Answers (14)
- Pasadenan
- Contributions:26042
A deck is not "living space", which at minimum requires heating. A deck can be an "improvement", but typically improvements only pay back 10% to 50% of what they cost on a resale.
I don't know if your walk-out basement can be considered "living space" or not if heating is added... there are many factors to consider on that. You would need to check with your local building department and county tax assessor.
What really determines what something will sell for is what people are presently selling the same or similar for. There are many ways to try to extrapolate from the sold prices and listing prices, but none will give you an exact value of what any given party might pay at any given point in time. Regardless, since most people will need to "finance" the purchase with a "mortgage", it will need to appraise sufficiently for the loan to fund.
You might need to check with a local appraiser; but most real estate agents in your area will also give you a "free" market analysis, comparing your home to similar homes sold recently in the neighborhood. Just don't believe "high" numbers if it only appears they are trying to convince you to let them list it for you (for a sales commission).
I don't know if your walk-out basement can be considered "living space" or not if heating is added... there are many factors to consider on that. You would need to check with your local building department and county tax assessor.
What really determines what something will sell for is what people are presently selling the same or similar for. There are many ways to try to extrapolate from the sold prices and listing prices, but none will give you an exact value of what any given party might pay at any given point in time. Regardless, since most people will need to "finance" the purchase with a "mortgage", it will need to appraise sufficiently for the loan to fund.
You might need to check with a local appraiser; but most real estate agents in your area will also give you a "free" market analysis, comparing your home to similar homes sold recently in the neighborhood. Just don't believe "high" numbers if it only appears they are trying to convince you to let them list it for you (for a sales commission).
- 431K
- Contributions:14
OK. Thanks for telling me that. View was charged as premium of $4,000. and privacy was considered cul-de-sac location. Also, the home is close to three schools (elementary, middle, and highschool).
IF we added a deck - would that be adding additional square footage? Perhaps the market is such that no matter what home improvements are made - they are not really upping the value.
We really need the home to sell for 385,000. Would a deck do that?
IF we added a deck - would that be adding additional square footage? Perhaps the market is such that no matter what home improvements are made - they are not really upping the value.
We really need the home to sell for 385,000. Would a deck do that?
- Pasadenan
- Contributions:26042
The "views" and "privacy" should be factored into the "last sold" price. Other "improvements" (closet storage, landscaping, energy efficiency)... are not factored into the estimates at all, and should be noted in the "owner comment on the estimate". Some of those items should be taken into account in a "my estimate", but the "my estimate" feature is still not back on line yet, since Zillow removed it for programming revisions about 9 months ago.
Carpet replacement is considered a "maintenance item" and not an "improvement", and wouldn't be factored into the estimates regardless, unless it was a "differed maintenance" condition, in which case the value drops proportionally to the maintenance work that needs to be done... but the automated estimates have no way to factor that in since it is not in the public records.
Carpet replacement is considered a "maintenance item" and not an "improvement", and wouldn't be factored into the estimates regardless, unless it was a "differed maintenance" condition, in which case the value drops proportionally to the maintenance work that needs to be done... but the automated estimates have no way to factor that in since it is not in the public records.
- 431K
- Contributions:14
Each of the homes in Cranberry Estates is a type(model) of home. Some have larger square footage and some less. Ours has a full basement (10 foot ceilings) and walk out. But, it is not finished. I'm not sure if the neighbors finished their basement - but the square footage of our home upstairs (2 bay windows) is substantial. We also have improved the home with closet factory his/her closets, laundry closets, storage in livingroom, carpet replacement, front and BACK landscaping, energy efficient front door (which doesn't let cold air in) - these are things which give our home a good value. We have a premium view, also, which faces a private wooded area which is owned by the county. There is a flowing creek and the property has value for the privacy factor. The home is also on cul-de-sac. We would not consider selling it for less than $385,000. The cost of moving expenses and down payment on next home would prohibit us from taking less.
- 431K
- Contributions:14
Thank you. I realize the difficulty is in the fact that homeowners assume sometimes that there are zoning regulations to lot size. I thought they were all around 7,500-8,.300 square feet at the time of first sale in 2002. The home across the street has been sold several times - but is now a rental.
Lot sizes, apparently, vary widely in this development. That's ok. It's a corner lot and i'm not arguing that it could be more. It's just that typically, all these homes sold for around the same price in 2002 - and lot size didn't seem to factor in at that point.
Lot sizes, apparently, vary widely in this development. That's ok. It's a corner lot and i'm not arguing that it could be more. It's just that typically, all these homes sold for around the same price in 2002 - and lot size didn't seem to factor in at that point.
- 431K
- Contributions:14
Thank you. I realize the difficulty is in the fact that homeowners assume sometimes that there are zoning regulations to lot size. I thought they were all around 7,500-8,.300 square feet at the time of first sale in 2002. The home across the street has been sold several times - but is now with HUD if i see it correctly online.
Lot sizes, apparently, vary widely in this development. That's ok. It's a corner lot and i'm not arguing that it could be more. It's just that typically, all these homes sold for around the same price in 2002 - and lot size didn't seem to factor in at that point.
Lot sizes, apparently, vary widely in this development. That's ok. It's a corner lot and i'm not arguing that it could be more. It's just that typically, all these homes sold for around the same price in 2002 - and lot size didn't seem to factor in at that point.
- Pasadenan
- Contributions:26042
Of course you can contact Neil directly by clicking on his user name or avatar to get to his profile, and then using the "contact me" button under his picture on that web-page.
And you can use the "report a problem" button under the edit pull down tab to have the lot size checked again. For 406 Kennedy, Zillow is indicating the county records indicate the lot is 11.244k sqft, and that the owner or agent edited that to 11.325k. With it being the inside corner on the circle, it is about the same as the neighboring 404 Kennedy, which the records indicate 11.244k sqft also.
Measuring off of the map, I come up with 1/4 of a circle with a radius of about 110 ft. So, π R^2/4 --> I come up with approximately 9500 sqft. Using 11.244 sqft, I come up with a lot depth of 120 ft. The neighboring lot, 408 Kennedy indicates 7500 sqft, 60 ft wide, implying 125 ft deep, indicating that 120 ft deep for the corner lot is not unreasonable at all.
It looks like it is in the right ballpark to me. And I doubt that both would be copied wrong. And the extra 81 sqft from the owner/agent edit is not going to substantially impact the estimates with the land being only about $13 per sqft. That would only add about $1050 to the estimated value. Essentially meaningless when the 70% confidence interval posted is +52%/-32%.
When you say "never sold", are you stating that the posted sales transaction of 8/26/08 for $343k, copied from the county records, never happened? If that is a false transaction, there is a flag symbol next to it on the "price history" that you can click to have it checked in the records again.
As for the fluctuations in the estimates? That is an anomaly of the statistical method used, and there is nothing that can be done about it. The fluctuations are within the published tolerance range. They don't represent market changes, but only the amount of information that can be obtained from extrapolating off of public record data and recent sales only. Zillow doesn't "favor" any homes in any neighborhood; they use the same modeling method for all of them, and the "last sold price" is much heavier weighted than lot size or house size, or bedroom/bathroom counts. None of the AVM providers offer "appraisals", especially for "free". An "estimate" is NEVER a "price", and the only "guarantee" is that the estimate is NOT the "present market value".
And you can use the "report a problem" button under the edit pull down tab to have the lot size checked again. For 406 Kennedy, Zillow is indicating the county records indicate the lot is 11.244k sqft, and that the owner or agent edited that to 11.325k. With it being the inside corner on the circle, it is about the same as the neighboring 404 Kennedy, which the records indicate 11.244k sqft also.
Measuring off of the map, I come up with 1/4 of a circle with a radius of about 110 ft. So, π R^2/4 --> I come up with approximately 9500 sqft. Using 11.244 sqft, I come up with a lot depth of 120 ft. The neighboring lot, 408 Kennedy indicates 7500 sqft, 60 ft wide, implying 125 ft deep, indicating that 120 ft deep for the corner lot is not unreasonable at all.
It looks like it is in the right ballpark to me. And I doubt that both would be copied wrong. And the extra 81 sqft from the owner/agent edit is not going to substantially impact the estimates with the land being only about $13 per sqft. That would only add about $1050 to the estimated value. Essentially meaningless when the 70% confidence interval posted is +52%/-32%.
When you say "never sold", are you stating that the posted sales transaction of 8/26/08 for $343k, copied from the county records, never happened? If that is a false transaction, there is a flag symbol next to it on the "price history" that you can click to have it checked in the records again.
As for the fluctuations in the estimates? That is an anomaly of the statistical method used, and there is nothing that can be done about it. The fluctuations are within the published tolerance range. They don't represent market changes, but only the amount of information that can be obtained from extrapolating off of public record data and recent sales only. Zillow doesn't "favor" any homes in any neighborhood; they use the same modeling method for all of them, and the "last sold price" is much heavier weighted than lot size or house size, or bedroom/bathroom counts. None of the AVM providers offer "appraisals", especially for "free". An "estimate" is NEVER a "price", and the only "guarantee" is that the estimate is NOT the "present market value".
- 431K
- Contributions:14
I could be wrong about zoning because in their current county records - they record 11,000 + square LOT footage. But, we have a similar situation in our backyard - in that we have 'common area' which is not considered LOT SIZE. In selling a home - the size of lot does not increase does it? Perhaps it does if one purchases the extra land.
If houses that were built in this development commonly had 7,400-7,500 square footage - it just seems strange that one can sell common ground unless there is a provision to buy the extra land. In which case, we would be interested to find out how this is done.
AM I WRONG OR RIGHT?
If houses that were built in this development commonly had 7,400-7,500 square footage - it just seems strange that one can sell common ground unless there is a provision to buy the extra land. In which case, we would be interested to find out how this is done.
AM I WRONG OR RIGHT?
- 431K
- Contributions:14
Thank you Neil! Now, I ask for another HONEST correction. The house across the street does not have 11,000 + LOT SIZE. The fact that their home price WENT UP (not according to market) after home NEVER SOLD is very strange. Why would a home that has not been sold be valued higher? We are considering selling - BUT WOULD RECOMMEND that home prices be valued accordingly everywhere in the neighborhood and not just favoring a few UNSOLD homes. LOT SIZE MATTERS.
- Neil R
- Contributions:4971
HI 431K -
I have corrected the map location of 433 Kennedy Rd.
Thank you.
Neil
Zillow Customer Support
I have corrected the map location of 433 Kennedy Rd.
Thank you.
Neil
Zillow Customer Support
- Pasadenan
- Contributions:26042
"I have never heard of Zillow described as a service." -
Zillow "defines" it as a "service" under the "terms of use".
No, it was not a "person" that located it wrong; it was a "computer program". And with only 5 programmers, and with over 300 million web pages, and over 100 million home details pages, and just over 350 employees, there is no way any location is going to be corrected if the owner or agent doesn't correct it, and none of the neighbor's bother to flag it for correction.
Even though looking at the map it is obvious which houses need to be re-located and by how much, I'm not going to bother to flag it for you. If it doesn't make enough difference to you to do something about correcting it, then it obviously shouldn't make any difference to me if it is wrong. Only thing is, if you don't care enough about it to want it fixed, why were you posting here, complaining that it was "wrong" in the first place? Obviously you "want" 25 homes located at your property location so that people can get more confused? How about I move my home icon onto your property on the map?
Zillow "defines" it as a "service" under the "terms of use".
No, it was not a "person" that located it wrong; it was a "computer program". And with only 5 programmers, and with over 300 million web pages, and over 100 million home details pages, and just over 350 employees, there is no way any location is going to be corrected if the owner or agent doesn't correct it, and none of the neighbor's bother to flag it for correction.
Even though looking at the map it is obvious which houses need to be re-located and by how much, I'm not going to bother to flag it for you. If it doesn't make enough difference to you to do something about correcting it, then it obviously shouldn't make any difference to me if it is wrong. Only thing is, if you don't care enough about it to want it fixed, why were you posting here, complaining that it was "wrong" in the first place? Obviously you "want" 25 homes located at your property location so that people can get more confused? How about I move my home icon onto your property on the map?
@431K
" IS THIS A SERVICE!"
I have never heard of Zillow described as a service. In fact they don't understand the concept of service. Its alien to them in the same way as operating in a fair minded way towards homeowners who question the accuracy of zestimates and have the audacity to suggest they be corrected or removed. You will never see the words SERVICE and ZILLOW in the same sentence. Just words like NONSENSE, ERRONEOUS, WRONG, INACCURATE, MEANINGLESS and of course ZILLOW.
" IS THIS A SERVICE!"
I have never heard of Zillow described as a service. In fact they don't understand the concept of service. Its alien to them in the same way as operating in a fair minded way towards homeowners who question the accuracy of zestimates and have the audacity to suggest they be corrected or removed. You will never see the words SERVICE and ZILLOW in the same sentence. Just words like NONSENSE, ERRONEOUS, WRONG, INACCURATE, MEANINGLESS and of course ZILLOW.
- 431K
- Contributions:14
I will leave it to Zillow to fix the incorrect house - and leave all their explaining, too. IS THIS A SERVICE! If they claim it is a service- there should be no excuses. There are no other homes with this problem. I didn't create it. Someone else did.
- Pasadenan
- Contributions:26042
If you look at the map near the bottom of the home details page (clicking on the house icons), you will see that the address locations are "shifted" on the map.
This is not a problem with people manipulating the data. It is a problem of "geocoding" (locating correctly on the map). If you looked at the "more facts" button for 433.. you would see that it has the "county records" data.
There is no exact method of determining a geocode presently... it is extrapolated off of the 9-digit USPS geocode database. And they use a "linear extrapolation" for the specific street number. Which doesn't work at all on "curved streets". As you can see, their "geocode error" is right at the curved street, and occurs both sides of your house.
Though you can correct the geocode for your own house by claiming it, setting a "make me move" and dragging it on the map; you cannot be claiming your neighbor's houses to fix their locations. Use the "report a problem" button (under the edit pull down tab) on the home details pages for those located wrong, and indicate in the description where the home needs to be moved to (eg, one house unit to right...)
This is not a problem with people manipulating the data. It is a problem of "geocoding" (locating correctly on the map). If you looked at the "more facts" button for 433.. you would see that it has the "county records" data.
There is no exact method of determining a geocode presently... it is extrapolated off of the 9-digit USPS geocode database. And they use a "linear extrapolation" for the specific street number. Which doesn't work at all on "curved streets". As you can see, their "geocode error" is right at the curved street, and occurs both sides of your house.
Though you can correct the geocode for your own house by claiming it, setting a "make me move" and dragging it on the map; you cannot be claiming your neighbor's houses to fix their locations. Use the "report a problem" button (under the edit pull down tab) on the home details pages for those located wrong, and indicate in the description where the home needs to be moved to (eg, one house unit to right...)
Two prices on home - one is for 433 Kennedy (not ours) and the other higher one for 431 Kennedy.
Stating a discriminatory preference in an advertisement for housing is illegal. If you think this content is discriminatory or otherwise inappropriate and feel it should be removed from Zillow, please let us know by completing the information above.
We will review this content. Thanks for helping make the site more useful to everyone. To learn more, read Zillow's Good Neighbor Policy.