How accurate is Zillow.com? (sales, price, property tax, value)

[bls5555]

Just wondering about the estimates they give. I typed in my parents address and it seemed to be pretty dead on. I type in my address and I think the estimate they give me is about $30,000 to high. Now it would be nice if it was correct but I don't think it is.

Anyone have experience with zilllow.com and there estimates?

[Mike Peterson]

Zillow can be way off both too high and too low.

As far as your parents home estimate being on target, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then.

[brookdaleresident]

In my experience, not very accurate, and not very current.

[TexasHorseLady]

Zillow is a nice game. However, their zestimates are off, in my experience, more often than not, by tens of thousands (up to $100,000 in some cases I know of).

[Bridget]

my address is off by over 100,000. It is a fun site but I wouldn't go off of it for the actual value of your home.

[evilnewbie]

I think Zillow makes best with what they have and its not too bad. My parents house was actually worth 100k more than what Zillow said and I know why they made a mistake and its not their fault. Its overall pretty good to have some idea and they give a good ballpark figure if the assumptions are correct which they are "most" of the time..

[TexasHorseLady]

Define "most". As an agent, I've checked them many times with properties that I have the real info on, and I've found them to be close precisely once. And that's even with the owners in some cases providing some more information than they have regular access to here.

[evilnewbie]

Well, "most" is what I mean by +/- 10% of what realtor.com says and what zillow says. It may vary to what area you are looking at but I look at houses typically 500k and higher. Again this is just "ballpark" figures and I recommend an apprasial before selling or buying but at least it gives you some idea if a house is completely unrealistically priced.. I have seen those too... and I back it with the county valuation of the property as well (i.e. the property tax man)...

[TexasHorseLady]

The tax man is often off as much as Zillow, FWIW, because tax valuations are, of necessity, behind the curve, being based on sales the year before. They can be high or low, and one of the things I do when preparing a CMA on a property is to look at how much over, or under, the current tax valuation houses in that neighborhood are selling for (not listed for, but solds within the past six months - these days, 90 days) - I've yet to find the tax valuation close to the mark on market value.

Given that Zillow bases their zestimate on publicly available records, and a lot of that is the tax valuation, it's not surprising they'd be off in a similar amount on more than a few occasions.

[middle-aged mom]

Zillow is off on my house by $100K and it's in my favor.

It's a financial model based upon statistics. No model knows what's inside the house, or not. Zillow also does not distingusih for better or worse locations.