That’s true; however, there are buyers out there who I wouldn’t call “dumb” but who were influenced by RE agents and neighborhood comps… To me, RE agents are like the stereotypical used car salesmen who at times are able to make lemons sound like Bentleys (they’re even making this original poster think that houses are “selling fast” and being “out-bid”). Some people can see through this, some people can’t. If the comps are wrong as well, where else do you go to get a fair assessment of the value of a home? Zillow and all others use the assessor’s info and the sales history. I know the false comps didn’t cause the run-up in the market, speculation did. The run-down of the market on the other hand, is definitely being delayed by these false-comp tactics. I don’t know if it’s the “NORM” but 3 out of 3 friends of mine who sold their homes in the past 2 years had this happen. All different agents. All in Mira Mesa. What are the odds of that? IMHO it’s enough to discredit the sales and assessor’s records, which are used for all our “median housing price” graphs and calculations (I.e. things are much worse off than even piggington.com followers believe). I will also be avoiding the use of comps in the future when I buy a house.
