Zillow Fake Floreclosures
Zillow Lists "Fake Foreclosures"…
We have all heard the term "Fake News" by now… We now have "Fake Foreclosures"
According to a local TV station in the Grand Rapids Michigan area, Zillow is falsely posting homes were foreclosed on, when they were not. Are these posting an honest mistake? Or are they a planned maneuver to overtake the Real Estate Industry. Regardless of the answer, the owners of the property have been harmed and Zillow should be held accountable. See the story here or watch Target 8 investigation below.
In Virginia, foreclosure and title transfers are public record. This information is available for everyone to see. However, just because information is available to the public, should it be advertised in a public forum?
This is a very interesting story and is just another eye opener to the industry Zillow is out of control and needs to be stopped. VaCAP sent out an article on Monday, Zillow, The First “Agent Management Company” (AMC) for the Real Estate Agent.
Others that are talking about Zillow:
- Phil Crawford: Voice of Appraisal (Podcast E162)
- Ann O’Rouke: Appraisal Today
- Appraisersblogs The First AMC for Agents
If you have not visited the StopZillow.com you should definitely take a look and sign the petition. The petition has gained 39,000 signatures!
Excerpt from the "Check your address: Zillow lists false foreclosures" article
…had been flagged as a foreclosure on the popular website Zillow.
“We didn’t know what in the world to think,” Pete Hall recalled. “We emailed (Zillow) and told them it was totally erroneous, there was no foreclosure, and we demanded that it be removed.”
The Halls say they’ve never missed a payment on the house.
After Target 8 contacted Zillow, the company acknowledged its mistake. Zillow removed the inaccurate foreclosure reference, but by that time, the potential buyer had moved on and word had spread…. Several months later, in June, the Halls’ property showed up on Zillow as foreclosed again.
- The New Con: Hybrids, Waivers & AMCs Threaten Public Trust - December 16, 2024
- VaCAP Supports Shane Lanham’s Legal Fight - September 10, 2024
- It’s Just Responsible Journalism! - February 21, 2024
They are homes in pre foreclosure. I have seen it 100 times. Then they don’t respond when you contact the “listing agents”
Preforeclosure? Sorry this does not make any sense. There would no way for Zillow to know if a mortgage on a property is delinquent. This is not public information until a transfer actually occurs. Besides, the example in the article indicates the borrower was not delinquent and Zillow admitted their mistake.. Realizing each state is different, pease clarify how these false statements can be a preforeclosure?
Not specific to this case, but there are a number of states where the delinquent status of a mortgage is public record. Many western states (CA, AZ, NV, etc.) require lenders to file a Notice of Default in the public land records as the first step to initiating a foreclosure action. This is can be done as soon as 45-60 days after a missed payment.
“Zillow takes data accuracy very seriously” …. and if you believe that line of bull, I’ve got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn!!! LOL I’ve learned first-hand what a bumbling incompetent cesspool of inconsistency, mismanagement, and inaccuracy Zillow really is (just like most faceless data-aggregators in the tech industry nowadays).
“The company says it initially got bad information regarding the property and a data update in June mistakenly reflagged the property as being in foreclosure” … sadly, this kind of irresponsible negligence is NORMAL for Zillow. they rely on sketchy 3rd party “data vendors” and refuse to take responsibility for their own sloppy mistakes, instead throwing up roadblocks, passing the buck, and generally doing their very best to show ZERO customer service skills or pragmatic initiative. Just a giant failure of a company! Anyone who thinks Zillow is a legitimate reliable source for ANY kind of data is very badly mistaken.
Just wait until people start showing up at properties and walking around them, thinking they have been foreclosed upon, only to find out that they are occupied and someone gets shot and killed, and Zillow faces a major lawsuit in which their false reporting, lead to a death…. I can easily see this happening.
Zillow is a joke. Lots of fake rentals and fake for sale listings.
The rental one is the one that matters most for appraisers. You can not take zillow rental data seriously. I’ve called down the lists many times, only to find out that zillow and other companies like them big and small, they all use multiple numbers to generate leads. They have false listings at low numbers, false availability, rehashed old no longer available data, etc, etc. If you can not personally verify a rental solicitation with the landlord or their agents themselves, don’t believe it. I called ten different numbers one day and all of them took me back to a zillow lead generation team at a call center. Damnit son, I’m just trying to verify if this rental is legitimate or not, no I do not want to rent a home or give you my personal information. Despite technological advancements, it’s still easier to drive around looking at for rent signs than trying to use zillow or any other data aggregator out there. They’ve monetized all of it and craigslist ain’t craigslist any more. I will cold call listing agents in the area to see if anyone knows of rentals before I turn to zillow or any other online rental data source for normal residential, and that’s more efficient as well, surprisingly. It’s official; big data is bad data.
Related per main topic; http://www.foreclosurelaw.org/Colorado_Foreclosure_Law.htm
Zillow, continuing to monetize local processes. Zillow is not filling a market need here because ptd auctions are pretty well known about now. Although clearly such an online resource would be considered a nod to international real property investors and llc types whom don’t have time to look into individual county records all day. This pre reo data must be playing into IDX and investor marketing. The primary rule for web marketing; If you don’t have enough data to fill the page, make something up. If you don’t have data, you can’t sell and promote the product. Google still has my 10 year old address and I work very very hard to make sure they don’t get updated data. Welcome to 2017, debt has a cost greater than currency. Privacy has a value greater than gold. This article hits home for the people who don’t belong on this list, in areas were the data does not work. Mark my words, there is much more damage being done in places where this data is working.
I suspect it is tied to public Notices of Default rather than deliberate misrepresentation.. NOD’s are official requirements before foreclosure proceedings can begin (at least in T.D. states). Most owners ‘cure’ their NODs without ever going into actual foreclosure.
This response is bs because my home is showing in foreclosure by Zillow. My home has never been in foreclosure. I reported the false information and was removed but reappeared after 2 weeks. There’s something nefarious with Zillow doing this and I know I have some rights, so I will pursue them.
It seems like collusion, zillow even lower value of homes.. county dies all sorts of parcel manipulation to allow Fannie Mae to foreclose on toxic mortgages they could never own legally.. take a look at the county records in Washington state they are a train wreck.. the county and state is on board with investments in said Fannie Mae toxic mortgage resecuritization.. Fannie Mae shows up as “foreclosing entity” but will not show up at mediation.. a new unassigned servicer shows up and claims to be servicer for last servicer.. Not will Fannie Mae foreclose.. they can not.. so they “sell” in foreclosure.. with no credible title chain to their claim.. but the machine needs to continue.. and the courts and industry says oooh rah.. more for us
Zillow has listed my home in NY for (Pre-foreclosure) which its not! its been on there for a month now. I even tried to contact them.
I am a Realtor and Appraiser and had multiple clients interested in foreclosure properties they saw on zillow. After much research we discovered that they were posting properties that were in pre foreclosure. Most never made it to market. This was at least two years ago so it has been happening for some time.
It sucks because they listed my home a year or so ago as pre-foreclosure. I’ve NEVER missed a mortgage payment. early last summer I got them to fix it but it seems to be out there somewhere on a list or other sites I don’t know. I have been inundated with texts, calls, post cards asking me if I want to sell my “burdensome” property. I have called zillow’s customer service and left messages and emailed them to ask them to rectify whatever misinformation tenticles they created to no avail- zero response! early on when they did respond, they claimed it was a mistake in entry of a parcel number. I’m so fed up with it. I may put a “not for sale sign” on my fence for all the looky loos that contact me saying they drove by. don’t want anyone coming into my property.. any suggestions to make this stop.