Zillow is a information company providing a free ballpark estimate of a vast array of properties, not a real estate company. This is an important distinction. Neither party is paying them for an accurate estimate ergo they are not obligated to provide an estimate sufficient for either buyer or seller, which is why both sides are best advised to PAY for an accurate estimate before closing a transactions worth hundreds of thousands.
I'm honestly not seeing the problem here. Don't such people already hire experts to asses value before spending half a million dollars? I'm seeing the claim that inaccurate estimates lead to difficulties selling but I have yet to see the proof. Maybe those having trouble selling really are asking for more money than people are willing to pay.
...and Uber is just a software company, and Mastercard/Visa just facilitate payments.
The specific classification of a company is irrelevant. If they've induced their own gravitational field, then they're responsible for the consequences.
Assessors are obligated to be qualified because they are obligated to their clients who pay them money in exchange for their services.
How much did the seller in question pay zillow and what was promised in return?
The fact that person a's action foo can negatively effect you doesn't imply that the law or ethics precludes a from doing foo. A must be either violating your rights, the law, or have a duty to you that would preclude foo.
Its not clear how you could have a right to silence others speech in order to earn more money, its not clear what duty zillow has to sellers, and its not clear that the law actually precludes zillow from underestimating the value of your property.
In fact it looks an awful lot like none of those apply, and further that allowing anyone who feels like their property is undervalued to use threat of a lawsuit to silence discussion would preclude anyone from providing public analysis of property values whether accurate or not and thus harm the public at large. Real harm unlike the unproven harm previously discussed.
Zillow, should make it very clear then that their estimates are complete works of fiction and any resemblance to actual value is purely coincidental and unintended.
Well, it's really not a complete work of fiction... it's a correlated value estimate based on previous sale, and other property sales in a given market over time based on factors of the home (size, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc)... It may well not be accurate, as there may be other features that increase or decrease value.
That said, I would posit that if you're selling for more than a 20% variance from the Zestimate, that you are probably over/under-valued for the market. Just because you have gold-leaf throughout your home doesn't mean that it'll sell for a million when all your neighbors are half that.
When you seek the services of an agent and pay them money to help you buy or sell real estate they represent to you that they are qualified to assess the value of the real estate being bought and sold and are somewhat morally obligated to you by virtue of the money you paid them to provide you with accurate information.
Professional licensing requirements are supposed to ensure they are sort of kind of qualified.
Someone you didn't hire which is providing a ballpark guess on the value of your property to help people do preliminary research before they buy has minimal enough obligation to buyers and none at all to you.
We can see that the obligations of the agents above attach both to the fact that they are brokering 6-7 figure transactions and to the fact that you contracted them. Its hard to imagine what you believe the obligation is supposed to attach to in zillows case.
Its not even clear that regulating zillow according to each individual states laws would accomplish save placing unconstitutional limits on free speech. Plantiff doesn't even want that they want a club to compel zillow's silence or desirable speech. Surely cloaking it in bs doesn't make this any less unconstitutional.
The problem in Zillow's case may simply be the legal system... And that will vary greatly from state/county to state/county. The real estate market is very protective of itself.
I'm honestly not seeing the problem here. Don't such people already hire experts to asses value before spending half a million dollars? I'm seeing the claim that inaccurate estimates lead to difficulties selling but I have yet to see the proof. Maybe those having trouble selling really are asking for more money than people are willing to pay.