{"id":11473,"date":"2017-06-01T15:05:32","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T20:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therealdaily.com\/?p=11473"},"modified":"2017-06-01T15:06:47","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T20:06:47","slug":"zestimate-contest-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/corporate\/zestimate-contest-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Zillow says their “fix zestimates” contest predates lawsuits against Zestimate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zillow contest<\/h2>\n

Last week, Zillow launched a prize contest to inspire the brightest scientific minds to compete to improve the Zestimate\u00ae home valuation algorithm.<\/p>\n

Read also: Should you really care that Zillow\u2019s CEO overpaid for his own home according to Zestimate?<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

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\nThe contest offers a $1 million dollar prize to the participant who can build the best alternative.<\/p>\n

Timing is everything<\/h2>\n

The timing of this contest seems fortuitous for Zillow, who has been the subject of two different lawsuits this month regarding their online home value estimates, which rely on an algorithm to give an estimated home value.<\/p>\n

Both lawsuits were brought in the state of Illinois, and both claim that Zestimates meet the legal criteria for an appraisal, and Zillow doesn\u2019t have the licensure to publish such numbers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Additionally, disparities between actual home prices and these estimates can create losses in value and losses of time when sellers try to move their home at a price higher than the Zestimate.<\/p>\n

Zestimate<\/h2>\n

Zillow\u2019s language around their proprietary estimate states that the tools is a starting point in determining a home\u2019s value and is not a formal appraisal.<\/p>\n

However, through the contest, it is clear that they are recognizing it lacks value even as a starting point to assess the value of one\u2019s home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s not hard to see why, given the aforementioned example. Zillow has yet to comment officially on the relationship between the lawsuit and the contest. If they do, don\u2019t hold your breath for an answer other than \u201cthey aren\u2019t\u201d or \u201cno comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to win<\/h2>\n

The Zestimate competition works in two rounds. In round one, which is completely open to public entry, participants will design a model to improve the Zestimate residual errors. Then, the participants whose algorithm reduces the difference between the Zestimate and the actual sales prices the most will move on to the finals.<\/p>\n

According to information about the second round, that will include the 100-best models.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In order to claim the prize, those 100 competitors have to build an algorithm to predict the actual sales price of homes, using innovative data sources to engineer new features that will give the model an edge over other participants.<\/p>\n

Saved by the algorithm<\/h2>\n

This competition could be a fabulous way for someone with a data science background to make a mark with their brand. More importantly, if the contest works, it looks like the days of Zestimate as a headache could be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n

#Zestimate<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(CORPORATE) Zillow is in the midst of a few lawsuits concerning their feature which they are concurrently holding a contest to fix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337672,"featured_media":911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[991,423,1234,1125,102],"class_list":["post-11473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate","tag-contest","tag-lawsuit","tag-real-estate-news","tag-zestimate","tag-zillow"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/04\/zestimate.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337672"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11473"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11475,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11473\/revisions\/11475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}