Is Zillow irrelevant? (housing, prices, properties, rental)

[TimtheGuy]

Originally Posted by Surbiton

With so few posts about Zillow on a Real Estate forum it begs the question if it serves any purpose? Maybe there would be more interest if they posted accurate information instead of their useless zestimates?

I use it to find recent sales in an area. It is my version of a 'comp check' since I don't have MLS access.

I don't use it for zestimates or market trends.

[hueyeats]

Is Zillow irrelevant???

No. Because even after buying my property, I still use Zillow for research purposes, looking at market trends, monitoring my "surrounding" areas for "if" any available homes & price it go for & such.
I don't frown at *free* info, which may or may not be correct (are all media that truthful & fair nowadays?? Same principle, if anyone else don't complain about the news... why should they nick pick something else???).... to me, it is a quick fingertip overall "news" that I just like to read about.

[Brandon Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Bideshi

Is Realtor.com more accurate?

Yes.

[suzsaz]

Zillow is a piece of garbage through and through.

[TimtheGuy]

Originally Posted by suzsaz

Zillow is a piece of garbage through and through.

Are the recent sales it shows in your area not accurate?

[southbel]

Zillow has been pretty accurate for our area. I believe, for our area, they pull from the county records that does disclose the sold price. Sure, I can go and look it up myself in the county records but Zillow makes that a bit quicker. Guess it all depends upon where you live.

[GoPhils]

The Zestimates are pretty useless, but Zillow as a whole is not. From what I've seen the info about recent sales, links to tax records, etc. are pretty helpful. There was even a house I looked at which on Zillow showed the driveway as going over the lot line, so I said to my realtor "Hey, I know Zillow isn't always accurate but it looks kinda like part of the driveway is actually on the neighbor's property." Low and behold, it was.

[manderly6]

Originally Posted by GoPhils

The Zestimates are pretty useless, but Zillow as a whole is not. From what I've seen the info about recent sales, links to tax records, etc. are pretty helpful.

My thoughts exactly.

[Gatornation]

Originally Posted by GoPhils

The Zestimates are pretty useless, but Zillow as a whole is not. From what I've seen the info about recent sales, links to tax records, etc. are pretty helpful. There was even a house I looked at which on Zillow showed the driveway as going over the lot line, so I said to my realtor "Hey, I know Zillow isn't always accurate but it looks kinda like part of the driveway is actually on the neighbor's property." Low and behold, it was.

It's a very helpful site overall.

[Hobokenkitchen]

The zesstimates are worse than useless.
Apparently our house is worth close to half its market value and the rent 'zesstimate' is less than half the rent we get.

The new house we are looking at has a 'zesstimate' far above it's market value.

I find this so annoying on both ends of the scale, but obviously being dramatically undervalued is worse. In the city it compares the property to ones that are close'ish, but in completely different neighborhoods with value differences of several hundred thousand.

I guess it might be more useful in a suburban area?