For our RE friends...how much faith can you put in Zillow? (Levittown: comparable sales, for sale)

[alexei27]

My "Zestimate" has increased almost 25% in the past 6 months, with no comparable sales to justify it. It seems like total garbage.

Are they unreliable across the board on LI?

Are they at least wrong in a consistent direction (generally high, generally low?)

[Elke Mariotti]

Originally Posted by alexei27

My "Zestimate" has increased almost 25% in the past 6 months, with no comparable sales to justify it. It seems like total garbage.

Are they unreliable across the board on LI?

Are they at least wrong in a consistent direction (generally high, generally low?)

Based on my experience, you can take a dart board, close your eyes, and throw the darts.

Occasionally you get lucky

I have not seen any consistency in their erroneous zestimates (always higher or always lower).

And you're correct, unfortunately your area has NOT increased 25% over the past six months

[mgt04]

Zestimates are crap in my opinion

[OhBeeHave]

My Zestimate is over $100K lower than comparable homes in my neighborhood.

[2011littlehouse]

I can see how a homeowner can be upset with a grossly inaccurate value displayed for public viewing, and if the house is for sale, surely affecting initial perception and interest.

As a user, I think Zillow probably best captured the features that appeal most to buyers searching for information - it is a sight with best ideas, IMO, and straightforward visualization. I think most complaints I read here are about the accuracy of data, esp. in regions where there are not many sales or regions of the country where sales info is not publicly available.

I think, the realtor business people who manage internet sites should look to borrow ideas from Zillow in terms of user interface, and then employ more stringent criteria in the data accuracy. Among the features I like and have not seen in other sites, are: the trend curves for price over 10years - of a property and a region (yes, I understand that is mostly model-generated data); the simultaneous display of property values when you zoom on a block of houses - gives an instant perception of homogeneity, gradients etc; the history of listings and sales (many other sites tend to be sneaky by erasing prior listings/list prices).

I like using multiple sites to get more accurate picture. I like redfin. For the immediate area, I would say that the zestimates of the houses that undergo sales are actually not that off at all. In my experience they are better guesses than what "eppraisal" says - the only other free, readily listed price estimate I see. There may be more professional paid sites, but as free ones, I say zestimates trump eppraisals.
I think the biggest difficulty is to differentiate between substantially renovated and not renovated house of the same type, same location. It seems it's hard to capture this, unless the renovated house has been re-appraised and the information has been made available to the database.

Overall, I am very utilitarian and not loyal to any site in this - I am trying to apply my own filters. Best is seeing in person, and knowing the region, talking to people who know teh region (like here)...

[rh71]

I only use it as yet another source of info, but I've found that the zestimate is "close enough". Not sure if it's because they use a recently sold number. Based on the 2 I've been involved with, they are now about $15k-$20k below, which is about right with the recent drop in prices. At any rate, they claim it's just a "starting point" and there may be things unique to the home not considered (they can't know everything). http://www.zillow.com/wikipages/What-is-a-Zestimate/ After all, comps are based on other comps / going-rates, rather than any actual formula.

I recently found propertyshark.com where you can even find out an owner's previous address or if they had co-signers and their full names. Only 4 searches per acct per day though. Had to use it when I filled out a radius map for a variance application - needed all my neighbors' names.

[mongoose65]

Originally Posted by rh71

I only use it as yet another source of info, but I've found that the zestimate is "close enough". Not sure if it's because they use a recently sold number. Based on the 2 I've been involved with, they are now about $15k-$20k below, which is about right with the recent drop in prices. At any rate, they claim it's just a "starting point" and there may be things unique to the home not considered (they can't know everything). What is a Zestimate? - Zillow Advice After all, comps are based on other comps / going-rates, rather than any actual formula.

I recently found propertyshark.com where you can even find out an owner's previous address or if they had co-signers and their full names. Only 4 searches per acct per day though. Had to use it when I filled out a radius map for a variance application - needed all my neighbors' names.

Agreed. Zillow cannot take into account any interior updates or improvements. We have friends who sold in Island Trees. Gorgeous updates, absolute move in condition. They listed for $449k, sold in less than 30 days for $430k. Zillow had zestimated at $385k which was completely absurd. New condition, massive yard (like none I've ever seen in Levittown) and fairly decent taxes (Island Trees better than Levittown).

[nyliguy]

While zestimate is an estimate on a specific property that from what I get on these forums, is very inaccurate. Would one be better off using RedFIN to look at neighborhods of interest and get a feel for condition of homes and reviewing the "homes sold for price" section to get a understanding of what homes are going for in that particular area?

Often many neighborhods have such a wide range of home types, condition that the numbers are often skewed.

Not sure what the right method would be for a home buyer today. I'd be afraid Real Estate agents and banks pushing buyers to bite off more than they can afford, just so the agent can sell for higher price and the bank gets you in slavery for every % of income they can get under their guidelines.

[Arkham1010]

Zillow is garbage if you ask me. I checked just now and my house is valued about 75K less than the professional appraiser who came in last week gave it as.

[Jackie78]

Zillow is ridiculous.....our "zestimate has been dropping since we bought our house, which believe me...I'm sure our house has dropped. But zillow has us down to $318,000 and the house three houses down is $500,00!.......LOL!!! Oh and the house across the street zillow has the zestimate at $340,000 and they are the only house on the block with no basement

The site just makes no sense