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How Accurate is Zillow?

August 10, 2007

I get hit with this question all the time. Let me start by saying that I believe Zillow is far more accurate in other parts of the country than it is here on the peninsula. Zillow uses a mathematical formula based on square footage, price per square foot, beds/baths/, locations within a city, and selling trends within the neighborhood to come up with a ballpark valuation for homes. By Zillow’s own admission, their valuations are only “starting points” when determining the true valuation of your home.
I will usually do a random sampling of homes, once a month, comparing their Sales Price, with Zillow’s Pre-Sale Valuation. On average, the Zillow valuation was between 10-12% lower than the Sales Price. There are several problems with using Zillow to reach an accurate valuation of your home in San Carlos:
(1) Market Swings. Our market has far too many minor swings within two and three month periods. These minor swings in prices are almost always attributed to the subtle fluctuation in inventory. The market tends to go from strong to extremely strong back to strong over an average ten week period.
(2) County Records. Zillow formulates its valuation based on county records, including the county reporting of square feet, bedrooms and bathrooms. As we all know, what the county has, and what your house actually has can be two different things entirely. Most of the time, homes having a discrepancy with the county records will have more square footage, bedrooms and bathrooms than what is actually on file with the county. This accounts for some of the problems with Zillow’s valuations being too low in San Carlos.
(3) Landscaping/Other Unique Features. Zillow cannot account for a $40,000 landscaping project, or the fact that your home is on a quiet, tree-lined street. These unique features can drastically affect the price of a home.
Bottom-line: Treat your Zillow valuation as a very rough starting point. Consult a realtor for a free Current Market Analysis (CMA) for a much more accurate valuation of your home.

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Bob Bredel

4 Comments


Louis Cammarosano
August 11, 2007 at 6:45 am
Reply

You can also try HomeGain the original online home valuation tool. (its probably as inaccurate as Zillow’s but at Homegain you can always connect with a realtor for a professional opinion)
http://www.HomeGain.com



Jim Meader
August 16, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Reply

Remember any web site that does home valuations is doing one thing only, and that is taking X number of sales and applying some mathematical formula to those numbers. Let’s now apply that same concept to buying a car – there are 15, 3 year old BMW’s and the formula comes up with a $Price. Would you then pay $X for the next BMW you saw, irespective of color, condition, etc. the answer is No, color does matter, condition does matter, as well as many other factors.
Bottom line math has its place and can provide a good general estimate, but when you are dealing with your hard earned cash, get the adivce of a professional, someone who deals with your neighborhood every day.



samsung LN46A650
December 16, 2008 at 4:35 am
Reply

Hi!
I’ve found this message to be very useful, though the information is not rather new.
I’m your permanent reader now!
p.s. BTW, what happened to your site template? Or is it just my browser? 🙂
http://www.squidoo.com/Samsung-LN46A650-HDTV



Bob Bredel
December 16, 2008 at 9:17 am
Reply

Hi there,
Thanks for your post. There are a few browsers that distort most wordpress sites. Firefox and IE should work fine.
Thanks again,
Bob Bredel



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