Kristin Acker's Q&A

Hi tglasgow,We license Microsoft's Birds Eye View and Satellite imagery. Apparently they haven't updated the images in your area since your pool when in. You are welcome to upload a picture to your home of your new pool. You can do that from your home details page. As far as the value goes, it is difficult to account for the value improvements actually yield. Lately, $100k of improvements don't usually return 100k of value, but it depends a lot on what the $100k was spent on and what condition the home was in before. As you can imagine someone could spend that kind of money on gold-plated bathroom fixtures that few would pay for.  This is an extreme case. I know that's not your what you did. We are better at estimating the return of adding square feet and rooms than added amenities (pools, upgraded bathrooms). However, you can create you own estimate from your home details page (just click "Create an estimate") which will help you estimate how much return your improvements might give you if you sold the home today. The numbers in "my estimator" are based on a survey done by Remodel magazine and should give you a good start.Hope that helps. KristinHopefully, our models will help us get better at this w/time.

Hi mdhbarranca,We get our aerial photos from Microsoft Live. You might try looking around their site, but we only have access to their current pictures.Kristin

Hi Bux262,We don't remove this information from the site. It comes from public records so isn't just published on Zillow but is available to everyone already. The benefit to you is that on Zillow you can easily see what others paid for their homes as well, which will make you more informed for real estate decisions you're making. Kristin

Hi josdia,Can you please clarify what the problem is? Are you trying to close a home sale and her power of attorney isn't enough to allow her to sign closing papers? What are they telling her the problem is?Maybe the Wright McLeod attorney I found in for lawyers in Summerville the Zillow Directory can help you? Perhaps try contacting them.Kristin

Hi garyboy,There was likely some sale information that recently came into our system for nearby homes that have characteristics similar to yours.Sometimes a certain type of home can be going down (e.g. condos or in a very specific area) while the overall area is going up.Hope that helps.Kristin

Hi, you can also check the Zillow Directory for real estate agents who serve Bakersfield and contact them directly.Kristin

Hi Cubalibra,Here's where we try to explain all the things you can do on Zillow.Hope that has the info you want.Kristin

Hi cubalibra,Here are a bunch of videos in our Zillow Frequently Asked Question section.Hope that's what you're looking for.

Sorry all,Advice got tied up in knots last night. Sometimes the processes we have in place to avoid these things still don't catch everything. Sigh.Advice is healthy again. The posts from before are all intact. Unfortunately, we missed those that would have come in last night and this morning.Glad to see the wheels turning again.My sincere apologies.Kristin

Hi SplashleyWe didn't hide the Zestimate. We don't do that ever . What you're really seeing is that we (more often than we'd like) have trouble matching the homes coming through the feed with the homes we have. I know it sounds simple, but it's harder than it looks. We are working on some improvements to our matching, but they're a couple of months away.If you ever see that happen, if you unclick the "for sale" checkbox, you will often find the original property beneath it with the Zestimate. There are several homes on that one parcel. Here is the home details for 1807 N 36th street. And here is the home details for the other 1805  But that home doesn't have a Zestimate. We didn't hide it, we just don't have enough data to create a Zestimate for it. Hope that explains a little.Kristin