Zillow and Mecklenburg County House Estimates - Who would you trust more?

[Jeepchic]

My home's value changes weekly on Zillow. It's so sad, it's hilarious. Plus I don't think Zillow takes into account internal upgrades. I believe their so-secret-but-so-elaborate computations equal no more than throwing darts at a google map and picking numbers from a bingo machine.

[cagman]

Zillow has values on almost every home in the country, how accurate do you think they are really going to be? Has anyone from zillow knocked on your door to look at your house? They are a tool to use, nothing more.

As an appraiser, i've done many appraisals and then checked with zillow. They've been right on my value many times and off by hundreds of thousands of dollars other times. And it's not always correct on homes in large subdivisions, where you'd think values would be easier to come by. I've appraised homes for $200k in large subd (like highland creek) where zillow has them off by $75k or more, in both directions.

Just appraised a home in myers park for 1.55M, zillow had it at 1.1M, tax record was $1.9M. Who's right? I'd like to think I am, but until it's time to sell, in this market, who knows?

If you are making a life decision like switching jobs in which we're talking about tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars along with potential loss in home value, it's worth the investment to hire an appraiser.

If you live in a neighborhood with similar homes, go around and pull listing flyers from houses, then take the lowest listing and take another 5% off of it, at least. That would but you in a better ballpark than zillow.