Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I hope Zillow gets rid of the Zestimates. Although most realtors do not recognize Zestimates as accurate, the problem is, a lot of buyers searching the internet do. Then, their agent has to argue with them over a fair price for a property and what it is actually worth (and how inaccurate the Zestimate is).
I don't understand why Zillow won't just give people the option to remove the Zestimate if they don't want it showing up on there?
It is entirely inaccurate in my opinion. And useless.
Maybe once they are finally sued, they will just remove it altogether. Or at least allow someone the option to remove it.
I can't give Zillow too much of a hard time though, they do allow people to see houses online in general areas they are looking. I have found their site the most useful to find homes listed. Especially the FSBO. Sold my home FSBO and bought FSBO all because of Zillow.
I hope Zillow gets rid of the Zestimates. Although most realtors do not recognize Zestimates as accurate, the problem is, a lot of buyers searching the internet do. Then, their agent has to argue with them over a fair price for a property and what it is actually worth (and how inaccurate the Zestimate is).
I don't understand why Zillow won't just give people the option to remove the Zestimate if they don't want it showing up on there?
It is entirely inaccurate in my opinion. And useless.
Maybe once they are finally sued, they will just remove it altogether. Or at least allow someone the option to remove it.
I can't give Zillow too much of a hard time though, they do allow people to see houses online in general areas they are looking. I have found their site the most useful to find homes listed. Especially the FSBO. Sold my home FSBO and bought FSBO all because of Zillow.
So what you are saying is a person would be smart enough to turn them off, but if they show up on the screen they are too stupid to ignore them.
On one of our real estate hunting nights, my Wife emailed Zillows facebook page and asked why the estimates in our area are so contrary to all other data/comps etc, and they did respond with a very detailed reason why. Dont remember what it was, but just saying, there is some process involved, even though it is absolutely worthless for our area
I hope Zillow gets rid of the Zestimates. Although most realtors do not recognize Zestimates as accurate, the problem is, a lot of buyers searching the internet do. Then, their agent has to argue with them over a fair price for a property and what it is actually worth (and how inaccurate the Zestimate is).
I just point people to the page on Zillow that shows the Zestimate's accuracy level. It's pretty sad how innaccurate the Zestimate is in many areas of the country even when they often quote value ranges with a spread of $100K or more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by casey7083
I don't understand why Zillow won't just give people the option to remove the Zestimate if they don't want it showing up on there?
Most people have no idea how bad it is so how are they going to know to remove it?
The problem is that when all the internet guys decided to get into the real estate game they thought they could fit a square peg in a round hole but you just can't do it. An algorith that could accurately value a property anywhere in the country would be so unbelievably complex it would take a lifetime to create. Even then it would still have a level of innaccuracy because the algorithm hasn't been in your house to see its condition. Additionally, in many states sales data is not public information. Even in states where Zillow has access to sales data they don't have access to the sales concessions listed on MLS.
I'm a big believer that you should only do something if you can do it right. Zillow clearly believes it's OK to do things even less than half a$$.
Remember that although Zillow's Zestimates are unreliable, it does offer more exposure of homes to the public. The best advice for consumers is to look for homes through their available resources but to contact a Realtor for specific information. Zillow is hardly what I would refer to as useless. As a consumer, the advice is to not rely on Zillow too heavily when trying to create a listing or offer price on a home for sale.
How on earth is zillow useful if it is literally off by hundreds of thousands of dollars?
They have more data than just zestimates. I found if very useful for looking up things like past property taxes that weren't readily available on other sites.
They have more data than just zestimates. I found if very useful for looking up things like past property taxes that weren't readily available on other sites.
Most of that information is available elsewhere, at least in my area. Zillow considers their Zestimates to be accurate in my area because it is within 20% of the sales price 77% of the time. That is hardly useful information. If you own a house that will eventually sell for $400K the Zestimate will show that your house is valued between $320-$480K. How can that be helpful?
Remember that although Zillow's Zestimates are unreliable, it does offer more exposure of homes to the public. The best advice for consumers is to look for homes through their available resources but to contact a Realtor for specific information. Zillow is hardly what I would refer to as useless. As a consumer, the advice is to not rely on Zillow too heavily when trying to create a listing or offer price on a home for sale.
The only other problem with Zillow aside from the Zestimate is their "advice" section. The people that post there are often not the most knowledgeable people and they tend to pile on when someone disagrees.
A lot of real estate agents don't like Zillow because they sell buyer leads to agents using listing information we provide. I don't really have an issue with that. Putting up something like the Zestimate which the uninitiated don't know is wildly innaccurate is a huge disservice to the public though.
Most of that information is available elsewhere, at least in my area. Zillow considers their Zestimates to be accurate in my area because it is within 20% of the sales price 77% of the time. That is hardly useful information. If you own a house that will eventually sell for $400K the Zestimate will show that your house is valued between $320-$480K. How can that be helpful?
It isn't helpful. Which is probably why most people ignore it. But I like some of the other information.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
