Author: Greg Swann (page 149 of 209)

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is from the Tucson Daily Citizen:

Zillow.com offers online estimates of home values. There is now plenty of public data available for computers to crunch to make the estimates pretty good.

According to Zillow’s Web site, in the Phoenix metro area its estimates are within 6 percent of the actual selling price 50 percent of the time, and 72 percent of the time they are within 10 percent.

Although Zillow states on its Web site that its estimates aren’t appraisals, the state Board of Appraisal has ordered it to stop offering them in Arizona.

Here’s a better idea: How about abolishing the state Board of Appraisal? Any property is actually worth whatever a willing buyer is willing to pay to a willing seller.

Lenders might want appraisers in whom they have confidence to ensure that the property will cover their principal in the event of default. However, lenders are big boys. They can set up their own certification process to obtain the expertise they want. There’s no need for government to do it for them.

I find this logic unassailable. But it does make me yearn to live in a town with a newspaper…
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Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, disintermediation, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Arizona State Senate Bill 1291, as amended to assure the legality of consumer-oriented Automated Valuation Models such as that used by Zillow.com, passed the Arizona House today by a vote of 52-3, with five members not voting. The bill will be transmitted back to the Arizona Senate for reconsideration there.

The amendments, proposed last Monday by Scottsdale Republican Representative Michele Reagan, include language that will exempt AVMs from appraisal licensing requirements with the stipulation that home valuations are provided at no cost and are not called “appraisals.”

The Arizona Board of Appraisal had issued two cease and desist letters to Zillow.com — but to no other free AVMs — demanding that the Seattle-based internet real estate start-up stop issuing home valuations in Arizona until it obtained an Arizona appraisal license. The Attorney General of Arizona had issued a similar letter to Zillow.com.

If the amended version of SB 1291 passes the Senate and is signed by the governor, free consumer-oriented AVMs will be able to operate without impediments in Arizona.
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Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, disintermediation, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

In general, newspapers influence people who are paying attention, a small but inordinately important minority. Today the East Valley Tribune, clarion of the populous suburbs east of Phoenix, came out strong for Zillow.com and other consumer-oriented Automated Valuation Models:

Arizona home buyers and property speculators are fortunate the state Board of Appraisers did something against their interests while the Legislature is still in session, so lawmakers can act immediately to put a stop to it.

The Board of Appraisers is going after Zillow.com, a year-old Web site that offers free estimates of market values for an estimated 70 million houses across the country. The state agency contends the site is offering property appraisals without an Arizona license, and has ordered it to remove these “zestimates” or face formal sanctions and a possible lawsuit.

But Zillow.com makes no claim that its estimates are based on actual visits to individual properties or research of their histories. Instead, the Web site gathers sale details about other homes in the same neighborhood that have recently changed hands, government tax valuations and other publicly available information, and then provides a rough prediction about a house’s value under current market conditions.

More:

Given recent reports about widespread mortgage fraud and foreclosures resulting from inflated purchase appraisals, the state Board of Appraisers should be working to increase the amount of information available to consumers rather than shuttering potential sources of knowledge.

At least the Legislature appears to see the wisdom of this. On Monday, Rep. Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale, introduced an amendment to SB1291 that was endorsed by her House colleagues to protect free opinions about property values as long as the provider doesn’t claim or imply that they are formal appraisals.

Putting Reagan’s amendment into law would be a nice endorsement of free speech and the consumer’s right to multiple sources of information.

None of this is news to people following the story here, and, in fact, the most-recent events are not covered. But this is the kind of public outcry that can swing the balance against this silly stunt by the Board of Appraisal.
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Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, disintermediation, phoenix, Read more

by Greg Swann

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is me in today’s Arizona Republic (permanent link). This goofy little column often “breaks news” in the sense that I cover facts that have not yet been reported by the Republic‘s real estate reporters. Normally I keep this to myself, because I don’t want to frighten the people who were kind enough to give me the column. This week I told my editor that were were “scooping” the newspaper, and gave him resources for vetting the facts presented below. The consequence? At the top of the story is says, “Special to the Republic.” Top that, Hildy Johnson.

(Just between us, I’m pretty sure I’m mangling the citation of the standing law. It’s Chapter 32, not 36, but even then I don’t know how it should be properly cited. Newspapers have style books for stuff like this. This will do: ARS 32-3601 et seq.)

State vs. Zillow.com will be a lengthy bout

The ongoing saga of Arizona vs. Zillow.com will not end.

When the state Board of Appraisal recently revealed that it had sent cease-and-desist letters to the Seattle Web-based real estate start-up in July and November, it failed to disclose that it had language pending in the Arizona Legislature that would have conclusively outlawed Zillow.com and other consumer-oriented Automated Valuation Methods.

That legislation, Senate Bill 1291, seemed to be on an under-the-radar track to easy passage until its existence was discovered by the LittlePinkHouses.com real estate blog.

The proposed language would have substantially revised Arizona Revised Statutes Chapter 36, among other things defining an appraisal as “an opinion of value.”

Does that mean that two neighbors, talking about the price of the house for sale up the street, would be in violation of appraisal law?

What Zillow.com and other AVMs do is so far removed from what an appraiser does that in order to outlaw Zillow, the drafters of the legislation apparently found it necessary to outlaw ordinary free speech altogether.

Importantly, there have been no consumer lawsuits or Board of Appraisal complaints in Arizona against Zillow.com, nor has the Board of Appraisal moved against other consumer-oriented AVMs operating in the state.

A compromise was sought by Rep. Michele Read more