David B.

From the Homeowner: Zillow, for more than 3 weeks, advertised, to all visitors that viewed it, that our home was in Pre-Foreclosure to use their term. This was and is completely false. They quickly corrected the mistake for which I give them credit. And while the gentleman from Customer Care was very courteous, I gleaned no clear insight from his responses as to how the mistake was made and remain leery of the way in which Zillow and/or their vendors collect public information about homeowners. Below is the exchange I had with Zillow Customer Care for what its worth. I sincerely hope that Zillow finds a way to ensure that the only way this data can be wrong on their site is because the public record or source is wrong. And I hope this experience doesnt happen to you!

Homeowner
Jul 11,8:45 AM PDT
I don't see a way to correct pre-foreclosure and auction information, both of which are untrue, for my home on the edit facts page. Who enters this information?

(Zillow Help Center)
Jul 11,8:56 AM PDT
Hello,

Thank you for contacting us. Could you send me the full address including ZIP code for the home in question? Once I get that, I can look into this issue further.
Thank you for using Zillow!
Zillow Consumer Care

Homeowner
Jul 11,10:08 AM PDT
(Street address omitted) Cincinnati, OH *******

(Zillow Help Center)
Jul 11,10:52 AM PDT
Hello,

I received your request to remove the erroneous foreclosure status from your property page. I understand and share your concern that you do not want false foreclosure information listed on your home details page.

The foreclosure status has been removed and the update is effective immediately. You can verify my changes at the following link:

(Link omitted)

Thank you for bringing this to our attention and allowing us the opportunity to correct it.
Thank you for using Zillow!

Zillow Consumer Care

Homeowner
Jul 11,12:32 PM PDT
Thanks (name omitted). Sorry in advance that you're going to bear the brunt of my response. This has nothing to do with you personally.
How was this mistake made? What public record from Hamilton Co. Ohio does Zillow rely on for their "Pre-Foreclosure" information? It appears Zillow, or some company Zillow contracts with to aggregate public information, somehow mistakenly matched up my parcel id with the parcel of another person of the same first and last name. The other guy's parcel is going to Sheriff's sale for delinquent taxes. It's not listed on the Sheriff's "Upcoming Foreclose Sale" list. So how does the tax amount he owes, $24,465, become associated with my parcel id when hcso.org clearly shows the correct (his) parcel number? My parcel number is nowhere to be found on that list or any county list having to do with foreclosure proceedings. Just out of curiosity, I decided to look up all the properties being sold for delinquent taxes on 7/24/16, the date that was listed for the mistaken identity parcel referenced above, and only 8 of the 20 listed (as of 7/8/16) appeared on Zillow (as of 7/8/16) as "Pre-Foreclosure". What are the criteria for listing a "Pre-Foreclosure"? Why doesn't Zillow double check these "Pre-Foreclosures" before listing them? I can only image what our friends and neighbors are saying when we're not around! And our true friends are probably worried sick about us but won't say anything for fear of embarrassing us! There is nothing more important to me, outside of my faith, family and friends, than my reputation and my integrity. I have never missed a mortgage payment! I have never neglected to pay my property taxes! Yet anyone who knows us in this town, who looked up our house on your web site during the course of the last 25 days or so, is going to think otherwise. All because checks are NOT in place to make sure what you're publishing reflects the public record. It's defamatory! I don't get worked up very easily but this strikes a big nerve! I want answers from your management and board if necessary. I want to know what protocols Zillow is going to put in place to prevent the falsifying of public records from happening again! Tell your manager, here's a starting place for you. Now that you've taken down the "Pre-Foreclosure" heading that was so prominently displayed, why don't you replace it with a great big "We're sorry. This homeowner was never in Pre-Foreclosure. It was Zillow's mistake and we're making changes in our public records collection protocol to ensure it doesn't happen again." Then leave it up for 25 days!
Sincerely,
(name omitted)

(Zillow Help Center)
Jul 11,12:39 PM PDT
Hello,

Thanks for getting back to me. Once again, we do sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. We receive our Foreclosure information from county record through third-party vendors and sometimes during this syndication process mistakes are made. When this does occur, we act as swiftly as possible to make any possible corrections to erroneous Foreclosure listings. Let me know if you have any further questions.
Thank you for using Zillow!

Zillow Consumer Care

Homeowner
Jul 11,2:57 PM PDT
I'm not complaining about the swiftness. I appreciate your taking it down so quickly. I want to understand how it happened and help ensure it doesn't keep happening. If the information your vendor supplied was incorrect then I need to speak with them. Please provide a contact at your vendor so I can follow up. Who supplied Zillow my parcel id, and the $24,465 amount? Also, what about my request to post an apology and leave it up for 25 days? I did have my house listed for sale up until I discovered the misinformation on your site last week at which point I took it off the market. After all, who is going to offer FMV for my house (neighbor recently sold theirs for over $1.4M without the LEED Platinum tax abatement and amenities we have) if someone thinks the bidding at auction is going to start at $24,465. The information may have been wrong when you received it so go ahead and blame it on them, but Zillow should still do the right thing here to try and undo the damage they've done to my reputation.

(Zillow Help Center)
Jul 11,3:34 PM PDT
Hello,

Sometimes, during the syndication process from county record to our third party vendors to Zillow mistakes are made on which property is in Foreclosure. Parcel #'s can be transposed or something similar. We are unable to give the contact information for our third party vendors. We have undone the damage by taking down the Foreclosure information. The feature you are requesting to have an apology posted to your property page is not something we have available and other users in a similar situation have not requested this feature. Once again, we do sincerely apologize for the mistake, but it has been corrected.
Thank you for using Zillow!

Zillow Consumer Care

Homeowner
Jul 11,4:16 PM PDT
Thanks for your multiple apologies. And please understand my beef is not with you. First, please accept my apology for the way my original request came across. I was upset. Please allow me to resubmit my request in a more respectful manner this time. Some type of reconciliatory statement, the words for which Zillow chooses, posted for a period of time on an affected owner's property page, made at the request of the owner, would be a great PR move and show that Zillow is serious about transparency. If this cannot be done for policy reasons, then I respectfully ask what those policies are. Also, please explain your "syndication process" in more detail so I can better understand how it works. "Transposed"? Does that mean that your vendor actually has people keying information into the Zillow website or into a feed that supplies the website? Can Zillow at least ask its vendor if they would be willing to field my questions and let me know their response? Thank you.

(Zillow Help Center)
Jul 12,9:25 AM PDT
Hello,

You are more than welcome to post this information in the home description, that your home was never in fact in Foreclosure and you could leave that up as long as you would like. All I meant was that the Foreclosure information is syndicated to Zillow and when it is syndicated to us, mistakes can be made. The fields are not manually entered by a person, but during syndication processes numbers may be left out or the format of the fields may differ which may cause an issue. We do not give out the contact information for our third party vendors.
Thank you for using Zillow!

Zillow Consumer Care