Spencer Rascoff's Q&A

Learning something new every day....

Hi,Spencer from Zillow here. The short answer is that it's very hard for Zillow to value high-end homes accurately because they are by definition unique so they befuddle computer models. In the case of your specific home, a complicating issue is that it hasn't sold since 1995 and the property attributes we have on the home (from the county) may not be correct. If you want, you can claim your home and edit your home facts (video here) and then we'll reZestimate your home based on the new data. Also, you can publish an owner's estimate which allows you to add in certain attributes about your home which Zillow couldn't know about (e.g., a view) -- click on "Create" near the Zestimate.Creating and publishing an owner's estimate doesn't impact the Zestimate, but changing the home facts by "claiming and editing" does.

Here is info about comps.

Look up the home on Zillow and then on the left side under tools click "Post home for sale". More info here.(It sounds like you're more interested in posting for sale not posting as a Make Me Move.)

What's R1?

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I've passed it along to my friend.

Hi Wendy,I'll have someone look into this asap.

Here's the email she sent me:"I have some questions about purchasing a home here in Seattle...Tonight, we came to a firm and specific verbal agreement to buy the house we are currently renting...we need some sort of help navigating the legal aspects of the process and transaction. Do you have any specific contacts/suggestions - perhaps someone/a lawyer who really knows this market/system well and is not too expensive? Also, is there any way to get a hold of a generic Agreement of Sale that's legal in the State of Washington so we can at least get that rolling in the meantime? I feel like we were able to do that (with our house in Philly) without too much extra help since it is pretty simple. We're trying to get it going ASAP."

Hi,A friend of mine in Seattle is buying the home that she's currently renting. She has already reached agreement with the landlord on price, but she wants someone to help her complete the transaction and accompanying paperwork. Perhaps a lawyer or a real estate agent who will do this for a small flat fee?

Hmmmm.... that's tricky. You can see recently sold homes over the last 3 years as the yellow houses on the map, and you can select them only and refine the criteria (e.g., just certain price range or # bedrooms etc) and then look in the list view to see them. But it will just show the last 3 years.We do show all the sales history (going back ~ 15 years) for each home on their home details pages, but you'd have to click into each home details page to see that for each house...