Zillow's Zestimates Are Not the Gospel!!! (for sale, real estate market, houses)

[patriot201]

Does that $40/sq ft depend on the area in which you live? For example, is it $40/sq ft if you live in McLean OR if you live in Dumfries?

[Ashley Tauzier]

So you run comps for the particular subdivision first. Then get total sq ft of comparable and of the subject property. I use $40 as a basis to start with in all neighborhoods because you are adjusting the sales price of similar homes in the same location. Does that make sense? There are several other adjustments Realtors and/or appraisers use to come up with there final CMA or appraised value.

[lqda4]

Originally Posted by TheWatchmen

Huh. Haven't checked Zillow in a while. I just checked on my house, and my neighbor's house.

My neighbor edited the facts of his home since that last I checked maybe a year ago, and now his "zestimate" reads more than $150,000 more than my home. His basement is more finished than ours, but our homes are nearly the same. The were built by the same builder, same year, and have the same footprint. His has one more bathroom than ours, but that is the only real difference between our homes.

There is just no way that having 500 more finished square feet and a bathroom adds up to $150k, particularly in this neighborhood. I really hope that a true home appraisal wouldn't count below-grade finished square footage as the same as above grade.

His home facts say that he has 3500 square feet, but 1/3 of that is his basement. None of our basement square footage, finished or unfinished, is included in our home facts.

Unless you are selling, why would you care what some online websites say about your house? In fact, I'd rather alter the info to throw off prying eyes. My house value has just dropped $300k in value overnight, lol.

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by stan4

They have been off consistently by hundreds of thousands in our area.
Hundreds of thousands.
Which makes them worthless.
You could do better walking by and just guessing.

I would be curious if the real range of sales is in their Zestimate range? Because while I do not find their Zestimate to be great I do feel that a large percentage of sales fall within that Zestimate range.

Originally Posted by lqda4

Unless you are selling, why would you care what some online websites say about your house? In fact, I'd rather alter the info to throw off prying eyes. My house value has just dropped $300k in value overnight, lol.

I like to look at mine to see how values in my area are doing. So I know what my Zestimate was when I purchased my house and now I just check on it every couple of weeks to see if values in my area are going up or down. I like to know this.

[gomason]

I think the biggest problem with Zillow is that they do not know if someone has finished their basement or not, so obviously they're going to be way off if you have a basement they don't know about. That has been true for both of my parents' homes.

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by gomason

I think the biggest problem with Zillow is that they do not know if someone has finished their basement or not, so obviously they're going to be way off if you have a basement they don't know about. That has been true for both of my parents' homes.

It is an algorithm and does not take many things into account. Zestimate and comps are a good place to start when you are thinking about selling or buying. When you get serious though you should get an agent. My agent figured out within about an hour how much my last home sold for and I think she was spot on. I had her list it for more but the offer I accepted was where she recommended we start.

Now I am sure that there will be horror stories as well but you have to shop for agents and not just grab the first one you see.

[FCNova]

Originally Posted by Ashley Tauzier

So you run comps for the particular subdivision first. Then get total sq ft of comparable and of the subject property. I use $40 as a basis to start with in all neighborhoods because you are adjusting the sales price of similar homes in the same location. Does that make sense? There are several other adjustments Realtors and/or appraisers use to come up with there final CMA or appraised value.

Maybe you use a proper $ per sq foot based on neighborhood, which is great but a lot of appraisers unfortunately don't. I'm in a fairly large townhouse near Tysons but there are a lot of smaller ones near us. A refi I did a couple years ago they pulled 5 comps, 3 were similar size and 2 were much smaller. They used $25/sq foot to adjust for the differences, even though real estate in my area sells for ~$300/sq foot. So the adjustment for the smaller ones was like +6,500, when there's actually a price difference of like 50-60k between ours and the smaller townhouses. Needless to say it significantly hurt our appraisal value. I questioned it and my mortgage broker said it was standard practice to adjust like that, which I thought was ridiculous.

[jtees4]

I think Zillow and other sites are great for general info. Of course I don't use their numbers for anything other than estimates. No one is going to do all the homework necessary to buy a house for you unless you are paying them. Google maps got out of the game, I used to like their real estate listings the best, but as they got tired and knew they were going to get rid of it, they basically stopped updating and it became totally unreliable. I'm really surprised Google has not bought another service to integrate into their maps.

[TheWatchmen]

Originally Posted by lqda4

Unless you are selling, why would you care what some online websites say about your house? In fact, I'd rather alter the info to throw off prying eyes. My house value has just dropped $300k in value overnight, lol.

I don't care personally, but I think that other people take "zestimates" seriously, and it is more than a little disconcerting that my neighbor's nearly identical house (and lot) has a zestimate of more than $150,000 more than my house, when that value has almost zero basis in reality. There is zero chance that my neighbor's house would sell for anything near the zestimate.

I have no plans to create a zillow account to edit our home facts now, but at some point I will.

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by TheWatchmen

I don't care personally, but I think that other people take "zestimates" seriously, and it is more than a little disconcerting that my neighbor's nearly identical house (and lot) has a zestimate of more than $150,000 more than my house, when that value has almost zero basis in reality. There is zero chance that my neighbor's house would sell for anything near the zestimate.

I have no plans to create a zillow account to edit our home facts now, but at some point I will.

Why do you care so much about the neighbors? If both houses went on the market at the same time and were very similar I am sure that very few people would pay $150,000 more for a house if they did not think it was worth it.

Zillow is a good starting point but there are literally thousands of homes I would buy if I could get them for their Zestimate. Once you get to the offer stage the Zestimate is moot. If you are trying to sell and someone mentions the Zestimate unless it is in your favor your real estate agent, and probably theirs before this, is going to mention how inaccurate Zestimates are and they have no real value. You will still get the offer because I do not think that your real estate agent has to give it to you, but you do not have to accept it or even respond to it.

When you put your home on the market the best thing to do is to put it on the market for a fair value. I think studies show that homes placed on the market for the fair value sell quicker and for more money than those that are put on the market over valued. I may be wrong but I am sure someone more knowledgeable will clarify.