Jim Duncan at Real Central VA blog asks a very interesting question in his post What if – Zillow is right?
I couldn’t agree more with his assessment. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter if Zillow’s results are accurate. That’s not the point. For most people, close enough is good enough.
Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report recently coined a term “wikiality” to describe the state when enough people reach a consensus about a subject, it in fact then becomes reality…
I believe Zillow is doing just this. By spreading its Zestimates through as many mediums as possible, it’s in essence creating it’s own ‘Wikiality’. If enough people believe their Zestimate to be true (consumers, journalists, realtors, whomever) – then reality really can be altered. It just shows how maleable the wisdom of the crowds really is.
(And no, I’m not the nutjob from Oregon referred to in the video…)