Posting incorrect market data on the internet is not a good way to create friendship in the industry. That said, many of us have learned to take these situations in stride.

Inaccurate information abounds!  Listings live forever!

I had a listing that was for sale or for lease.  The listing sold, I canceled the lease listing on the MLS as well as numerous times on Zillow and Trulia due to the constant inquiries.

The buyer happened to work for Zillow and she wrote me an angry email stating that her home was not for rent.  She couldn't wait the two minutes for me to respond, so she called me.  

She said I wasn't canceling the listing the correct way on Zillow and "as  courtesy", she'd do it for me even though I wasn't a paying customer.  Crazy talk!

I received more inquiries after the homeowner/Zillow employee did her magic.  I was tempted to ask her about it but decided silence was the best choice in this case. 

Roy Kelley hit the nail on the head. Their home estimates stink. Constant calls from excited prospective home buyers asking to see a home & hearing that it is already sold, many years old or just plain inaccurate date. 

Bob,

I think that the community is mad that they got talked into by their MLS or whoever it was that Zillow was going to be a  huge marketing aid...That is the basic hurt...Now the info is wrong, and they don't correct, and they are selling an agent's listing to appear by the name of those who have not listed the property, thereby insinuating that they have the listing.  Some of our clients buy their listing back by paying Zillow, so that their picture appears by their lisiting...and everything else that is said by different members on AR.  A

The Zillow/Trulia model takes the listings that Realtors earn, advetises those listings, then charges Realtors for access to those leads. It's manipulative and has stolen real estate listings from the Realtors themselves.

William Feela sums it up very well, a year after my daugter moved into her house, people were still driving by and walking in the yard thinking it was still for sale per Zillow. We finally got them to remove it. I don't trust them. Their Zestimates are so far off it is not even funny. 

You're kidding right? Did you miss the last 10 years of it's existance? I could tell you some great stories but if you prefer to be niave .......

I had a client that was upset when he saw wrong information about his home when zillow took it and put wrong info about it.  I could not convince the seller that it was out of.my control and lost the listing.      The wrong info has ruined many a deal and zillow.admits that their info is off by 8-25+%...and that comes right from the CEO

Hi, Bob...You have been reading our Zillow posts, right? I don't like the inaccurate data and having to explain to buyers why that house they want to see isn't available and in one case that the picture wasn't even the house that was for sale. Then Zillow turns around and takes our information and trys to sell it back to us. They should be paying us for our information. 

Roy Kelley got it right. Zillow was an interloper that with their faulty data cost me several sales in the the past.

If it iis because they use or listing data, then try to sell us a subscription to get leads, using our work product. yes, I am pissed off.  If it is because so many people rely on their Zestimate, which is more often highly inaccurate, theby causing us more grief and anguish and homework?  Yes, that pisses me off.  I will admit, they have come on strong.  I remember a few years back the CA Assoc. of Realtors was debating giving some something like $2-3M to develop/advance out website, and someone said that Zillow had just rec'd another $20M in a round of venture capital money.

Because they really are not the most knowledgeable about real estate and mislead people by claiming to be.

Bob, Bob, Bob.......

It started with the zestimate making my life harder at listings due to their inaccurate price. Once I gave in and used their buy a zip code to get leads stuff for a year it was that they pretty much are bad as a business and service in general. Last time I ever bought leads, lesson learned.

Bad market data.  And we feel they are a threat to our business model.  

Personally, it's the debriefing that I have to do regarding inaccurate pricing and inaccurate listing status.  I once had a seller that wanted to buy at zillow's zestimate but wanted to sell by mine. 

The worst part is sending listings to buyers and then they take to Zillow.  They return to me with none of the properties that I sent from the mls that are active and available, but an extensive list of their "already sold or under contract dream homes".

I think part of this has to do with the fact that many agents are afraid Zillow will eliminate the need for their services.

Good morning Bob. It is a numbers game for them, they must feel they are immune to the bad press.

Bad enough their information is wrong, their zestimates completely fictional and their data erroneous... but they wont change it when pointed out that it is wrong. They harm the Sellers and therefore the buyers and we are the ones left trying to explain it and being blamed for it...

Hate? No! I love it when I get a call from someone who is inquiring about an inaccurate Zillow posting and I can point out the error and also point out that they should be dealing with a real estate professional and not an advertising company if they want the correct information.

Because they overrate it when they shouldn't and on other things they underrate it when they shouldn't.

We have to take out our frustrations on someone or something and Zillow is perfect.

Bob - Inaccurate data, and unwillingness to edit when you contact them with the correct info. They are hard to reach and communicate with. You have to pay if you want to market your own listing on the site. Plus many other reasons.

Most often wrong information, a lack of a real person to reach for help and most often endless sales calls looking for me to buy worthless zip codes. 

A tough competitor, impossible to win against.

The zestimates are way off base. I had an offer from an internet company based agent, who provided no comps to her melinial buyers on an AG zoned property, They made an $80K below list low ball offer based on a zestimate. To say the least , once I calmed my seller down and gave an education on AG zoned properties to the Buyers agent we were able to come to an agreement. Thanks Zillow :( !

Oh Good Grief!... I get so tired of hearing people in our industry belly ache and moan about the horrors of Zillow. Seriously, it's time to move on. There are other issues of much greater concern in our business. I absolutely LOVE Zillow! I even wrote a post on how much I LOVE Zillow! Are Zestimates inaccurate? Yes, at times, but what a great seque with my clients to prove my value proposition as the local market expert! Zestimates are simply a starting point in a conversation. Zillow is the most highly visited real estate search platform on the planet. You can't ignore it's popularity among consumers. You can either use it to your advantage, or continue to waste your valuable time and energy complaining. And Puh-leeze.....for the love of Mary, Zillow does NOT charge us for our listings!!! I have never paid Zillow a dime to have my listings show up on their platform!

Because their Zesstimate can say that a $100,000 condo is worth $250,000 when it borders $500,000 homes. And because when you contact customers service about a listing not posting correctly, it can take days for a response and sometimes you may have to contact them three or four times without a response. Or they respond that they will check into it and get back to you then don't.

Bob Crane it's a business model that generates revenue from the people who are responsible for the data which is presented in the way Zillow wants - many times that information is not correct.

I think many agents don't know that they need to log into Zillow and update their listing info. Updating it in MLS doesn't automatically update it on zillow or many other sites that listings get syndicated to.

It is hard to explain to the public how Zillow really works. As Agents we are in the houses and see the updates or lack of them as well as the condition that affects the value of a property and use this for the good of our buyers ad sellers.  Some people prefer to believe what they see on the Internet...and think...how can they say it if it isn't true?  Unfortunately Zillow take our listings, posts them, often incorrectly, sells them back to us and confuses our clients.  Just another day in the life of a Realtor!

Zillow makes a lot of mistakes in posting the listings.  Sometimes they have mine as active when they actually have been sold for over a year.

It hurts our reputation.

I think for starters Bob, they are a competitor for each one of us. They compete for internet eyeballs and for client leads which they don't send to you if you are the listing agent.

And their purpose is not be be in real estate but rather using real estate - your copyrighted material - to generate an income through advertising and lead sales. They are a reseller of proprietary information.

If you now look at what's happening, many MLSs are no longer feeding Zillow. It's more inaccurate today than yesterday. Problem is.... that consumers don't know this.

Bob Crane - It's not just real estate agents that get upset at Zillow references. Local appraisers and assessors get calls daily that include statements that begin with "According to Zillow my property (or my neighbor's property) is worth X and I think its right (or wrong)."  Appraisers and assessors constantly have to justify their property value opinions against Zillow estimates. 

Good mornig Bob Crame,

I know of many agents who pay Zillow for leads, well, not my money:)

Someone let the monster out a long time ago and has been feeding it

Imaccurate info

Good Tuesday afternoon Bob. They just have a knack for ticking off the Pope! - LOL