Zillow is total BS when it comes to property values, right? (Plano: sales, real estate)

[Ac82]

It went up a lot for us too. But the zestimates here in mcKinney are pretty close to market value - at least for our village of stonebridge. I still see asking prices and then the zestimate and they are fairly close. I was shocked though that my house's zestimate went up 15K over the last few weeks. Sounds too good to be true

[MckinneyOwnr]

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

It does matter that Texas is a non-disclosure state because they can't see what is going no with the actual sales price. Yes, homes might sell fairly close to their asking price as a sales price, but what is included in that sales price? How many thousands of dollars is the seller contributing back to the buyer to finance their closing costs? $2000? $5000? 6% because it's an FHA loan and allowed? That definitely affects values as you need to be able to see the net number of the actual sale, not the inflated number for the buyer to finance.

No, it doesn't matter. For a $300k home, that $2000 that you mention for closing costs is .67%. Even if it were $5000 in closing costs, guess what? That's only 1.67% of the value, and that is VERY accurate to be that close. Couple that with a selling price that is 97-98% of the list price, which is typical for North Texas, and you're off by only 3-4% of the original selling price.

I repeat, it doesn't matter.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by tracenat

Our house went up by 43k in the past 30 days according to Zillow. That'd be nice but yeah, I don't think so, even for a pretty desirable neighborhood.

According to Zillow mine has gone up over 75k in the last 30 days! Last time I checked one of these sites, I don't recall if it was Zillow, they had me underpriced by about $175,000.

[mSooner]

Same with us, we went up about 25K in the last 30 days. I wonder if they just did a big update after all the spring/summer sales that have been going on. The original zestimate is what we bought it for, so that was obviously spot on, and the new zestimate is in the range of what similar homes are going for now.

Now a friend's house in Grapevine went from 250K to 325K in the same time period. That makes me a little more skeptical.

My parent's home in Flower Mound also is a off too. And they are listed as having a pool, which they do not.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by mSooner

Same with us, we went up about 25K in the last 30 days. I wonder if they just did a big update after all the spring/summer sales that have been going on. The original zestimate is what we bought it for, so that was obviously spot on, and the new zestimate is in the range of what similar homes are going for now.

Now a friend's house in Grapevine went from 250K to 325K in the same time period. That makes me a little more skeptical.

My parent's home in Flower Mound also is a off too. And they are listed as having a pool, which they do not.

Uh huh. Attic was listed as "unknown" on mine. I'm pretty sure every house in this neighborhood has an attic.

[TowerGuy]

Wow! The timing of this thread is kind of funny. I just discovered Zillow 3 weeks ago when I Googled my address and Zillow was the first option. As to the question that initiated this thread, I asked myself the same. The numbers seemed way too good to be true. Then, I asked a family friend who happens to be a realtor. She looked into our address and her numbers CONFIRMED Zillow's as regards to our address!! $$$$$$$$!!!!! However, we also had her look into my grandfather's neighborhood. Zillow's numbers were also very excellent for his but when our friend got back to us, sure enough, Zillow had over "zestimated" his house by $75,000. So, don't dismiss Zillow right away. Look your house up, take it with cautious optimism, then get someone to look into it. It may very well be accurate.

[nsumner]

If Zillow's figures were accurate, then appraisers would be out of a job. They use tax records and public data (loan amount) and sometimes the sellers or Realtors post on the site how much the homes sold for to compute the zestimate.

Zillow also gets bombarded daily by homeowners showing the value of their homes to be too low but rarely complain if it's too high. My own fluctuates between up and down 60K and 150K monthly.

It's a great website with a lot of cool features and resources and forum but as far as values, they're pretty off. They don't know the condition nor the upgrades

Naima

[hal2814]

My house is currently "Zestimated" on Zillow at $200,000. My neighbor 4 doors down has almost exactly the same house (same size, condition, layout, lot size, etc) and it's "Zestimated" at $153,000. I'd say Zillow is full of it in our case. Sure sometimes Zillow can nail an estimate but twice per day a broken clock can give the right time. Zillow is accurate right up until it isn't and there's not a definitive way to tell the difference.

[TheOverdog]

"Zestimated" on Zillow at $200,000. My neighbor 4 doors down has almost exactly the same house (same size, condition, layout, lot size, etc) and it's "Zestimated" at $153,000.

Zillow doesn't actually 'appraise' the prices of houses though, and they admit as much on their website. They simply take the last listed price and then compare sales in the area to determine an overall up or down multiplier for the neighborhood or area, and then apply the multiplier to the area based on price per sq ft.

If your prices are that far off, I'd say its because your neighbor's house was something like a recent foreclosure or short sale, so it had a much different starting price.

My neighborhood was recently pushed way up because our neighbor's house was sold as foreclosure listed at $130k and now they are listing it at $184k. That listing price pushed our zestimate up by a similar percent gain, to roughly maintain the same price differential per sq ft.

[MckinneyOwnr]

Originally Posted by nsumner

If Zillow's figures were accurate, then appraisers would be out of a job.

It's a great website with a lot of cool features and resources and forum but as far as values, they're pretty off. They don't know the condition nor the upgrades

Naima

Yes, we all know appraisers would NEVER inflate values of a home beyond what a reasonable market value should be. Have you forgotten the 2007-2008 housing crash already???