According to the social networking blog Mashable.com, Zillow has been banned from operating in Arizona. The cease and desist order claims that Zillow shouldn't be offering up estimates of property values -- called 'zestimates' -- unless it has registered with the state as a certified appraiser:
The state of Arizona has issued a cease and desist to Zillow, citing that Zillow needs to be a certified appraiser in order to offer up the information the site is known for. Zillow gets their information from public documents and offers property estimates accordingly. Many in the real estate industry, including Realtors and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, have disliked Zillow from the start, insisting that the estimates provided is often incorrect. Zillow obviously throws a wrench in many Realtor’s plans, as they grant access to information that the average home buyer or seller would not look up for themselves. Relying on the experts is how many Realtors thrive, so tools that aim to level the disparity of knowledge are seen as bad; in this case, illegal.
Zillow has been growing since its onset, and they’ve recently added some social networking components to help users further understand the market from first hand accounts of other users. Others looking to make neighborhood knowledge more accessible to the public are YourStreet and StreetAdvisor.
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