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How accurate are zillow.com price results?

Zestimates suck. I know from personal experience when I was comparing my house (which I subsequently sold) to the fair market value as determined by the county for property taxes, what I paid for it (only owned it for 2 yrs), and benchmarking with my neighbors on their info.

The errors are wildly huge. In my case 15% off. For friends and family homes they have been 25% off. Zestimate tells you jack about the financials, but the "recently sold for" data can be helpful when scoping out a neighborhood.

Just be aware that "recently sold for" data is based on what gets reported to the county records office, which is actually the mortgage amount and not the purchase price. For example if someone does 80% loan with 20% down, the "recently sold price" will actually be the 80% and will exclude the 20% that was put up by the buyer.

Zillow info is free, and you definitely get what you paid for.
 
eh, very area dependent. I know Seattle is costly, but I have no idea on current prices by area. When I search for my house and area it's low by 30k on my assessed value, but shows prices both 50k lower, and 50k higher than I'd expect on nearby places.
 
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Zestimates suck. ...

The errors are wildly huge. ...

Just be aware that "recently sold for" data is based on what gets reported to the county records office, which is actually the mortgage amount and not the purchase price. For example if someone does 80% loan with 20% down, the "recently sold price" will actually be the 80% and will exclude the 20% that was put up by the buyer.

...
Click to expand...

I both agree and disagree with the above statement.

I agree with his characterization of Zestimates: While the majority seem to be pretty close, I frequently see them off by 100% or more. Since you never know which ones are accurate and which aren't, you can't trust any of them for a particular house. Looking at a neighborhood as a whole it gets better, but still not trustworthy.

I disagree with the "recently sold for" data: I have not experienced the inaccuracies he points out. Not saying they don't exist, just that I haven't seen them. The selling price for my house, which I bought in 2001, is exactly right. It includes both the 20% I put down and the 80% I got in a mortgage.
 
The "recently sold" data is accurate...it lists it correctly for many people I know who have bought/sold houses.

The Zestimate is fine....but again, just use it as a tool. It is not accurate everytime. You just have to look at the neighborhood and the going house prices in that neighborhood and look at the whole picture. Again, zillow is just a time passing tool and dont take it seriously. It does show market trends though which are helpful.
 
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Zestimates suck. I know from personal experience when I was comparing my house (which I subsequently sold) to the fair market value as determined by the county for property taxes, what I paid for it (only owned it for 2 yrs), and benchmarking with my neighbors on their info.

The errors are wildly huge. In my case 15% off. For friends and family homes they have been 25% off. Zestimate tells you jack about the financials, but the "recently sold for" data can be helpful when scoping out a neighborhood.

Just be aware that "recently sold for" data is based on what gets reported to the county records office, which is actually the mortgage amount and not the purchase price. For example if someone does 80% loan with 20% down, the "recently sold price" will actually be the 80% and will exclude the 20% that was put up by the buyer.

Zillow info is free, and you definitely get what you paid for.
Click to expand...

that is not true. at least for my house. the sold for price is the real price, not my mortgage amount. it was updated fairly quickly too. within a month or so.
 
Originally posted by: d33pt
Originally posted by: Idontcare
Zestimates suck. I know from personal experience when I was comparing my house (which I subsequently sold) to the fair market value as determined by the county for property taxes, what I paid for it (only owned it for 2 yrs), and benchmarking with my neighbors on their info.

The errors are wildly huge. In my case 15% off. For friends and family homes they have been 25% off. Zestimate tells you jack about the financials, but the "recently sold for" data can be helpful when scoping out a neighborhood.

Just be aware that "recently sold for" data is based on what gets reported to the county records office, which is actually the mortgage amount and not the purchase price. For example if someone does 80% loan with 20% down, the "recently sold price" will actually be the 80% and will exclude the 20% that was put up by the buyer.

Zillow info is free, and you definitely get what you paid for.
Click to expand...

that is not true. at least for my house. the sold for price is the real price, not my mortgage amount. it was updated fairly quickly too. within a month or so.
Click to expand...

Well, it is true but someone already pointed it out that it varies by region. I know that Atlanta was not done right last time I checked. They were doing what he described above. However, I do know other cities were properly done.

When viewing the results, you have to do some legwork on your own to verify it.
 
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