Author Topic: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?  (Read 19496 times)

mm1970

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #50 on: October 27, 2017, 10:33:04 AM »
Interesting -- I'd never considered looking at my own house on Zillow.  Not 'specially accurate: 

- I think my house is worth about 30K less than Zillow says, but then I've been here a long time and am not really familiar with current pricing.
- I know my lot is twice as big as they say it is.
- I know my house was built in 1970; they say it was built in 1973. 
- It says my house is 2090 sf; it's actually about 400 sf larger. 
- It says my house was last renovated in 1978; I know structural changes have happened twice since then.
- They're right when they say brick, fenced yard -- things that're easy to see from the outside.
Perhaps one reason why zillow seems to be accurate for me is that I "claimed" my house on there and updated the info.

boarder42

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #51 on: October 27, 2017, 11:06:19 AM »
Interesting -- I'd never considered looking at my own house on Zillow.  Not 'specially accurate: 

- I think my house is worth about 30K less than Zillow says, but then I've been here a long time and am not really familiar with current pricing.
- I know my lot is twice as big as they say it is.
- I know my house was built in 1970; they say it was built in 1973. 
- It says my house is 2090 sf; it's actually about 400 sf larger. 
- It says my house was last renovated in 1978; I know structural changes have happened twice since then.
- They're right when they say brick, fenced yard -- things that're easy to see from the outside.
Perhaps one reason why zillow seems to be accurate for me is that I "claimed" my house on there and updated the info.

yep you have to claim it and update the data and it will get much more accurate.  as i said earlier you can even pick your comps to make sure its a true comp and not 2 blocks away in a bad neighborhood etc.

Acastus

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #52 on: October 27, 2017, 11:10:31 AM »
My sense is it is as accurate as the drive by assessment my bank did during refi. If nothing much has changed, it is fairly accurate. If you have remodeled your kitchen from avocado and harvest gold appliances to granite and cherry cabinets, no one will ever know from Zillow.

boarder42

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #53 on: October 27, 2017, 11:13:22 AM »
My sense is it is as accurate as the drive by assessment my bank did during refi. If nothing much has changed, it is fairly accurate. If you have remodeled your kitchen from avocado and harvest gold appliances to granite and cherry cabinets, no one will ever know from Zillow.

Yes the will b/c you can take ownership of you house and tell them.


This is something everyone should do b/c whether you use zillow or not the bulk of the millenial generation does, and when it comes time to sell it would be better to have it updated early and just trending with the normal house pricing in your area than to have it spike the day before you decide to list it.  No one likes to pay more than something is worth and while zillow is notorious for being incorrect its still something people look at and sets a baseline for your houses value.

Acastus

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #54 on: October 27, 2017, 11:33:27 AM »
Boarder,

Great seller advice! I would not trust owners to update if I were a buyer, however.

Dicey

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #55 on: October 27, 2017, 11:48:29 AM »
Our primary home is rather overbuilt for the neighborhood, so the Zestimate is significantly lower than the actual market value at present. When our neighbors finish their 3000sf "remodel", we're guessing we'll see a significant bump. Same when some large infill projects going on in the area are finished. (The projects aren't large, but the houses they're building are.)
 
Our rentals are in a resort community. The Zestimates are too high on all of them, laughably so. It can't tell golf course from privacy lots, newer sections from older ones, etc. Some sections have as many as three sets of HOA dues, and the selling price tends to reflect that, but Zillow doesn't get it. Same for rentals. Some are seasonal and some are year-round, which also throws Zillow for a loop.

And b42 is correct. One of our rentals has a Casita, which was not in the assessor's records, probably because it was an upgrade and the builder didn't report it. I fixed it and now the value is even further off.

We're not selling anything, so it doesn't matter.

boarder42

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #56 on: October 27, 2017, 11:51:26 AM »
Boarder,

Great seller advice! I would not trust owners to update if I were a buyer, however.

i wouldnt trust that either, but a person buying a house here should do their research and be market savvy enough to understand what the market is and buy a house at a good to great price. 

You can really affect you price if you pick the right comps.

RetirementDreaming

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #57 on: October 27, 2017, 11:54:12 AM »
Zillow overstates the value.  Zillow states 665K.  My identical home is selling for 600K. 

frenchsquared

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #58 on: October 27, 2017, 12:05:18 PM »
Not even within 50%. Some houses are worth double and some worth half.  Rent is just as bad. I have houses that rent for $500 and Zillow says $1200 and I have houses that rent for $750 and Zillow says $300.

I guess its based on tightly controlled areas with HOAs because in my small town it has no clue.

I have claimed them, updated pictures and conditions.

cchrissyy

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #59 on: October 27, 2017, 12:59:32 PM »
My house's rent zestimate is just silly - it's not just too low for this particular house, it's lower than you could rent any house in the city. I'm surprised they can't tell that by cross-referencing their own zillow rental ads, or craigslist or something.

teen persuasion

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #60 on: October 27, 2017, 06:42:19 PM »
The vacant farmland next door sold last December, and Zillow has that info all garbled up with our info, or in our address file anyway.  Vacant lot, but built 1880 and last renovated 1986, garage 600sf.   Sold for $12k, but assessed at $105k.

Does a vacant lot have a street address?

nawhite

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #61 on: October 29, 2017, 03:17:00 PM »
My sense is it is as accurate as the drive by assessment my bank did during refi. If nothing much has changed, it is fairly accurate. If you have remodeled your kitchen from avocado and harvest gold appliances to granite and cherry cabinets, no one will ever know from Zillow.

Yes the will b/c you can take ownership of you house and tell them.


This is something everyone should do b/c whether you use zillow or not the bulk of the millenial generation does, and when it comes time to sell it would be better to have it updated early and just trending with the normal house pricing in your area than to have it spike the day before you decide to list it.  No one likes to pay more than something is worth and while zillow is notorious for being incorrect its still something people look at and sets a baseline for your houses value.

As a millenial who bought a house within the past 5 years I agree with this wholeheartedly. If you're going to sell soon, claim your house on Zillow and update the listing to be as accurate as possible while making it look good. There is a whole industry where Real Estate Agents will pay consultants to pump up the zestimate of a house because it works. When we were buying, sure we and everyone else knew that the zestimates were off, but you better believe that the houses that were listing for less than their zestimate got way more showings than those listing for more than their zestimate.

As a buyer, it forms an anchor point in your head even if you know it's wrong. You start to say "oh this seller must be trying to be greedy if they are listing for that much more than their Zestimate." Or "Wow, this house is listing for $10k less than zestimate, that could be a great deal, time to do more research!"

So everyone who is saying "Our zestimate is way less than our house is worth and we don't care because everyone knows it's inaccurate," you're deluding yourself.

boarder42

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #62 on: October 29, 2017, 03:26:14 PM »
My sense is it is as accurate as the drive by assessment my bank did during refi. If nothing much has changed, it is fairly accurate. If you have remodeled your kitchen from avocado and harvest gold appliances to granite and cherry cabinets, no one will ever know from Zillow.

Yes the will b/c you can take ownership of you house and tell them.


This is something everyone should do b/c whether you use zillow or not the bulk of the millenial generation does, and when it comes time to sell it would be better to have it updated early and just trending with the normal house pricing in your area than to have it spike the day before you decide to list it.  No one likes to pay more than something is worth and while zillow is notorious for being incorrect its still something people look at and sets a baseline for your houses value.

As a millenial who bought a house within the past 5 years I agree with this wholeheartedly. If you're going to sell soon, claim your house on Zillow and update the listing to be as accurate as possible while making it look good. There is a whole industry where Real Estate Agents will pay consultants to pump up the zestimate of a house because it works. When we were buying, sure we and everyone else knew that the zestimates were off, but you better believe that the houses that were listing for less than their zestimate got way more showings than those listing for more than their zestimate.

As a buyer, it forms an anchor point in your head even if you know it's wrong. You start to say "oh this seller must be trying to be greedy if they are listing for that much more than their Zestimate." Or "Wow, this house is listing for $10k less than zestimate, that could be a great deal, time to do more research!"

So everyone who is saying "Our zestimate is way less than our house is worth and we don't care because everyone knows it's inaccurate," you're deluding yourself.

Thank you. That's the way I've been trying to steer this discussion. But people just want to complain it's off say it's bad and move on.

BTDretire

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #63 on: October 29, 2017, 05:14:15 PM »
I'm in about a 100 house neighborhood, of mostly similar homes. On Zillow you can see the somewhat higher prices for an extra bedroom, or slightly lower for a 1 car garage.
  I think it is very close at estimating my property value at $162k. I also checked Realtor.com
and it came in at $162.2k, so, at least they agree. Redfin, doesn't recognize my house.
 I do wonder why it says my home increased $4,159 in the last 30 days and others in my price range are about 1/2 of that.
 

BlueHouse

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #64 on: October 29, 2017, 05:27:03 PM »
Interesting -- I'd never considered looking at my own house on Zillow.  Not 'specially accurate: 

- I think my house is worth about 30K less than Zillow says, but then I've been here a long time and am not really familiar with current pricing.
- I know my lot is twice as big as they say it is.
- I know my house was built in 1970; they say it was built in 1973. 
- It says my house is 2090 sf; it's actually about 400 sf larger. 
- It says my house was last renovated in 1978; I know structural changes have happened twice since then.
- They're right when they say brick, fenced yard -- things that're easy to see from the outside.

Zillow uses tax data and public deeds for that information.  They're not appraising your house.  They're running an Automated Valuation Model.  Nobody looked at the outside of your house, and if that information is incorrect on Zillow, it's most likely incorrect in the public record.

It may not be incorrect in the public record.  In my locality, there are some unusual (to me) methods to measure square footage.  I live in a four story townhouse with the kitchen/living area on the 2nd floor.  In my area, anything beneath the "main living area" which is defined as where the kitchen is, doesn't count toward square footage in the public record and to calculate property taxes. 
So make sure you understand how your county measures square footage before you assume it's wrong. 

BlueHouse

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #65 on: October 29, 2017, 05:35:24 PM »
My sense is it is as accurate as the drive by assessment my bank did during refi. If nothing much has changed, it is fairly accurate. If you have remodeled your kitchen from avocado and harvest gold appliances to granite and cherry cabinets, no one will ever know from Zillow.

Yes the will b/c you can take ownership of you house and tell them.


This is something everyone should do b/c whether you use zillow or not the bulk of the millenial generation does, and when it comes time to sell it would be better to have it updated early and just trending with the normal house pricing in your area than to have it spike the day before you decide to list it.  No one likes to pay more than something is worth and while zillow is notorious for being incorrect its still something people look at and sets a baseline for your houses value.

As a millenial who bought a house within the past 5 years I agree with this wholeheartedly. If you're going to sell soon, claim your house on Zillow and update the listing to be as accurate as possible while making it look good. There is a whole industry where Real Estate Agents will pay consultants to pump up the zestimate of a house because it works. When we were buying, sure we and everyone else knew that the zestimates were off, but you better believe that the houses that were listing for less than their zestimate got way more showings than those listing for more than their zestimate.

As a buyer, it forms an anchor point in your head even if you know it's wrong. You start to say "oh this seller must be trying to be greedy if they are listing for that much more than their Zestimate." Or "Wow, this house is listing for $10k less than zestimate, that could be a great deal, time to do more research!"

So everyone who is saying "Our zestimate is way less than our house is worth and we don't care because everyone knows it's inaccurate," you're deluding yourself.

I'm fascinated by this approach, because I'm taking an opposite approach.  I'm not planning to sell for many years, and in the meantime, I am focused on reducing my property taxes.  I've claimed my home on Zillow and actually reduced the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to try to force the valuation down.  I agree with updating it correctly prior to planning to sell, but for now, I know the tax authority uses zillow estimates as one data point when assessing properties.  At this point, I'm claiming that my home is the least-maintained in the neighborhood and is therefore worth the least.  I'll change that when I prepare to sell many years from now. 
My approach may not be right for everyone, but I'm in a newish housing area which has appreciated in value quickly over the past 4 years.  So far I'm saving $700/year in property tax increases and I intend to get it down even lower next year. 

boarder42

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #66 on: October 29, 2017, 07:00:04 PM »
My sense is it is as accurate as the drive by assessment my bank did during refi. If nothing much has changed, it is fairly accurate. If you have remodeled your kitchen from avocado and harvest gold appliances to granite and cherry cabinets, no one will ever know from Zillow.

Yes the will b/c you can take ownership of you house and tell them.


This is something everyone should do b/c whether you use zillow or not the bulk of the millenial generation does, and when it comes time to sell it would be better to have it updated early and just trending with the normal house pricing in your area than to have it spike the day before you decide to list it.  No one likes to pay more than something is worth and while zillow is notorious for being incorrect its still something people look at and sets a baseline for your houses value.

As a millenial who bought a house within the past 5 years I agree with this wholeheartedly. If you're going to sell soon, claim your house on Zillow and update the listing to be as accurate as possible while making it look good. There is a whole industry where Real Estate Agents will pay consultants to pump up the zestimate of a house because it works. When we were buying, sure we and everyone else knew that the zestimates were off, but you better believe that the houses that were listing for less than their zestimate got way more showings than those listing for more than their zestimate.

As a buyer, it forms an anchor point in your head even if you know it's wrong. You start to say "oh this seller must be trying to be greedy if they are listing for that much more than their Zestimate." Or "Wow, this house is listing for $10k less than zestimate, that could be a great deal, time to do more research!"

So everyone who is saying "Our zestimate is way less than our house is worth and we don't care because everyone knows it's inaccurate," you're deluding yourself.

I'm fascinated by this approach, because I'm taking an opposite approach.  I'm not planning to sell for many years, and in the meantime, I am focused on reducing my property taxes.  I've claimed my home on Zillow and actually reduced the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to try to force the valuation down.  I agree with updating it correctly prior to planning to sell, but for now, I know the tax authority uses zillow estimates as one data point when assessing properties.  At this point, I'm claiming that my home is the least-maintained in the neighborhood and is therefore worth the least.  I'll change that when I prepare to sell many years from now. 
My approach may not be right for everyone, but I'm in a newish housing area which has appreciated in value quickly over the past 4 years.  So far I'm saving $700/year in property tax increases and I intend to get it down even lower next year.

Interesting. I wonder how many tax authorities use this and how you figure this out.

Dancin'Dog

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #67 on: October 29, 2017, 08:06:38 PM »
This thread reminded me to check out one of the neighboring homes that recently sold.  The sold price was off by a decimal place, $1.3M was listed as $130K.  Little mistakes like that can skew the Zestimates some.  Another home's tab button price is half of what Zillow says it recently sold for, so who knows what happened on that one.

These are just quirks that I know of because they're on my street.  I'd assume there's plenty of data prices mistakes on many other streets.  Their estimates can on be as good as their data, right?




TheAnonOne

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #68 on: October 29, 2017, 08:38:57 PM »
Mine is probably a bit low, neighbors just sold for 190k and zillow says mine is worth 150k

Mine is a little smaller though so, who knows.

Dicey

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #69 on: October 29, 2017, 10:57:40 PM »
So everyone who is saying "Our zestimate is way less than our house is worth and we don't care because everyone knows it's inaccurate," you're deluding yourself.
Maybe I know I'm not going to sell for at least four more years, and in that time, the handful of true comps in planning or under construction in the area will be completed. That rising tide will lift our boat. For now, our house is simply overbuilt for the area. It will resolve itself in due time.

And yes, we are familiar with the advice that it's best to buy the worst house in the best neighborhood. We didn't do that. We bought the best house in a meh neighborhood. We did it on purpose. DH can walk to work (unheard of in the Bay Area unless you telecommute, which he can't, and our traffic suxxxxxxx!). This house suits our family beautifully, due to his mom's ALZ-related needs. Best of all, I get to live in a beautiful clown house, with zero guilt. DH is home from work by 3:45, which is the only thing that keeps me sane on his mom's bad days. Oh, don't worry, we bought it on a short sale, so we won't make a killing on it, but we'll be fine, just fine.

I have far more to worry about than what Zillow thinks any of our houses are worth. There's plenty of delusion under our roof, but it's (mostly) not mine.

frenchsquared

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #70 on: October 30, 2017, 07:58:20 AM »
Thank you. That's the way I've been trying to steer this discussion. But people just want to complain it's off say it's bad and move on.

I would love to know more on how to change it. I have claimed and updated my houses. Maybe start a new thread with a better title. Tips and tricks to improve your zillow listing.

boarder42

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #71 on: October 30, 2017, 08:09:11 AM »
Thank you. That's the way I've been trying to steer this discussion. But people just want to complain it's off say it's bad and move on.

I would love to know more on how to change it. I have claimed and updated my houses. Maybe start a new thread with a better title. Tips and tricks to improve your zillow listing.

sounds like we maybe should be considering lowering ours if this is a metric commonly used by assessors.  i'd like to understand more around that.

Dicey

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #72 on: October 30, 2017, 08:17:02 AM »
...I am focused on reducing my property taxes.  I've claimed my home on Zillow and actually reduced the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to try to force the valuation down.  I agree with updating it correctly prior to planning to sell, but for now, I know the tax authority uses zillow estimates as one data point when assessing properties.  At this point, I'm claiming that my home is the least-maintained in the neighborhood and is therefore worth the least.  I'll change that when I prepare to sell many years from now. 
My approach may not be right for everyone, but I'm in a newish housing area which has appreciated in value quickly over the past 4 years.  So far I'm saving $700/year in property tax increases and I intend to get it down even lower next year.
Wait, so you're removing actual bedrooms and bathrooms and letting your property go to pot just to pay less than your proportionate share of taxes? Will you clarify, please?

Dancin'Dog

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #73 on: October 30, 2017, 08:34:21 AM »
Zillow allows owners to edit their info.  You can claim your home has whatever features you'd like.  "Alternative Facts" is the new official term. 

By doing so you will also skew the neighboring properties' Zestimates. 

Our assessors still walk & measure each property, but I can see Zestimates for low end crowded areas being "good enough".   

boarder42

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #74 on: October 30, 2017, 09:14:08 AM »
I'd suggest everyone email their assesor i just did and ours doesnt use Zestimate at all so there is no savings for us there.  So maxing it makes sense.

chaskavitch

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #75 on: October 30, 2017, 10:35:26 AM »
Ours is far more accurate than it was the last time I looked a few months ago.  It currently says we're worth $325,000.  We got our house appraised to get rid of our PMI, and they put us at $310,000. The most recent city estimate was $340,000. 

Dicey

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #76 on: October 30, 2017, 10:41:18 AM »
Zillow allows owners to edit their info.  You can claim your home has whatever features you'd like.  "Alternative Facts" is the new official term. 

By doing so you will also skew the neighboring properties' Zestimates. 

Our assessors still walk & measure each property, but I can see Zestimates for low end crowded areas being "good enough".   
In CA, property taxes are based on what you paid for the house. It matters not what Zillow says. I believe "Alternative Facts" used to be more correctly known as "lying" or "cheating". I sincerely want to believe the poster I referred to is just correcting mistakes and not advocating something more nefarious.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2017, 09:48:39 PM by Dicey »

DarkandStormy

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #77 on: October 30, 2017, 11:09:46 AM »
Are you talking the Zestimate (public) or private estimate?  Those two are vastly different for me - the Zestimate is undervalued and the private estimate probably overvalues our house.

robartsd

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #78 on: October 30, 2017, 12:14:03 PM »
Interesting -- I'd never considered looking at my own house on Zillow.  Not 'specially accurate: 

- I think my house is worth about 30K less than Zillow says, but then I've been here a long time and am not really familiar with current pricing.
- I know my lot is twice as big as they say it is.
- I know my house was built in 1970; they say it was built in 1973. 
- It says my house is 2090 sf; it's actually about 400 sf larger. 
- It says my house was last renovated in 1978; I know structural changes have happened twice since then.
- They're right when they say brick, fenced yard -- things that're easy to see from the outside.

Zillow uses tax data and public deeds for that information.  They're not appraising your house.  They're running an Automated Valuation Model.  Nobody looked at the outside of your house, and if that information is incorrect on Zillow, it's most likely incorrect in the public record.
It's likely that the structural changes since 1978 were not done with a permit and added the 400sf.

BFGirl

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #79 on: October 30, 2017, 02:03:02 PM »
I'm in a neighborhood with lots of new construction.  For a while my Zestimate was probably $25,000-30,000 higher than what I believed the value to be.  I checked the other day and it is lower and much better in line with what I think I could get for my home.  But I may need to "claim" my home on Zillow.  I hadn't done it before now because I didn't want to get more junk mail or have realtors soliciting me.

LostGirl

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #80 on: October 30, 2017, 02:07:39 PM »
Mine is accurate within 5-10%. I think its more accurate in some places than others. We also have a very active market so if they are based on local, recent comps there is a lot of data to inform them. 

mm1970

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #81 on: October 30, 2017, 02:12:09 PM »
So everyone who is saying "Our zestimate is way less than our house is worth and we don't care because everyone knows it's inaccurate," you're deluding yourself.
Maybe I know I'm not going to sell for at least four more years, and in that time, the handful of true comps in planning or under construction in the area will be completed. That rising tide will lift our boat. For now, our house is simply overbuilt for the area. It will resolve itself in due time.

And yes, we are familiar with the advice that it's best to buy the worst house in the best neighborhood. We didn't do that. We bought the best house in a meh neighborhood. We did it on purpose. DH can walk to work (unheard of in the Bay Area unless you telecommute, which he can't, and our traffic suxxxxxxx!). This house suits our family beautifully, due to his mom's ALZ-related needs. Best of all, I get to live in a beautiful clown house, with zero guilt. DH is home from work by 3:45, which is the only thing that keeps me sane on his mom's bad days. Oh, don't worry, we bought it on a short sale, so we won't make a killing on it, but we'll be fine, just fine.

I have far more to worry about than what Zillow thinks any of our houses are worth. There's plenty of delusion under our roof, but it's (mostly) not mine.
I don't think you can really follow any of the "rules" like buying the worst house...when you are in the Bay Area.  You've got a completely different set of rules!

BlueHouse

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #82 on: November 01, 2017, 02:31:07 PM »
...I am focused on reducing my property taxes.  I've claimed my home on Zillow and actually reduced the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to try to force the valuation down.  I agree with updating it correctly prior to planning to sell, but for now, I know the tax authority uses zillow estimates as one data point when assessing properties.  At this point, I'm claiming that my home is the least-maintained in the neighborhood and is therefore worth the least.  I'll change that when I prepare to sell many years from now. 
My approach may not be right for everyone, but I'm in a newish housing area which has appreciated in value quickly over the past 4 years.  So far I'm saving $700/year in property tax increases and I intend to get it down even lower next year.
Wait, so you're removing actual bedrooms and bathrooms and letting your property go to pot just to pay less than your proportionate share of taxes? Will you clarify, please?

I am absolutely trying to pay less than my neighbors do and I am currently paying $700 less because I disputed the assessment that the city assessor gave me.   I have a 4 story rowhouse that has an office on the first floor and an open room on the top floor.  There are actually no hard rules on what constitutes a bedroom in my locality, so I have stopped counting the first floor office as a bedroom.  There is no bathroom on that entire floor, so using it as a bedroom is unlikely and I am close to removing the closet too.  I could count the top floor as a bedroom, but the builder didn't, unless I added a door.  So when I sell, I'll probably list it as a 4-BR, but until then, it's really more of a 2-BR. 

As for the maintenance, I'm not letting my property go to pot, it's trying to get there all by itself and it's a constant maintenance chore to keep it from getting there.  There's a massive construction project on my street, which has caused more nail-pops than normal.  I don't plan to fix them (again) until the project is over.  In the meantime, I have a home full of nail pops that if I were to sell now would be a problem.  I also had a weather event which damaged portions of my house but which is purely cosmetic.  Replacing those parts is expensive and likely to cause water leaks, so I've been advised not to change them.  But I don't want to pay the property taxes of a perfect house when the house is no longer perfect. 

I can see how many people would find the first part distasteful and possibly even dishonest.  But keep in mind that I'm supplying the information to a company that is using public records to bolster their revenues.   When the city asks how many BRs I have, I show them the floorplan and allow them to determine how many it is.  I don't have any responsibility to provide accurate information to Zillow, nor do I want to.  I'm tempted to put all kinds of crap in there just to mess up their "big data".   



boarder42

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #83 on: November 14, 2017, 05:35:05 AM »
...I am focused on reducing my property taxes.  I've claimed my home on Zillow and actually reduced the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to try to force the valuation down.  I agree with updating it correctly prior to planning to sell, but for now, I know the tax authority uses zillow estimates as one data point when assessing properties.  At this point, I'm claiming that my home is the least-maintained in the neighborhood and is therefore worth the least.  I'll change that when I prepare to sell many years from now. 
My approach may not be right for everyone, but I'm in a newish housing area which has appreciated in value quickly over the past 4 years.  So far I'm saving $700/year in property tax increases and I intend to get it down even lower next year.
Wait, so you're removing actual bedrooms and bathrooms and letting your property go to pot just to pay less than your proportionate share of taxes? Will you clarify, please?

I am absolutely trying to pay less than my neighbors do and I am currently paying $700 less because I disputed the assessment that the city assessor gave me.   I have a 4 story rowhouse that has an office on the first floor and an open room on the top floor.  There are actually no hard rules on what constitutes a bedroom in my locality, so I have stopped counting the first floor office as a bedroom.  There is no bathroom on that entire floor, so using it as a bedroom is unlikely and I am close to removing the closet too.  I could count the top floor as a bedroom, but the builder didn't, unless I added a door.  So when I sell, I'll probably list it as a 4-BR, but until then, it's really more of a 2-BR. 

As for the maintenance, I'm not letting my property go to pot, it's trying to get there all by itself and it's a constant maintenance chore to keep it from getting there.  There's a massive construction project on my street, which has caused more nail-pops than normal.  I don't plan to fix them (again) until the project is over.  In the meantime, I have a home full of nail pops that if I were to sell now would be a problem.  I also had a weather event which damaged portions of my house but which is purely cosmetic.  Replacing those parts is expensive and likely to cause water leaks, so I've been advised not to change them.  But I don't want to pay the property taxes of a perfect house when the house is no longer perfect. 

I can see how many people would find the first part distasteful and possibly even dishonest.  But keep in mind that I'm supplying the information to a company that is using public records to bolster their revenues.   When the city asks how many BRs I have, I show them the floorplan and allow them to determine how many it is.  I don't have any responsibility to provide accurate information to Zillow, nor do I want to.  I'm tempted to put all kinds of crap in there just to mess up their "big data".   

from a taxes standpoint i agree. 

F'ing with zillow to mess up their data i strongly disagree.  Zillow is trying to make the data mainstream and get it out from the incumbant overpriced system of real estate agents.  Having a strong database publically available of comps that depicts actual housing values is a huge asset to society to stop one of its largest current leaks - real estate agents.  In my mind agents serve purpose for people who are moving to a new area and don't know the area - but you should be renting not buying if youre new so you pay your agent if you want to buy immediately.  The lazy people who want to pay others to do services for them and dont understand their true cost.  Its a racket just like the financial services industry and needs to be much more tightly regulated or abolished. and i think zillow is a great step towards abolishing the RE scam.

Indexer

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #84 on: November 14, 2017, 07:23:44 AM »
I use Zillow and Redfin, and at least for me Redfin has been far more accurate.

I check both monthly. In the past year Redfin shows my home has increased in value by 25k and it was a slow 1-3k increase per month. Zillow stayed level for awhile, shot up 40k in one month, stayed that high for several months, cratered 30k, then went up some more over that. Now it's within 1k of Redfin.

For my balance sheet, I use the Redfin number.

boarder42

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #85 on: November 14, 2017, 08:11:27 AM »
red fin and zillow are within .5% of eachother when i updated my data in both so probably pretty accurate - 10% gain in 2 years isnt too bad ... esp when you compare that to what we actually have in the house

TheWifeHalf

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #86 on: November 14, 2017, 08:20:26 AM »
The price seems more of less accurate but they've got the details wrong. Originally, in the late 19th century, there was a road planned next to our lot. Our house is on 2 lots that would have had access to that road. In the early 20th century the road was scratched but we are still technically on 2 lots, 1 acre total. Zillow has our lot size as 1/2 acre.
There are some minor differences too.

When we bought the house it was 1200 sf. In 1990 we added on, making it 3600 sf and a garage. It does list that.
« Last Edit: November 14, 2017, 08:23:28 AM by TheWifeHalf »

SC93

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #87 on: November 14, 2017, 09:25:37 AM »
Just over $20,000 off on the house we just bought. On the other hand, the area we bought in is selling houses within hours so the price they asked to begin with was probably more than the house should have cost.

ROF Expat

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #88 on: November 14, 2017, 10:07:07 AM »
Zillow is way off in my case.  The algorithm doesn't seem to assign value to being waterfront.

boarder42

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #89 on: November 14, 2017, 10:08:40 AM »
Zillow is way off in my case.  The algorithm doesn't seem to assign value to being waterfront.

i had this issue.  you can pick the houses they are choosing as comps and discount the houses that arent waterfront.

Dancin'Dog

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #90 on: November 14, 2017, 10:49:11 AM »
Zillow is way off in my case.  The algorithm doesn't seem to assign value to being waterfront.

i had this issue.  you can pick the houses they are choosing as comps and discount the houses that arent waterfront.

I think the numbers get skewed in areas that have waterfront, but you can go to a road that has waterfront on one side and see the values are much lower across the street, so Zillow does realize there is a difference. 


gggggg

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #91 on: November 14, 2017, 12:14:08 PM »
Zillow overvalues my home by about 10-15%

ROF Expat

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #92 on: November 14, 2017, 12:16:26 PM »
Zillow is way off in my case.  The algorithm doesn't seem to assign value to being waterfront.

i had this issue.  you can pick the houses they are choosing as comps and discount the houses that arent waterfront.

I think the numbers get skewed in areas that have waterfront, but you can go to a road that has waterfront on one side and see the values are much lower across the street, so Zillow does realize there is a difference.

You are correct that the prices are higher than across the street, but I have a feeling that the price difference is based on the tax assessment (which does recognize waterfront, so I suppose Zillow does indirectly).  I don't think Zillow factors in waterfront directly, at least in my neighborhood, because the estimates are off in my case by around 30%.  And when it offers up "similar" houses, it never shows waterfront.  I'm not bothered by it because I'm not interested in selling my house.  If I did want to sell, I suspect that serious buyers will make their own decision about what being on the water is worth.  It is a big plus for some, but of no interest to others. 

Mikila

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #93 on: November 14, 2017, 03:28:33 PM »
Zillow has not been accurate for any of the homes we've owned in Texas.  Sales prices are not public record here, so zillow is guessing based upon tax values (out of date and not close to sales value) and, I'm guessing, list price.  It has undervalued most of the homes we've bought in Texas by +10%.  Take our neighborhood.  Houses list and presumably sell for $140-160K, tax values are $110-125.  Zillow guesses...how?  I'm thinking some percentage above "taxable" value. 

Take our last house.  Tax value was on the order of 55K, we bought it for $72K and turned around and sold it for $74 2 years later within a month of listing it.  Zillow said it was worth $64K or so that entire time, and still does.  Bedroom, bathroom, and sq. foot info is accurate, but without sales price being disclosed, Zestimates are prone to wild inaccuracy. 

Dicey

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #94 on: November 15, 2017, 05:38:59 AM »
Mikita, your home prices astonish me. What gets you a whole house where you are isn't even a 20% down payment In the CA Bay Area. Wow.

Here's another Zillow twist: per b42's suggestion, I claimed our primary and our rentals and updated the information. It had no significant impact on the Zestimate. It seems the shortcomings are primarily around the finishes. Have stone floors? Unless they're slate, the closest option is "Tile". Custom cabinetry? No box to check. Paver driveway vs. concrete? No box. Is your house in the more sought-after school district than the comps? No way to change that. You can only eliminate three of the ten comps, even if more are not true comps.

The same was true of the rentals. One in particular was way off. It has a fancy outdoor kitchen, sun shades, high-end retractable awnings, expensive air and water filtration systems. It also has a true three car garage instead of two and a golf cart garage. All of those things add value to a home in this market, but Zillow doesn't recognize these features.

Again, none if that matters if I'm not selling. The biggest takeaway I've seen from this discussion is that listing a house for way over the Zestimate will impact traffic, which is an angle I hadn't considered. In that case, is try contacting Zillow directly.* I'd also made sure my photos were beautiful and that the description mention all the upgrades Zillow doesn't see.

*I have done so in the past and always gotten a response. For a while, someone was running a scam using listing photos of homes for sale and recently sold as homes for rent. It happened once to a house we'd recently sold. Another time, a house that was owned by a pro ballplayer was listed for sale with one set of information and for rent with completely different contact info. I knew the property (alas, not the ballplayer) so I knew the rental ad was a scam. Zillow pulled it less than 24 hours after responding to my email and asking for more details.

Oh, well. No big deal in the grand scheme of life. It's an imperfect tool, but it's better that what we had before.

sokoloff

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #95 on: November 15, 2017, 06:39:18 AM »
Again, none if that matters if I'm not selling. The biggest takeaway I've seen from this discussion is that listing a house for way over the Zestimate will impact traffic, which is an angle I hadn't considered.
If you look at it another way, though, the traffic that was eliminated by that filter probably wasn't going to pay your listing price anyway. What matters is where the listing/final price is in relation to the true market, not what some website says. Traffic that is mindlessly following a website isn't beneficial to you if that website leads them astray.

That said, of course I look at Zillow before going to any real estate showing; I'd be a fool not to, but I don't let Zillow decide how much I'm willing to pay. It's just a minor datapoint; it's more reliable for testable facts (it's a very convenient way to get the assessed value, tax history, and recorded transactions in cases where I want to spend 30 seconds instead of digging through public records [which is a step I put off until I'm seriously interested in a specific property]) than for true market value, especially in very hot markets.

For my own properties, one is pretty close to spot on; the other is probably optimistic by 25%.

Aegishjalmur

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #96 on: November 15, 2017, 07:28:25 AM »
Zillow gives a 45K range on the value, with the Zestimate it lists at the top of the page being 20K above lower end. Redfin gives value as about $30K lower then that bottom figure. County assessor is $50K below that. So quite a bit of range between the assessor and the top Zillow estimate($125k). I expect the redfin is more accurate to what it would sell for.

robartsd

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #97 on: November 16, 2017, 09:54:26 AM »
You can only eliminate three of the ten comps, even if more are not true comps.
I was able to eliminate 3 by location, then an additional 3 by condition. I used one of the condition slots to eliminate a 4th comp that was not really in a comparable neighborhood (I also removed one for condition). In the end I think the adjusted estimate was pretty good for my home.

Dicey

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #98 on: November 16, 2017, 12:04:51 PM »
You can only eliminate three of the ten comps, even if more are not true comps.
I was able to eliminate 3 by location, then an additional 3 by condition. I used one of the condition slots to eliminate a 4th comp that was not really in a comparable neighborhood (I also removed one for condition). In the end I think the adjusted estimate was pretty good for my home.
I saw that, but didn't drill down that far. What I'm curious about is the direction/location of the comps chosen. There are some newer houses nearby that would be far more similar, but Zillow seems to be focused on a different compass reading.

To expand a bit on what this thread's taught me... I have a friend who graciously allowed my [unnamed non-profit] group to use her home for a fund-raising event. In the course of things, we have become much closer. In creating the invitation, map, and directions, I used Google Maps and Zillow, 'cause I'm a real estate kind of gal. I noticed Zillow's specs for the house and the Zestimate was way off. I didn't say anything to her. Then one day, she revealed that they're thinking about selling. Uh-oh. I saw her this week and she said they'd decided to have an appraisal done. It's an unusually beautiful house, so I'm thrilled they made that choice. The appraisal came in at $2.5M vs. Zillow's $1.7M Zestimate. Huge difference. I think I might speak to her about tweaking that Zestimate... I want to see them get the best price possible, as most of their NW is tied up in the house, which they built themselves.

To think that this discussion might help improve someone's financial security in their waning years (She's 87, he's 90) us nothing short of amazing.  Vicarious Mustachianism for the win!

soccerluvof4

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Re: How accurate is the zillow zestimate for your home?
« Reply #99 on: November 16, 2017, 02:08:05 PM »
I've been really studying our area for a couple years now and for the most part ours is spot on to the comps. But I have looked at other areas I visit alot and know what things are moving for and they can be pretty far off. For me its just another tool. Not one I would bank on though.