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With so few posts about Zillow on a Real Estate forum it begs the question if it serves any purpose? Maybe there would be more interest if they posted accurate information instead of their useless zestimates?
With so few posts about Zillow on a Real Estate forum it begs the question if it serves any purpose? Maybe there would be more interest if they posted accurate information instead of their useless zestimates?
Zillow has been all over the place regarding the value of our home. When we first bought it, our townhome, we are on an end by the street, so we paid a premium for that, being across from the park, another premium. Yet they kept valuing our home lower than others of the same size, ones that face other units. Really irritating.
Of course right now, our home is worth a lot less than we still owe. Just like almost everyone else. And of course Zillow has us as being worth much less than other units as usual. I wonder if any humans actually run that site.
I think I may have pointed out that at least one of the "first guys" at Zillow was a professor who was looking to simultaneously make a name for himself and bring in some dough from his "secret sauce" of using geographically clustered sales to estimate the value of homes. Sadly that does not work, as the comically incorrect values attest to...
One of the other early guys at Zillow is fellow who has a history of starting up web sites that get a large number of page views then luring investors into thinking all such sites "are the next google"...
That does not really work either, as the difference is that google truly does provide a valuable service as "the mother of all search engines".
Zillow's data is often no different than Redfin or other real estate oriented search engines, which in many cases have MORE features that help shoppers as well as occasionally offering a more accurate picture of what things are really worth.
These sorts of things don't matter to the Zillow founders who continue to live high on the hog with their connections to venture capitalists who continue to try to position Zillow for an IPO. Have to a huge sucker to think that stock would offer any long term value...
Quote:
Originally Posted by bouncethelight
It may or may not be relevant to professionals in the real estate field, but it does get traffic... and that has value.
It's a business, and as long as it's making money for it's investors and creators, it's doing fine!
The only thing Zillow is good for is a search engine for those not hooked up with a Realtor and don't want to be at that point in their search. As long as someone doesn't rely solely on Zillow for data integrity, they won't be disappointed.
It was interesting to see that two of the houses I used to own had grown.One grew by 300 suare feet the other grew a bathroom. About the only thing it is of any use for is, recent sales and sales history
Zillow can only do so much. It comps a house to anything within a certain circumference whether you've gutted and remodeled, built new, or whatever. I think if you take all things into consideration that it's a good tool.
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Very observant ...
