Belt Auction

Question for real estate pros about www.zillow.com?

For anybody familiar with the real estate industry. Can you please tell me, how accurate is the prices shown on www.zillow.com? I know they are only values for tax assesment, and they might not be up to date. But I would like to know how close are the prices to the actual sale price of the houses. Thank you. I feel bad that my question is of a type where the main answer is "compiled" from more than one individual answer, and I'll have to choose a Best Answer, but it's going to be mainly arbitrary.

Public Comments

1. it might have been accurate but things are going to change fast in real estate i wouldnt count on zillow in the next 2 years
2. Zillow can be okay resource to use. If you search how to use Zillow there is a page that tells how accurate their site is compared to the actual selling price and the margin of error for that state. They also use "stars" to rate their accuracy. Unless you have all the stars I would not recommend it, especially if they only have 1 or 2 stars. Your best bet is to check your local courthouse records. it is free and you can see how much any home is worth and what the current owner paid for it, when they bought it, etc..you can search by owner or address. That is the way to go if you want to be anonymous. it is amazing how much every house is different. Depending on how bad someone wants a house some people will pay thousand more than the house is even worth. Others sell thousands less than what it is worth just because the owners are desperate.
3. I compared the prices on zillow.com with some appraisals. (I work in the Real Estate Dept of a local Credit Union). I was surprised at how accurate it was. It was a tad high but only by a few thousand.
4. Zillow is pretty good, only off by a few thousand. A local Realtor can get you some information about how much a particular house or several houses are worth in the area.
5. I've answered this before; it is unreliable. I checked my personal home against their valuations. Mine was $250,000, Zillow's valuation was $460,000. It fails to take into account differences in the areas and other significant criteria to properly evaluate your property- they have never seen it to know the differences. Tax records are a poor valuation method as the tax assessor is an elected official in most communities and wants to get re-elected so usually are lower than market value. They also rely on "permits" to tell them of home improvements or additions, many never are pulled, are illegally done and therefore not "taxed" improvements. So if the tax man knows not how will Zillow? Can't!! If you really need an idea call a real estate firm and ask for the manager. Find out their top agent and have that agent give you their broker market price opinion of your home- it is free. They sell a lot or real estate and will have a better feel for your home than Zillow ever will be capable of- unless they too do the foot work. Don't hold your breath.
6. Around here, it has consistently been too high. Anybody listing for their 'zestimate' has had their house sit for months without any real offers. Most other places say the same thing - tell the sellers what they want to hear and they'll believe you. I have gotten feedback from realtors other places where they are too low. In short, neither accurate nor precise, to use standard scientific terms for quality of measurement.
7. All zillow does is search public records for closed sales surrounding the home and compares those sales based on gross living area and applies that square footage amount to the size of the subject property. Zillow does not, and can not take into consideration, condition, quality of construction, amenities, features, site size and most importantly location. One property may only be across the street but it might be in a highly desirable neighborhood or school district. In addition Zillow does not factor market conditions - is the market a buyers or sellers market, what type of concessions if any were paid by the seller. Some people mentioned that zillow is only off by a few thousand dollars. Well to low income buyers/owners a few thousand dollars is a big difference. As far as custom homes I've seen differences from $25,000 to $200,000 +++. I would have to say that Zillow is more for entertainment purposes than a reliable tool.
8. Let me give you two examples of how Zillows values compared to real values....I sold two homes recently.....One I listed for $155k and sold it for that amount....The county tax assement was for $105k.....Four months after the sale of the home, I checked with Zillows and that home was showing for $135K....It was off by $20k! So you do the math.... The second home sold for $239k and the county had it valued at $132K....I checked Zillow and it had if for $178K, that is a difference of $61k.....In my city, the values are quite a bit off....So just becareful in putting too much faith in Zillows or your local county tax values! Good luck...