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Fake records


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2010 Oct 15, 12:12am   1,654 views  5 comments

by Soozy   ➕follow (0)   💰tip   ignore  

I bought this house in 2001 and sold it in 2006. I have been watching it's decline on Zillow out of morbid curiosity, and noticed a few months ago that false sales records have appeared in the sale history. It looks kind of fishy, but I can't imagine what the motivation could be. Has anyone else observed anything like this? Is it possible this is just an anomaly? Can anyone just enter 'public records' into the system?

I know these two records to be absolutely false:

09/16/2005 Sold $550,000 57.1% Public Record
09/10/2003 Sold $350,000 19.5% Public Record

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/428-C-St-Hayward-CA-94541/24974569_zpid/

Comments 1 - 5 of 5        Search these comments

1   tatupu70   2010 Oct 15, 12:29am  

Did you refinance?

2   Soozy   2010 Oct 15, 12:33am  

not on these dates or in these amounts

3   zzyzzx   2010 Oct 15, 12:56am  

Does your municipality have it's own records and if so what do they say?
I mean, in Maryland there is a state website that has all that type of information available publically and I'd trust that before I'd go to Zillow.

Personally, I'm inclined to think that there is some sort of database error and the records pertain to a different address as opposed to totally made up stuff.

4   RayAmerica   2010 Oct 16, 1:57am  

Don't put too much faith in Zillow. At the very best, it is nothing more than a general market information tool. Keep in mind Zillow doesn’t take into account condition, quality of construction, location, improvements, etc. of "similar" properties. It is extremely inaccurate in my opinion. Also, it is not unusual for public records to contain errors ... I've run across this on too many occasions to number. I once bought an investment property and the county recorded the sale price in the computer system 40% higher than the amount I actually paid. Yet when I paid the transfer tax it was for the correct amount. Go figure. The point is this; Zillow gets its generalized information from the same source. All points considered it is not a an accurate source of information.

5   elliemae   2010 Oct 16, 1:53pm  

If you really want to, check with the property assessor in your county. They can tell you if there was any action on your property. it's always possible that someone screwed you in some way...

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