How does zillow come up with an estimate for a home? I saw a home has higher zillow estimate

Profile picture for natlanier
While other home looks similar from outside, slightly bigger lot with much less square footage and not at all as updated inside as ours (our house is in the same subdivision).
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December 21 2011 - Dunwoody
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Answers (5)

@Ice

A Zestimate is most accurate right after a sale that is because the best indicator of market value and this why you neighbor's home has a higher Zestimate.

What an amazing statement - so if 8% of homes sell in any year it means that 92% will have less reliable zestimates. That actually is more in line with what I expected, but I never thought anyone from zillow would admit to this. Thank you.
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December 22 2011
Profile picture for Ice L.
natlanier -

A Zestimate is most accurate right after a sale that is because the best indicator of market value and this why you neighbor's home has a higher Zestimate. Make sure your home facts are updated which I believe you have already done. We use owner's facts when calculating Zestimate but you will not see the changes immediately and it can take months to see the full change to your Zestimate. Check back from time to time.

I forgot to add that Zestimate does not take into account upgrades you have recently done unless they resulted to a much higher tax. Check our Data Coverage and Zestimate Accuracy for Dekalb county.

Thank you for your questions and replies.

Ice
Zillow Customer Support
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December 22 2011
Profile picture for Pasadenan
Upgrades since purchase are not factored into the estimating method.  The "my estimate" will allow that, but is temporarily off line until about April while revisions to the method are being made.

The tolerance range available by the method is about a Standard Deviation of 11.5%, so changes in that magnitude from month to month in the opposite direction of neighboring home estimates is quite "normal", and not indicative of comparative value.

The estimating means relies very heavily on last purchase price adjusted for last sold date to account for amenities.  Of course you can put some of that data onto the home details page, but it will not fully compensate for improvements made since last purchased.

There is no means to manually change the Zestimate of any kind.  It is a machine method calculation done 3 times a week with the recently sold non distressed housing data.  They cannot even manually recalculate a past estimate with the revised data as the model is "modified" and "destroyed" in the calculation process.   It is never intended as a "fair" number nor an "appraisal" nor a "CMA" nor a "assessed value" nor an insurance replacement value, nor a suggested list price nor an offer price nor a loan equity value, nor "intrinsic value", nor any kind of "market value".  It is only a machine generated "opinion" of "approximate value" for use as a "starting point" for further evaluation and study.

Please use the "comment" space provided on the home details page for your specific comments on the Zestimate and why you believe your number would be a better representation of value.

If you want a different number to show on the maps, use the "make me move" feature.
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December 22 2011
Profile picture for natlanier
Thank you Ice. Yes, the compared home was recently purchased at a much higher price. However our home is still a much better home considered all the major high end updates and much more square footage. I did not remember how to edit the update we did to the house. We would think that it will be fair for our house to be in the $500k range, not the $400k as estimated by Zillow. Thank you again
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December 22 2011
Profile picture for Ice L.
natlanier -

Have you checked if there are differences in the price history and the tax history of each home? Are the home facts updated? Which home has the most recent sale? You can learn more about Zestimate here.

Ice
Zillow Customer Support
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December 21 2011
 

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