{"id":1365,"date":"2007-04-29T17:30:10","date_gmt":"2007-04-30T00:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1365"},"modified":"2007-05-18T23:30:23","modified_gmt":"2007-05-19T06:30:23","slug":"the-zillowcom-persecution-why-it-matters-to-all-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1365\/the-zillowcom-persecution-why-it-matters-to-all-of-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The Zillow.com persecution: Why it matters to all of us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.phoenixrealestateguy.com\/jb-says-zillow-sucks\/335\" target=\"_blank\">Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy<\/a>, clued me in to an email he got yesterday, which I was supposed to get as well. Mine didn&#8217;t come because the email address was wrong. Jay deals with the substance of the email in the post linked above, but here&#8217;s the meat of the matter:<\/p>\n<p>Why are Jay and I, and other principled Realtors, rising to Zillow.com&#8217;s defense in response to the attempts at persecution of the net-based real-estate start-up by the Arizona Board of Appraisal?<\/p>\n<p>I speak only for myself, but I can always speak at length about the positions I take. First, it&#8217;s important to understand what this is <em>not<\/em> about, in my opinion:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s not about Zillow.com.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s not about real estate.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s not about appraisals.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s not about job-protection, although this seems to me to be the objective behind the persecution.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s not even about Arizona.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I think what is <em>really<\/em> going on here is the first campaign in a long war to determine whether internet-based commerce will be suffered to grow as it has until now, without restrictions or impediments. Or: Whether the combined forces of power-mad &#8220;statesmen,&#8221; progress-hating &#8220;progressives&#8221; and hand-out-hungry &#8220;businesses&#8221; will be able to break the net to the saddle they have strapped onto every other enterprise in America.<\/p>\n<p>In a sense, I&#8217;m not defending Zillow.com&#8217;s business, I&#8217;m defending my own. I&#8217;m about principle before everything, so that doesn&#8217;t matter to me, although I do admire the necessary integrity of rectitude: The moral is the practical. But this is so much larger than Zillow that the instant matter blends into the background.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the pioneers of internet technology are hard-line Capitalists, stout defenders of the idea of free enterprise. That&#8217;s not universal, but there is also a very strong gut-level libertarianism among entrepreneurs generally.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the internet has grown so quickly, and so unpredictably, that the reactionary forces determined to tax, regulate or forbid everything have been stymied. A few very far-sighted people have successfully argued against regulating the net, and, meanwhile, the would-be arbiters-of-everything have been held in check by their own monolithic ignorance of technology. People who see the net as <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Series_of_tubes\" <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1365\/the-zillowcom-persecution-why-it-matters-to-all-of-us\/#more-1365\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy, clued me in to an email he got yesterday, which I was supposed to get as well. Mine didn&#8217;t come because the email address was wrong. Jay deals with the substance of the email in the post linked above, but here&#8217;s the meat of the matter: Why are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6,5,19,25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-enduring-interest","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","9":"category-technology","10":"category-zillowcom","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1435,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1435\/ftc-to-ncrc-regarding-zillowcom-what-price-justice\/","url_meta":{"origin":1365,"position":0},"title":"FTC to NCRC regarding Zillow.com: What price justice?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The attempted shakedown of Zillow.com that began last October -- when The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaining that the nascent Seattle-based Automated Valuation Model (AVM) was misleading minority homeowners about the value of their homes -- has come to stunningly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disintermediation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":211,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/211\/what-good-is-zillowcom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1365,"position":1},"title":"What good is Zillow.com?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This, possibly, which is just as useful and just as suspect as Dr. Jay Butler's undocumented statistics. We arrive at the level of actuarial science, at best, which is what an automated valuation method is. An actuary can tell you the anticipated death rate of a specific sub-population. He cannot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Disintermediation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1329,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1329\/arizona-republic-realtors-side-with-zillowcom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1365,"position":2},"title":"Arizona Republic: Realtors side with Zillow.com","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Phoenix RE.net is heard from in a big way in an article that will appear in Sunday's Arizona Republic about the State of Arizona's attempts to stifle Zillow.com. Writes reporter Peter Corbett:A state agency's efforts to stop Zillow.com from offering property-value estimates in Arizona are drawing criticism from some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogging&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1282,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1282\/the-carnival-or-real-estate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1365,"position":3},"title":"The Carnival of Real Estate . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"...is up at The Phoenix Real Estate Guy. The scheduled weblog had gone missing, so Jay Thompson jumped in to fill the void. Brian Brady and I took top honors for our Zillow coverage. Brian wrote seven more entries on Active Rain and on his home weblog. Why so much\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Carnivals&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1718,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1718\/zillowcom-takes-on-bloodhoundblog-attempting-to-crush-the-future-of-real-estate-marketing-in-the-process\/","url_meta":{"origin":1365,"position":4},"title":"Zillow.com takes on BloodhoundBlog, attempting to crush The Future Of Real Estate Marketing in the process","author":"Greg Swann","date":"July 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In a move that is either inspired or incredibly stoopid, Zillow.com will this afternoon launch a brand new group weblog devoted to real estate technology issues. This of course is a large part of the content of BloodhoundBlog and it is the entire focus of The Future Of Real Estate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogging&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1324,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1324\/zillow-notes-fear-and-ludditism-advertsing-a-better-farming-strategy-and-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":1365,"position":5},"title":"Zillow.com notes: Fear and Ludditism, advertising, a better farming strategy and more","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Zillow notes: Jay Thompson, The Phoenix Real Estate Guy asks \"Why do so many agents fear Zillow?\" He makes the same point in a BusinessWeek article on the Seattle-based Realty.bot. Brian Brady, America's Most Opinionated Mortgage Broker and a BloodhoundBlog contributor, covers some of the same ground: \"Is your Realtor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogging&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}