Saw this at Bigger Pockets, but bloodhound blog has some insight as well. The Arizona Board of Appraisals, in a myopic, 1st Amendment trampling power play to protect their own monopoly has issued a cease and desist order to Zillow.com claiming they must hold an appraisers license in order to offer “Zestimates” in Arizona. Dumb.
First off. They can’t win such an argument. Zillow does not charge for their Automated Valuations. It’s not a service, it’s speech. You, me, your neighbor across the street, and Zillow all have the right to say, “I think that house is worth $350,000″.
However, the overlooked aspect of this power play is that they have just turned their allies into enemies. If, in their opinion, only a licensed appraiser can guess at the value of a home, that means real estate agents and loan originators have no business providing this information either.
If I were a Loan Officer or Real Estate Agent in Arizona, I would take great offense to such a move. I would be telling the appraisers I work with that I won’t be doing business with them again unless they publicly denounce it.
When eloan became prominent, the National Association Mortgage Brokers created a nationwide marketing campaign to inform consumers of the advantages of working with a local agent. I see similar ads for Realtors in the face of the growing FSBO boom. If appraisers associations were smart, they would highlight the difference between a real appraisal and a Zestimate. Instead, it looks like a few of them are preparing to waste their money on an unwinnable cause that alienates their strategic partners. Dumb.
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