Zillow Advice: Home Buying - Are we crazy to buy a home for $945K when zillow claims it's worth only $8367K? (N. Potomac, MD)

Congratulations, Steve!

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 06:12:00 GMT

Congratulations, Steve!

Well, here's the "rest of ...

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 05:37:00 GMT

Well, here's the "rest of the story". We got a house! We settled last week on it, a different house than the one we passed on, and in exactly the neighborhood my wife wanted. She's a happy camper and so am I. It needs alot of work as the previous owners didn't take care of it well, but we're having all that work done now. We're doing hardwood floors upstairs instead of the ratty carpet they left us. We're having all the other floors resanded and done nicely, and we're replacing the yucky berber carpet in the basement for a much nicer berber and redoing the closets with nice closets instead of the ultra cheap home depot stuff they had in there.

It's all good. We'll be broke afterwards, but happy :o). The neighbors are amazing too!

Cheers,
Steve R

I only check Zillow for fun ...

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 03:59:00 GMT

I only check Zillow for fun ... and tell my clients the same thing. Personally, it has been way off with every home we've owned or own. To give you an example ... our previous home was basically the same model as the one we have now. The only real difference being, the older had 1-car garage whereas now we have a 2-car garage. When we were selling the previous one, Zillow had it estimated at about $30K less then what we had it listed and the new one was overestimated by about $20K given the condition it was in. We sold the 1-car garage home pretty close to what we had it listed at. Now, couple months later, I checked the values for both homes again ... and to my surprise our old house (the 1-car garage one) is now almost $40K higher than what it sold for (in this market? are they kidding me???) ... whereas the new home has dropped in value ... add to it that we put tons of upgrades into it and the Zestimate is suddenly $40K less than what the value should be. Being a Realtor and working in this area, I know these homes should be priced basically the same ... the new one maybe slightly higher ... but the reality is that they are some $60 - $70K appart!!! So, like I said, I use it for fun, but that's about it.

More good news, folks. On ...

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 03:42:00 GMT

More good news, folks. On the "new" house we are now considering, the zillow estimate is $39K more than the asking price on the home :o). (As opposed to the original home in this thread, the one where the asking price was $100k MORE than the Zillow Zestimate).

Happy day... We're going to write a contract on the new home soon. I'll let you know the result of our dealings.

Zillow... you gotta love those Birds Eye view shots that must be 4 years old.

It's all good,
Steve R

Dihann -Zestimates are a ...

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:42:00 GMT

Dihann -

Zestimates are a starting point fro researching home values and we agree that sellers should consult a local expert before finalizing pricing but ... Zillow absolutely does consider square feet and the homes attributes when calculating Zestimates.

Steve, it sounds like you ...

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:51:00 GMT

Steve, it sounds like you made the right decision, especially if you are going to have to get another job..... Longislandbubble.com is a great site to look at things differently.... you make your own choices, using all the info you can get, the pros and cons.... not just the pros... like some people....

Hey stever 500,There are ...

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:59:00 GMT

Hey stever 500,

There are a lot of good points posted. Websites such as Zillow don't compare the square feet and amenities when they are doing the comparisons. You should find a local agent to work with. One that will represent you! The agent can do a Comparative Market Analysis for you and give you a better price range. Also remember most sellers ask for the maximum worth of the home when they are selling their home. That would leave you with no equity. You need to sit down and figure what your starting point, as an offer would be and the maximum amount you are willing to pay for this home.

Diahann

By the way that website doesnt ...

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:01:00 GMT

By the way that website doesnt exist but HHHMMMM I am inspired.

To answer your question that ...

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:56:00 GMT

To answer your question that is the title. Yes you would be crazy. If you do not know for absolute positive sureness why would you spend that much money? If you feel the urge to give that much to someone go to www.keftywilltakeyourbucks.com and thank you for your support.

Well folks, magically we ...

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:15:00 GMT

Well folks, magically we got 2 contracts on our house in the same day this week. We listed it for $679k and got a contract for $660k with us paying $10k towards their closing costs. Yippeee! Frankly, I think they would have gone even higher and accepted $660k plus them paying all closing costs as the other potential buyer kept upping their offer, but we didn't want to push it and our realtor suggested taking it and running with this offer. She sensed they might not go higher, so we didn't want to be greedy.

Now, we passed on the house we loved due to it still sitting at $930k plus needing the new roof, gutters, rotted exterior wood replacement, and some other stuff ($52k total or more). Plus, it's in a great neighborhood but it's not that social like another area my wife has fallen in love with. This is the area....

http://pages.montgomerycountymd.com/kentlands/default.htm

She wants to move to this community as we'll meet tons of people, they have block parties regularly, a big pool, lakes, paths, shopping... all built into the community. I think she's alot smarter than me most of the time.

Found a house we like... but like all houses, it has a bit of a location problem. We LOVE the house, just an aspect of the location is a bit odd. Maybe we'll forgive that and go with it anyway as the house is amazing.

Steve R