But there is a workaround, of sorts–

Curiously, you can list a home on zillow without a zestimate attaching by simply leaving off the street addresss or house number. Zillow will create a separate page for you w/o a zestimate (no address= no public data= no zestimate)– so you get 2 distinct home detail pages– one with your listing info and one with Zillow’s. It is happening now as brokers submit feeds w/o addresses.

Read more about it here:

http://tinyurl.com/6cxh63

This was an interesting conversation. It is funny…tonight I came across a video of Joe and David G playing ping pong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74GhKlZOLaA&feature=related These two have a long history of going at it, but I really respect both of their opinions. They both make really solid points. It is kind of ironic that I listened to the convo and then came across this video.

I tend to lean towards Joe’s argument that avms do have an affect on a consumer’s rationale about the value of a property. Especially if the consumer isn’t that knowledgable in real estate. Before I started understanding the industry, I once was that consumer. To me, zesitmate equaled value. If you take Rhonda’s comment that a client came into her office with a zestimate. I’m willing to bet if an appraisal varied from the zestimate her client would want a new appraisal from a different company.

I think consumers have to be educated about AVMs, their advantages and disadvantages.