What do you think of those websites...

[Brandon Hoffman]

Just do a search for any of the many zillow posts on here and you'll get plenty of feedback.

[bburl100]

Originally Posted by librarySue

What do you think of those websites that claim to be able to tell you what your home is worth based on your local market? I won't name names...but I get an email from one periodically telling me that my house is worth 2K more this month, etc.

Do you find they are at all accurate? In fact, I would LOVE it if I could sell it for what they estimate, but I'm skeptical.

When my realtor comes in Feb to do my market analysis, will he laugh at the number on that website? Roll his eyes at me for even thinking it could be correct?

I bought my home as a FSBO and I was content with the agreed upon price. According to this website, the value has gone up 15K since I bought it (of course they can't see my shabby hardwood floors but I have made other improvements)

My sis-in-law and I used to joke about how inaccurate Zillow was. Then I started following the company to learn why. I used them when selling my home last year to find out how inaccurate they were (rumors were they would be 20% higher or lower than the market would allow). They were... And, of course, an agent would say he/she can pull better comps. Sorry, but it is part of the game out there. They always have access to more accurate info than we do. Maybe they do...

< Sort of related - I pulled my own credit scores before applying for a mortgage and darned if the broker didn't pull much higher scores than I found. I don't understand why but that's what happened.>

Use your agent and watch how comps are pulled. You can actually do that yourself depending on where you live and the tools available to predict comps. I tried that on a house we were viewing and submitted a bid on. I sent my comp to a friend to hold on to then we'd compare it to the agent's info. I was well within range.

[librarySue]

Well, we'll mark y'all down as undecided!

I can accept that if my zestimate goes up it might indicate that the local market is doing well. But my house is kind of an oddity in my neighborhood. It only has 1.5 baths, and one of the three bedrooms is so small as to be kind of a joke. It is also very contemporary and unique in a neighborhood of cookie cutter floorplans with 2.5 baths and 3-4 bedrooms, kind of on the edge of older smaller homes and newer larger ones. It's a great house for the right small family...but I don't see how any website could understand that.

Nonetheless, I'll be happy to continue under the delusion that it is worth what they say it is until I get the garage cleaned out and call the realtor, because they are zestimating a good bit more than I paid and I would be so happy to get out of this neighborhood without losing my shirt!

[NOLA2SGF]

In my area Zillow doesn't even know the square footage of most houses. All the houses on a block are priced within a thousand or two of each other, and the prices increase smoothly in one direction and decrease smoothly in the other. This is true even in neighborhoods with very different houses - - a 1200 square foot falling-apart house built in 1950 will be priced the same as the 3000 square foot brick house with all the amenities built in 2005 on the same block. It's ridiculous.

I would speculate that they get some mean sales prices in neighboring communities and extrapolate. The prices are too high, also, as though they are working on old information.

I have heard that in some areas, like California, the Zillow prices are pretty good. But in the New Orleans metro area they are ludicrous.