Love them or hate them, property search portals are a major component of the consumer search experience. That's why from now through the end of the year, we're taking a side-by-side look at what each portal offers so that brokers can make a more informed decision about which sites to partner with.

In our last article, we explored the importance of frequent listing updates and looked at how often each of the three major portals updates their data. Today, we're shifting our focus to how each portal protects the data and integrity of your brand in three key areas:

• Use of AVMs
• Re-syndication or sub-licensing of data
• Inclusion of FSBO listings

1. Use of Automated Valuation Model (AVMs)

An AVM is a mathematical property valuation that requires no human input. Property search portals often display them next to listings to give consumers a ballpark idea of what a home is worth. Zillow's Zestimate is perhaps the most well-known - and controversial - AVM on the market today.

What makes portal AVMs a point of contention among real estate professionals is their accuracy, or lack thereof. As our own Victor Lund recently stated, AVMs offer "fuzzy truths" that can be either very close to a property's correct value or wildly off-base. Thanks to portal AVMs, agents and brokers are no strangers to conversations with sellers who think their home is worth far more than it actually is, e.g. "But Zillow says my home is worth..." Similar conversations happen with buyers who think the property they're interested in is overvalued simply because a portal's AVM told them so.