This is a follow up to my post last week about some of the controversies surrounding the real estate website Zillow. Welcome back to the post! At the time of publication a lawsuit was pending against Zillow accusing the website of violating Illinois law by conducting appraisals without a license. The Plaintiff in the lawsuit sought an injunction stopping Zillow from publishing its Zestimates in Illinois, as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. In what could be called a big win for Zillow, Judge Amy St. Eve held today that Zillow is not violating Illinois law, because Zestimates fall into an exception in the Illinois Real Estate Appraiser Licensing Act…
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Is Zillow Helpful or Harmful?
Zillow is a real estate listing website with a twist — each listing has an estimate of the value of the real estate, which Zillow calls a “Zestimate.” That twist has been controversial among homeowners, especially when the Zestimate is lower than expected. In April of this year, a homeowner (and lawyer) in Glenview filed suit against Zillow alleging that the Zestimate for her property is unfairly low and prevented her from selling her property for the market value. The case has since been dismissed, but another lawsuit filed shortly after remains pending in Federal Court, and the larger debate about Zestimates continues to swirl. For its part, Zillow takes…
