US homeowner sues portal over online valuation. Could it happen here?

One of the best-known property portals in the US is being sued by a vendor over its online valuation of her home in a suit filed at an Illinois court. Real estate lawyer Barbara Andersen alleges that the sale of her townhouse, which she has been trying to sell in the town of Glenville and that’s listed on Zillow overlooking a golf course for $626,000 (pictured, right), has faced a ‘major roadblock’ because property portal Zillow’s automated valuation system puts her townhouse at considerably less – $562,000. The lawyer is not seeking damages but instead is asking the portal to amend her property’s ‘Zestimate’. But the portal told The Washing Post that it believed her claim was “without merit”. Like Zoopla, Rightmove, Mouseprice and others in the UK, Zillow has been offering ‘appraisals’ of properties for over a decade and has always put home valuations across the US at the core of its business. Critical And as in the UK, many agents and homeowners in the US have been critical of these estimates. “If you could commoditise property and price it accurately per square foot [via an online tool] then I would be out of a job,” says property expert…