How accurate is Zillow??

[pghquest]

Originally Posted by capecodcathy

I always check Zillow when I'm doing a CMA because I know the Seller is the doing the same. I get a chuckle every time, but it's nice knowing in advance what information the Seller is getting.
Example, I comp'd a 4 bed, 2 bath home. Zillow had it at $575K. What they don't have access to is the 40 year old avacado shag carpeting and faux walnut panelling, throughout. One bathroom is a lovely shade of Harvest Gold, the other is neutral but has tiles falling out of the shower, holes covered with plastic. The kitchen needs to be gutted. They also don't know that in severe rain, the basement and lot floods, the electrical needs updating, the proximity to wetlands pretty much negates any significant expansion. While it has a new septic system, it's a very expensive one for maintenance due to the water table. The town just reassessed it at $422K. Still a chuckle.
When I showed them what a potential Buyer could purchase for $422-$575K they had to admit that their house was worth significantly less.
I felt like saying "don't shoot the messenger". I feel bad for people who get their hopes up based on a "zestimate" and I and others have to bring them back to reality.

Right, I'm closing on a home later this month, Zillow has the value at $290,000, which is odd considering that the neighbors are at $135K.. Ok, I'll admit, the home is 2 1/2 times the size of the neighbors, but zillow doesnt see that the bathrooms have shower stalls with holes in them, tubs sitting in the middle of the room, the whole house needs carpeting and new flooring, the roof leaks, and probably needs replaced, and does not see my sales agreement, with a $13,200 seller credit just to get me to take the property off their hands to cure them of the number of code violations that exist..

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by agreatlife

But the bigger question is WHY would you want to do that? Whey should we help Zillow? They don't do anything to help anybody, just want you to give them free information, and the spit back junk. Unless every homeowner updates them continuously, I don't see Zillow ever becoming anything more than the joke it is now.

Zillow frequently has expired homes showing as for sale, which also hurts sellers, then when called on it, they claim not their fault, and they do nothing. They have very wild zestimates, they don't respond to complaints, but they are more than happy for you to give them more information. No thanks.

My house is for sale. Buyers are going to Zillow and getting information that is not correct, which IMO is probably hurting my sale especially since a handy mans special across the street is "Zestimated" for more then mine. Buyers don't know Zillow isn't correct.

Originally Posted by pghquest

Right, I'm closing on a home later this month, Zillow has the value at $290,000, which is odd considering that the neighbors are at $135K.. Ok, I'll admit, the home is 2 1/2 times the size of the neighbors, but zillow doesnt see that the bathrooms have shower stalls with holes in them, tubs sitting in the middle of the room, the whole house needs carpeting and new flooring, the roof leaks, and probably needs replaced, and does not see my sales agreement, with a $13,200 seller credit just to get me to take the property off their hands to cure them of the number of code violations that exist..

Exactly what my problem is too. Another house across hat sold next year couldn't be moved into for 6 months, yet that was "Zestimated" for more then my house.

[dj32]

ok- lets talk about Zillow again. I go on the site just for fun, to see how my home value changes. It changes often as I live in an established, city neighborhood of 400K scrapes next to 1.2M properties. So, there are huge price differences. I was on Zillow last night and looked at the sold comparables- this is a huge plus of this site, it seems to pull comps from public records pretty quickly. Well, a couple of comparables in the next block over looked REALLY low- like sold prices that I've never seen recently based in normal comps. One was REALLY off (Like 500K from a list price I'd seen on teh property). So I went to public records and wouldn't you know it- the price they had as sold was 269 and the property sold for 717. So not only is zillow inaccurate on comps in general here (which I knew) but the information on many listings is completly false. So no, as a buyer do your research in public records if you truly want comps!

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by dj32

ok- lets talk about Zillow again. So not only is zillow inaccurate on comps in general here (which I knew) but the information on many listings is completly false. So no, as a buyer do your research in public records if you truly want comps!

But how do you get buyers to realize Zillow is wrong?
There are articles about how great Zillow is, people don't realize to use it as a tool

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by Roselvr

But how do you get buyers to realize Zillow is wrong?
There are articles about how great Zillow is, people don't realize to use it as a tool

Jon Stewart worries that some people mistake The Daily Show for actual news reporting.
I have heard people call The Enquirer, The Star, etc, "Newspapers."

That level of gullibility does make it necessary to offset Zillow with factual data. "I wonder how they arrived at that, when there is no data to support it?"

[ibeg4sushi]

Good thread!

[Roselvr]

Originally Posted by MikeJaquish

That level of gullibility does make it necessary to offset Zillow with factual data. "I wonder how they arrived at that, when there is no data to support it?"

I think that for one agents might think to tell their buyers / sellers, then we can tell 2 friends & so on