Common Sense Prevailing in Arizona Zillow Matter

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

There has been quite an uproar over Zillow.com and the cease and desist letters sent to them by the Arizona Board of Appraisal. The Arizona Board of Appraisal quickly went to work trying to make what Zillow currently does (offer automated value approximations of residential real estate) illegal with out an appraiser’s license.

As has been well covered on Bloodhound Blog by Greg Swann, this amounts to nothing more than the folks up in the Ivory Tower trying to restrict progress and information flow to consumers in an attempt to protect their craft. Never a wise move in my estimation, and completely unnecessary on the part of the Arizona Board of Appraisal.

Amazingly, a large majority of Real Estate agents seemed very pleased with the Arizona Board of Appraisal for taking this stance against Zillow (read the comments). It seems Real Estate agents are perhaps feeling a bit collegial with their appraiser friends in the ivory tower whose good will may one day need to be summoned to their own cause at first sight of a successful, disruptive technology on their end.

For me, information should be available to consumers. It should not be a mystery. It should not be protected by members of a secret society with skeleton keys to the black box where the information comes from. It should be open to you, me, and anyone else interested.

Apparently Arizona legislators feel the same way:

â??Zillow.com provides a valuable resource for Arizonans and an unelected boardâ??s desire to hamper consumersâ?? efforts to get as much information as possible makes no sense,â?? Reagan, chairwoman of the House Commerce Committee, said. â??Instead of protecting Arizonans, the Board of Appraisal wants to stifle access to valuable market information.â??

Amen to that. People can argue the efficacy of the valuation model all day long. I have no problem with that argument. I do have a problem with people trying to lock up information on the trumped up notion that only those "with a license" are qualified to share it with the public.

For now I say hooray Arizona for getting it right. I hope this emergency bill (PDF) passes and I hope this sets the precedent for other states and any other protectionist, antiquated board’s of appraisal out there. Go Zillow.

Update: Sellsius chimes in, and has the 2nd cease and desist letter. Reading that letter sure makes me laugh.