Inacccuracies from Listing Websites like Zillow, Trulia, and Home Sites

I often get calls from property owners demanding that I change the information that is posted on Zillow. "My home is worth WAY more than that!" I have had property owners call who have their property listed for sale when in fact it is not. "Take that off there!" they say to me. I have to patiently explain that I just advertise on the that website, and I do not write the content. I can tell they do not believe me.

There was an article posted to day in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "In the old days, if you were looking for a new place to live, you picked up the local newspaper, looked at the real estate classifieds, put on comfortable shoes or gassed up the car, and began a house-to-house search.The Internet has made the job easier, at least on your feet. In short order, you can look at all kinds of sales and rental listings just about anywhere – around the block or across the country. "
But the important question is how reliable are websites such as Zillow, Trulia, HomeGain, and a growing number of others?

Ken Shuman, head of communications at Trulia, says that his website obtained information on 95 million houses from county assessors’ offices nationwide and Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions, a data provider. Details about Zillow’s 100-million-plus homes, both for rent and for sale comes in from public-record data, real estate brokerages, users of our information (consumers), and real estate agents directly.
As a Real Estate Broker, I , and many other Real Estate agents take issue with these website flaws, as well as with the values the sites place on houses, for sale or not.
When asked whether I recommended these sites to consumers, I say, "Not a reliable source."

I think they can play a helpful part when someone is just beginning their search as a Buyer, but it is not so for a Seller looking to compare numbers. Estimates of value offered on some websites, such as Zillow’s “Zestimates,” are unreliable, using the formula that determine them “is akin to throwing arrows at a dartboard. You rarely know where it is going to land.”

There is sometimes a 90-day delay in obtaining data, said the three-month “rolling average” the Trulia site offers is based on properties within municipalities rather than within metropolitan statistical areas.When people buy houses, they are looking for specific places – a city, town, or neighborhood. “MSAs can skew numbers. There are often dramatic differences from neighborhood to neighborhood.”Trulia lets consumers “leverage” information about houses. “People often save homes from the site if they are not interested in buying them. If they are following a property, we serve them up recent comps (comparable sales) so they can manually update that information.”

HomeGain has an “instant home-prices tool” that allows an owner to recalculate a price range that might be better if actual amenities and square footage of living space were addressed. It doesn’t affect the information from official sources.
Regarding the accuracy of location and school information, Trulia, Zillow, and HomeGain all said owners could update details posted about their homes.“If you feel your house is misrepresented on Trulia, you can update the information as long as the house is off-market,” Shuman said. “We hope to get edited information for houses on the market, but right now we are trying not to tussle with listing agents.”Zillow requires people trying to update descriptions to prove that they are the homeowners. It’s tough to pinpoint all but obvious misrepresentations, but the company says “we do filter for owners giving erroneous information about home or area, and eliminate the data from the models.”The issue, for some, seems to be not so much the information the websites offer but what consumers might take away from it.“When you want to get an idea of what your home is worth for a refinance, those sites can tell you the wrong value,” a local mortgage broker says, “If the appraisal comes in lower, it may mean a higher interest rate than you were expecting.”Zillow’s Jill Simmons said, “Zestimates are an estimate – a starting point in determining a home’s value,” not the actual value of a property.
The data on Zillow “are tools to help consumers make better real estate decisions,” Simmons said, “but we always recommend that people who want to buy, sell, or refinance engage a local professional like an appraiser or a real estate agent.

Here at GULF ACCESS REALTY we are always ready to give you accurate information! Call today!

Hundreds wait in line for help to save their homes

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – July 13, 2011 – Some homeowners emerged jubilant from the Westin Diplomat Resort on Monday, snagging instant mortgage modifications during a daylong event in Hollywood.Others weren’t as lucky.In the first two hours, 612 people applied for help from the Help for Homeowners Community Event that was sponsored by the federal government’s Making Home Affordable Program. Struggling homeowners formed lines to register and then to meet with loan officers or counselors at the resort.“It goes to show you that a lot of South Florida homeowners are struggling,” said Andrea Risotto, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury that was helping oversee the event.She blamed the sour job market. Most interviewed said they had lost jobs and fallen behind on payments. Florida’s unemployment rate is 10.6 percent, much higher than the national average.Mercy Del Toro of Miami said she and her family were among the lucky ones. Their lender combined two home loans into one with a lower interest rate, she said. The new loan has lower payments, to be made over a longer time.“We will be able to stay in our home,” a beaming Del Toro said.The amount owed stays the same. “That’s the bad news,” Del Toro said.Marva Gyles of Fort Lauderdale said she is still waiting to see what happens with her loan. Her lender said Monday that she qualified for a loan modification, but she didn’t have anything firm yet.“I’ve been down this road before,” she said. Indeed, many South Floridians have become frustrated at attending events or applying for programs that don’t deliver promised loan relief. After two years of seeking help, Gyles said she still hadn’t been able to modify her loan. Meanwhile, she lost a job but found a new one.Getting a more affordable loan will help her get back to a normal life, she said.Lily Calderon, of Pompano Beach, said she and her husband, Oscar, don’t even have a promise of a loan modification.She has been out of work as a customer service representative for two years. She and her husband were told Monday by their lender that they couldn’t qualify for help. “We don’t have enough income,” he said.Even if their loan were modified, the couple wouldn’t be able to afford a new mortgage payment, they were told. “But I can’t get a job,” Lily Calderon said. “It’s like a circle.”Treasury spokeswoman Risotto said part of Monday’s program was to connect struggling homeowners with people they can contact at their lenders. Homeowners have complained about banks repeatedly losing documents and not having anyone to check on the status of an application to modify a loan.Homeowners also could meet with housing counselors at nonprofit agencies that offer services free and are certified by the federal government to provide housing information, said Brad Dwin, spokesman for the nonprofit Hope Now that was created by lenders, investors, counselors and others.For those who couldn’t attend Monday’s meeting, help is not out of reach.Hud.gov has an online list of free government-approved counselors, said Kevin Maher, director of community education for the nonprofit Consumer Credit Management Systems in Delray Beach.The counselors may know of special programs that banks don’t, Maher said. For example, Palm Beach County has programs to help some struggling homeowners, he said.The state also has $1 billion in the Florida Hardest Hit program to give people up to $18,000 for up to six months of mortgage payments, Maher said.The Obama administration also has a new program, starting Aug. 1, that will give unemployed homeowners with FHA loans a break on part or all of their mortgage payments for up to 12 months.To qualify, the unemployed will have to be 90 days delinquent on their loans, said Brian Sullivan, a U.S. Housing and Urban Development spokesman.Those mortgage companies participating in the Making Home Affordable Program also will be required to give the yearlong reprieve “whenever possible,” according to a HUD statement.Copyright © 2011 Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Donna Gehrke-White, Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.