An disgruntled Illinois-homeowner is suing online real estate company Zillow Group, alleging that its ‘Zestimate’ feature, which provides a value estimate for properties, underestimated the value of his home by over $100K, according to the Daily Herald. The underestimated ‘Zestimate’ is obstructing the owner’s efforts to sell his home, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiff’s attorney said that, despite Zillow’s denial that ‘Zestimates’ constitute “appraisals,” the fact that they offer market value estimates and “are promoted as a tool for potential buyers to use in assessing [the] market value of a given property,” meets the definition of an appraisal under state law and should be discontinued.