about the market from a distance that they actually put stock in those numbers. The little zillow graphs fluctuate buy $100,000 up and down wildly never anywhere near what a house actually worth. It's market slander.
. Courts have ruled time and again that the COMPILATION and PRESENTATION of data, including data that is freely available, can be owned, even copyrighted, by the creator of that compilation & presentation.
This is not really relevent. The real question, is have the courts ruled that the "compilation and presentation" of data when being paid for by a third part, is a property of the creator. I'm guessing the answer to that question is no.
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