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Answers (5)
- Joe McAvoy, "Joe McAvoy"
- Contributions:52
It's best that we help educate home buyers and sellers who use "Zestimates" as fact or as reliable valuation figures. Take a peak at how inaccurate the Zestimate may be in my real estate market: http://www.zillow.com/howto/DataCoverageZestimateAccuracyVA.htm
Even the "Four Star" Zestimates are within 5% of actual sales price only 40 or 50% of the time and within 10% of the actual sale price only 60 or 70% of the time (according to Zillow, Virginia).
This means a home in Newport News worth around $300,000 in the marketplace could be "Zestimated" lower than $270,000 or greater than $330,000 30% of the time. The Zestimate for a $500,000 home in Yorktown is within 20% of the likely fair market value only 76% of the time. This means the home could be Zestimated less than $400,000 or more than $600,000 24% of the time, with an additional margin of error of 6.3%, or $31,500.
Let's keep a proper perspective on estimated housing values that are calculated on some server in Zillow's corporate headquarters in Seattle, not by a local, experienced, boots-on-the-ground appraiser or Realtor. Maybe we can convince Zillow to drop their "Zestimates" altogether to avoid confusing real estate owners and shoppers. All the best, Joe McAvoy
Even the "Four Star" Zestimates are within 5% of actual sales price only 40 or 50% of the time and within 10% of the actual sale price only 60 or 70% of the time (according to Zillow, Virginia).
This means a home in Newport News worth around $300,000 in the marketplace could be "Zestimated" lower than $270,000 or greater than $330,000 30% of the time. The Zestimate for a $500,000 home in Yorktown is within 20% of the likely fair market value only 76% of the time. This means the home could be Zestimated less than $400,000 or more than $600,000 24% of the time, with an additional margin of error of 6.3%, or $31,500.
Let's keep a proper perspective on estimated housing values that are calculated on some server in Zillow's corporate headquarters in Seattle, not by a local, experienced, boots-on-the-ground appraiser or Realtor. Maybe we can convince Zillow to drop their "Zestimates" altogether to avoid confusing real estate owners and shoppers. All the best, Joe McAvoy
- Hans Ziegenbein, "Hanszig"
- Contributions:6
A Zestimate is Zillow's guess at what a home should be valued at. These tend to be very inaccurate in many cases. I would not reccommend using it to value your home or one that you might be considering buying. If you want a true value of a home you should contact a real estate professional in your area and ask them for a free comparative market analysis of the property.
Best of luck,
Hans
Best of luck,
Hans
- David Barr, "dpbarr2000"
- Contributions:280
Zestimates are pretty much irrelevant. There isn't a mortgage lender or tax appraiser who uses zestimates in the real world, so going by the zestimate when trying to figure out how much to offer for a house is going to cause you a lot of wasted time.
- HomeSand.net, "White Picture"
- Contributions:4397
I don't know how to explain but the following link may do it.
http://www.zillow.com/wikipages/What-is-a-Zestimate/
http://www.zillow.com/wikipages/What-is-a-Zestimate/
- wetdawgs
- Contributions:26852
What does "Zestimate" refer to?
thank you.
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