According to an article by P-I Reporter John Cook, The National Community Reinvestment Coalition has filed a complaint with the FTC about the inaccuracy of Zillow's automated home valuation service.

Of course it's inaccurate. Everybody knows it, even Zillow. The Z company isn't touting their service as a magic bullet, but rather a technical work in progress (and it says beta right on the front page of the website). It's only a starting point. And for that it is absolutely outstanding. It offers a base of statistical knowledge and the homeowner can self-adjust the auto-generated value to their immediate area market conditions. Simple as that.

A complaint like this is as bad as the South Boston school who recently banned kids playing tag on school grounds because it was deemed "unsupervised, potentially harmful play". That's nonsense. That's just plain dumb. What's next, should I not drive my car because I might get in a wreck? Should Home Depot stop selling hammers because I might hit my thumb?

The point of the complaint is apparently to help keep loan sharks from preying on unsuspecting customers. The sharks use inflated numbers to con the mark into signing onto a bigger loan. But it would certainly make more sense to educate the public about the sharks instead of the tools.

Submitted by Steve Hurley

www.Tacondo.com

Realtor.com has, over the years, become what musicians would call a "pay to play" gig. That is, if you want to play your music on their stage you're gonna have to pay them to do so. Continuing the music analogy, if I understand the business model correctly, Realtor.com will let an agent set up the band and play a few notes, (provide basic listing information) but in order to play the whole song (publish complete listing & agent contact info) the agent must agree to fork over some greenbacks.

Well, it sounds like the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) has decided that they don't want to play on R.com's stage anymore. And I say good for them! Here's why:

According to posts all over the national real estate blogosphere, Realtor.com (not to be confused with Realtor.org) is nothing more than a mega lead generation machine, harvesting info and selling advertising and leads back to the agents who indirectly provided the original data.

It doesn't, it never has, and never will have complete listing input. And if the rumor holds true about the NWMLS pulling the plug on its data feed next Spring, Realtor.com will basically become irrelevant for house hunters in the Northwest.

That's ok because all the major Northwest brokerages like John L. Scott and Windermere have done wonderful jobs of providing regional MLS coverage to consumers. But it does leave the door ajar for another much larger company to come in an swoop up the golden eggs.

In any case, I need to make it clear that I do like the National Association of Realtors and their code of ethics. But in my opinion they made a very poor choice in letting Move.com use their association trademark for what is in eyes of many professionals, a cheesy profit center built upon a grand illusion.

Watch for my post later this week on who I think might be lurking in the shadows preparing to blow everyone out of the water. (Hint: G o o _ _ _ _ o w).

Submitted by Steve Hurley

www.Tacondo.com