Pittsburgh Homes Daily

Apparently, Zillow has already joined the ranks of Google and Tivo.  At least according to a recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the trend of snooping on one’s neighbors’ real estate purchases is spreading across the nation and zillow has entered the american vocabulary.  They’d better put an end to this if they hope to protect their trademark, but that’s a post for a different blog.

I was just talking to someone the other day about the implications of the increased availability of information on the internet.  For example, there’s a ton of information available on homes in Allegheny County on the Allegheny County Real Estate Web Site.  Who is responsible for the misuse of this information?  If someone used this information to steal an identity or apply for a second mortgage, is Allegheny County liable?  They have a “legal disclaimer,”  but it doesn’t limit their liability.  Instead, they probably have some sort of governmental immunity that protects them.  There is a similar website for my community.

Pretty soon, I hope that we will be able to opt out of online information sharing in this area.  Giving neighborhood breakdowns to realtors and publishing recently sold homes in a hard copy newspaper are one thing.  But allowing individuals to search by last name, learn the cost of my home, the name of my mortgage company, whether I have paid my taxes yet, and a layout of my home may be just a bit too far.  Next thing you know, there will be a site listing my occupation, number of kids, pets, and blog subscriptions for everyone to take advantage of. 

Just because the information is publicly available doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t rethink whether it should be public and who needs to have access to the information.  But as long as it is available, it is a resource that all home buyers and sellers to use.  It was pretty accurate as to the value of my house. 

There has to be a good balance somewhere.  Perhaps it should be like credit reports.  If you can see the names of the people that have accessed your house information, then that would go along way to deter your nosy neighbors who are too afraid to just ask.