Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Home for Sale but Not For Sale
My house is listed on sale on Zillowcom, and at a huge price drop since last checked ($100,000). I am up to date on payments and it is not for sale. What should I do?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Home for Sale but Not For Sale
I'm not sure what Zillowcom is. You might contact the person who listed it and tell him/her that it's not for sale.
Re: Home for Sale but Not For Sale
Zillow is not a seller of real estate. My house and all my neighbor's houses and almost every house in the Unied States of America shows up on Zillow.
Zillow is not a real estate dealer. It is a computerized on-line "appraiser" that simply generates estimated market values for everybody's house, whether it is for sale or not.
Zillow's estimated values are not based on looking at your property, either, as a paid appraiser would do. Instead, they work from publicly-available information about recent sales in your neighborhood, square footage infomation, tax appraisals, and other such information. As a result of this mechanized approach, Zillow's appraisals are mere guesstimates, but sometimes they are surprisingly accurate.
If your property supposedly dropped $100,000, look at what Zillow guesses your property did between 2002 and 2005. That should make you feel a little better. Also, check out your neighbors.