Zillow Advice: Home Ownership - Zillow differs from Assessor

I must say I am concerned ...

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:51:00 GMT

I must say I am concerned that my house is on Zillow and while it has given me good info, I know for a fact that our local town tax assessors are using Zillow, as well as mortgage companies....so an increase in taxes even in a down market...I expect my taxes will rise this year yet my property value has declined. I am worried that Zillow is now crossing a line that I'm not feeling very good about...perhaps when the housing boom happened, it was a good thing for all...I hope/believe Zillow will re-assess what they are doing here...who are you supporting? The home owners or the tax assessors and mortgage companies? If you say both, I will be disappointed that you are sitting on the fence vs disclosing the real purpose of your website because it shows up/down trends but just doesn't seem to work with tax assessments that are being done on previous years' inflated $. Thank you from an avid Zillow customer who is getting very squeamish now about all of this....yet it seems now I can't remove my house from Zillow? That alone worries me ALOT! THE BIG BROTHER STUFF is not quite what I thought living in the USA was about...so I will have to control it myself and not offer any more info here.

JT from Connecticut

I'd like to resurrect this ...

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:55:00 GMT

I'd like to resurrect this thread as I don't see much progress over the past six months. The finisished basement problem still exists. At least here in Kitsap County zillow is not including finished basement square feet as living area. I am sure this results in low zestimates in addtion to flawed algorithms when using data extracted from sales houses configured with finished basement living area. Two examples are:

5741 E. Hillcrest, 98366, zsqft = 1244'. Actual living area per county records = 2488'

8275 OFarrell, 98366, zsqft = 1355'. Actual living area per county records = 2483'

Also you all agreed last year that adding a "last updated date" to the data shown on each parcel would be a good idea. And as stated above by stanh @ zillow on 7/16/07 "it doesn't seem too thorny". Are we getting any closer to including this this important bit of information?

Jim Avery

Kitsap County Assessor

I've been looking at the ...

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:55:00 GMT

I've been looking at the values of various Hamptons (Long Island New York) properties on Zillow. Over the past 2-3months they have risen around 40-50%. As this is not representative of the current property market, nor a reflection of the value of these properties, how is this possible on Zillow?

Drew, In my prior post, ...

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:51:00 GMT

Drew,

In my prior post, the link to the Town of Southampton Assessment Roll was cut off. The correct link is: http://www.town.southampton.ny.us/DeptDirectorygallery/Assessor/2007_assessment/sagaponack_final.pdf

Thank you,

Adam

Drew,My home is in the ...

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:47:00 GMT

Drew,

My home is in the Village of Sagaponack, NY (zip 11962) - but Zillow lists it as being in the Village of Sag Harbor (zip 11963). It used to be correct in Zillow, but changed to the incorrect zip and village a few months ago. This is a significant error on Zillow's part, as Sagaponack NY (zip 11962) is often cited as the single most expensive zipcode in the United States. The correct address for my home is 99 Parsonage Ln, Sagaponack, NY 11962. For proof, please see the 3rd listing on page 51 (numbered page 977) of the Town of Southampton Assessment Roll at: http://www.town.southampton.ny.us/DeptDirectorygallery/Assessor/2007_assessment/sagaponack_final.pdf

Can Zillow please correct this error.

Thank you,

Adam

Hey, since it looks like ...

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 22:43:00 GMT

Hey, since it looks like things are wrapping up on the different threads here, just wanted to apologize to the Zillow folks for the strong tone I was using earlier.

Sometimes I lose sight of the forest by looking too long at one tree... and reading back over the posts, I see I did that... sorry...

So, in retrospect, the fact that the data may not always be in synch is an irritation to me as a seller, sure- but what about the fact that they even managed to coalesce all the data from the assessors, etc, howEVER often they do it, and then display it... from an IT perspective, it's a STUNNING feet... and I totally missed THAT point in my earlier posts...

So, anyway- sorry about the tone... sounded like I was prosecuting a federal narcotics case, as opposed to talking about some numbers on a screen on a little device on my desk that I and others use occasionally... sorry about that, Drew, and others...

And, also- it really IS an amazing thing you're doing, behind the scenes- so kudos to you for even being able to pull it off... and thanks for fielding my rather over-sharp comments/questions...

Jim Peak

Thanks Stan. I look forward ...

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:11:00 GMT

Thanks Stan. I look forward to these problems being solved. As you can imagine it is causing us problems with folks calling or emailing us to fix a problem that really wasn't there. In addition to upsetting house sellers it has to adversely affect your valuation algorithms when they look at sales where homes aren't sized correctly.

I'm not going to the IAAO conference but I will be at the Washington State Assessors annual conference Aug 6-9 in Walla Walla. I'm sure you would be welcome to attend and display as a vendor should you so desire. If so send me an email and I will get you more particulars. javery@co.kitsap.wa.us

Jim Avery:Thanks for your ...

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:58:00 GMT

Jim Avery:

Thanks for your two examples of square footage issues in Kitsap.

The issue typified by the Hillcrest example has been fixed and changes should be visible on the site this Friday (7/20). Thanks so much to you and others for bringing it to our attention.

The issue typified by the 16th Street example apparently involves an Kitsap-specific problem with our data provider which results from unfinished basement area being passed to us in an incorrect field. We're working with our partner in this area to get this data fixed as soon as possible.

Also, in the coming months, our valuation algorithms will begin to incorporate user-edited information so any incorrect data can be updated by the owner and will then be reflected in the Zillow Zestimate. We’ve already had almost 900,000 homes claimed by Zillow users so user-edited data is an increasingly valuable resource both for valuation and for informing other visitors of the latest up-to-date information about homes.

That's a great idea about including an update date next to the Public Facts shown on the site. I've added the suggestion to our list of future enhancements. It doesn't seem too thorny to implement but I can't tell you right now when the change will hit the live site.

Don't know if you'll be at the IAAO Conference in Atlanta in September but would love to meet you there if you're going.

I am seeing the same problem ...

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:10:00 GMT

I am seeing the same problem as other's in this post. My finished basement facts which are on the county assesor's records are being ignored (however the county does have the number of bedrooms wrong).

In the meantime I think you should update the property details page to show the edited facts along with the "public" facts that are at the *top* of the page. You should also include a note using language that states that the zestimate value is based on the "public" facts from your database and not the edited facts which the owner feels more accurately describes the property and may significantly alter the true value of the property.

I am currently trying to sell my home and what people are currently seeing on your site is a tiny house that is way overpriced for the area.

Drew, pls follow up with ...

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:17:00 GMT

Drew, pls follow up with me offline, OK?

Jim Peak 206-794-1550
jimp@featureStrainer.com

Please contact me prior to 5p on Wed 7/18. I have sent you a similar msg via your "Contact me" tool.

I feel very strongly about this issue (not my house in particular, but the whole issue of Zillow info accuracy in general). In addition, I see this is a common thread among a number of people.

I want to make sure that someone inside Zillow is taking this issue seriously enough that I can receive some definite information about a timetable for change. I believe that it is imperative that we see some substantial changes in either the info, or the manner in which it is labeled and presented.

Thanks!

Jim Peak