How Accurate Are Zillow Zestimates

Don’t get me wrong. Zillow and Trulia are nice sites. They are well organized. They are visually appealing to your eye.

 

They have nice maps, and you can generally put some detailed information into the search form, and find homes and condos that suit what you are looking for. All of that is good. But if you are looking for accurate information, forget Zillow.

 

Lately, my issue is that the statuses of homes are generally wrong. Now part of that fault relies on the fact that agents are not diligent about updating the status of the home. I’ve talked about that before in another post, how agents need to get on it- they are just fooling the public by not changing the status quicker.

 

But the real problem that I see is that you can load a home up to one of these big box portal sites as an agent or a homeowner, then never go back and update it. It’s difficult because, with as little inventory as we have right now, we have to count on the accuracy of that information.

 

It’s difficult as an agent when my clients keep forwarding me listings from Zillow- I look into every one of them, and guess what? Sold, pending, or no longer on the market.

 

If you are not sure where to search as a consumer, use our site’s search or another agent’s IDX search, they are real-time and should be a whole lot more accurate than Zillow.

 

OK, enough about the status part of Zillow – let’s get onto the far-from-perfect “Zestimate”.

 

Zillow initially created what they term a “Zestimate” which is their own branded name for an online estimate of your home’s value. You can put in a little data to beef up what they give you, or you can just put in your address and they give you what they think your home is worth.

 

They use a fancy algorithm to guesstimate what the value of your home is—let me tell you, it’s a wild shot in the dark. The Zestimate was supposed to get more accurate over time, but it is still way, way off.

 

I recently visited with a couple who were curious to know the value of their home – I carefully reviewed all of the comps from the last 6-12 months, focusing on the last 3-4 months' data (like an appraiser would), and showed them I could easily price and guarantee that they could get $100,000 more than Zillow says they could.

 

OK, I’m off my soapbox, if you are looking for Costa Mesa real estate, please, please find another source than Zillow.

 

If you are interested in learning about the real deal in Costa Mesa, please call local expert/Broker Colin Delaney at (714) 743-9882 or E-mail me.