How Accurate are Zillow Rent Zestimates? (sales, rentals, houses)

[aggiegirl92]

So, we've been in the area for 7 weeks and are still in search of a rental home. (We LOVE it here!) Had to wait until my husband secured a job in addition to mine before we started looking. I have found 2 homes recently that I like, but I think the rental rates asked are a bit high. I have 3 co-workers that live in one of the neighborhoods and 2 out of the 3 of them rent. So, this one not only is $150 more than they pay, but it is $200 over the Zestimate. The other is $175 above the Zestimate. Should I make a counter-offer on either of them to get the rent down a little bit more or is there generally no success with that?

[Zippyman]

If these properties are on the MLS, it's pretty simple to run "comps" from the same subdivision to see if the rent is similar.

As for Zillow's accuracy, no one from Zillow has ever seen any of the comps or the subject property.

I recently played around with the "home facts" for one of my homes and got zillow to come up $47k (on a $70k property) - the rent guess went up by $300.

Garbage in, garbage out.

[AZgarden]

I think Zillow is notoriously inaccurate, whether it be sales or rentals.

[pandaundercover]

Yea, zillow confuses me, too, most of the time, and can't be too accurate. I use it as a minimal baseline of my homes value, although it would likely be valued at nearly $20-30k more. Our neighbors home is selling for $154k, and zillow estimates it at only $126k. Granted, by the time our neighbors finally accept an offer, it'll probably sell for the mid 140s, but that's still considerable higher than what zillow is assuming.

I do see mixed reviews in our neighborhood though; some houses with the exact layout as ours, and nothing special in them are selling for the high 120s, which another one of the same layout, and again, nothing special, but is like 1/2 mile down the road, is attempting a sell in the 150s. Honestly, I'm starting to think, these days, owners are listing their homes at what they WANT to list them at; hoping that since there is low inventory, desperate buyers will cough up the high price. Yet, not all buyers are biting at those homes, as they can be on the market for months. If you list it more reasonably, it'll sell fast, and you'll still likely sell it above what the minimal value is.

That's my perspective. But overall, I wouldn't count on zillow as being the most accurate tool. Someone once referred me to try out redfin. I'd recommend you give that a shot.