How accurate is Zillow in predicting your home value? (Dallas: sales, rentals)

[bigdaddycool1111]

I read somewhere that the accuracy of Zillow price predictions depend on the geographical area and in places like Texas where there is limited volatility, it should do good. When I bought my current house 3 years ago, Zillow was spot on in predicting the price (within 1k of the appraisal value). How do you guys feel about Zillow's accuracy of predicting home values?

[MckinneyOwnr]

Here we go again... I think most individuals here will say that Zillow is pretty accurate, except for the realtors on here. They seem to think that only they can estimate the value of a home.

For me personally, my zestimate was 5k under what a realtor said she would list our home for. That's about a 1% margin of error.

[GreyDay]

Horribly inaccurate, especially in non-disclosure states.

[TurtleCreek80]

Seems to depend on the area, but overall I think they're crap. Zillow depends on tax appraised values too much in the Dallas area, IMO, and even though they're catching up to market value, they're still considerably off the mark. The numer of off-market sales and cash sales (no mortgage info which is public record) is also messing with Zillow's algorithms.

Take our house for example. We bought off-market last summer. It was the 2nd or 3rd private transaction for this house so tax values have been out of whack (under) for 10+ years. We also put down more than 20% so even using the mortgage loan value (public record) yields a lower value than reality....our latest DCAD value clearly assumed we took an 80% loan....

It's currently valued on Zillow for 20% less than we paid last summer and 30% less than it would sell for today (using 2 recent sales on our block of similar age & condition homes). The values on the two recent sold homes are about 25% less than sales price...and these homes were hot commodities- one had 30+ showings the first weekend and a full-price cash offer. The other was a hip pocket sale.

It seems the newer suburb people on the forum have closer market value to Zillow value. Not sure why that would be....

[MurphyPl1]

Zillow in Texas is a joke. (Oh and I'm *not* a realtor)

[frenzyrider]

Zillow is very off... My house is estimated double of what I paid for. Also, I am in a newer suburb (frisco) so I think zillow estimate is crap overall..

[nsumner]

One of my rentals has a zestimate of about 80K more than what I can sell it for today, another one within a few, so it's a huge gamble.

You have to understand that zillow uses data from public records such as appraisal district which doesn't reflect the sales price. TX is a non disclosure state so sales prices are not public, only loan amounts are. Some agents are putting the sales price on Zillow (not sure they have the owners permission) but I see a shift in the zestimate now.

Bottom line, I really think it's on a case by case basis but I certainly wouldnt price a home based on the Zestimate.

Naima

[Ohky0815]

Mine was way off. Said it was 2 bdrm when its 3 and said it was worth 78k when I got it for 28k less.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by bigdaddycool1111

I read somewhere that the accuracy of Zillow price predictions depend on the geographical area and in places like Texas where there is limited volatility, it should do good. When I bought my current house 3 years ago, Zillow was spot on in predicting the price (within 1k of the appraisal value). How do you guys feel about Zillow's accuracy of predicting home values?

Funny to see this tonight. Today I looked up Zillow on our lake place, and let me say, we should be selling! Wrong. Just so wrong. In our case, Zillow had us priced way over value. Haven't looked at the Dallas home in a while but should check it out.

[Johnhw2]

I find the zillow prediction of value to be a good deal. It is worth more than what I pay for it....