How do you "use" Zillow?

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. this morning and embarked on a journey that I have been meaning to take for quite sometime.

I am attempting to document all of the instances where I represented the buyer or the seller in a real estate transaction.  Though I may never be able to remember and record all of them since June of 1990, I'm starting with sales in the Seattle Area, where I am now, since I arrived in early 2004.  In my first couple of transactions I represented the buyers in 2004, but I am starting with transactions where my partner Kim Harris and I, represented the sellers since opening our own office, Sound Realty, in late 2004.

Using my blog, I started document by writing a post on a flip project in Seattle.

Rather than upload the photos in my blog's files, which are already reaching monumental storage size levels, having blogged since 1/1/06 there, I started loading the photos on Zillow.  This way there is a photo of them home stored for posterity, as it appeared at time of sale in 2005, and I was also able to pull the photos via link directly from Zillow.  I'll do that again here to demonstrate.  Hmmm, on second thought, now that I have posted the photo directly from Zillow into my blog post on my blog, I can copy the properites of the photos as they now exist in my blog post on "Ardell's Seattle Real Estate Blog (the RealTown version).  It is how I am extracting the photos show below as I speak.

The interesting part of the story of these two homes is that they were purchased for $120,000 and $125,000, $245,000 on a combined basis, by the people we represented when they were subsequently sold.  Kim sold the house on the bottom to them (before we became partners in all things) back in 2004 and the owners knocked on the door of the house next door, shown on the top, and bought that one as well directly from the owner.  They then improved both properties and sold them for $299,998 and $309,000 or $$608,996.

Today, on Zillow, these properties are showing as being Zestimated at $500,500 for the house in the bottom photo.  When you click on the link of $515,500, you will likely get the Zestimate as it may appear on the date that YOU click on that link.  On the day I post the link, today, the Zestimate is $500,500, but this Zesitmate will continue to fluctuate and change as readers click on it, showing the rise and fall of the housing market over time.

It's quite odd that Zillow shows the first house at only $415,500 and the second house at $500,500, given they are not all that much different and sold for almost the same price back in 2005.  Maybe one of the second purchasers made significant improvements over and above the improvements made in the flip project from 2004 to 2005.  Maybe it's a mistake.  My guess is it is a mistake in the Zestimate, as the chart above shows that even Zillow thinks $500,500 is above fair market value, while the chart below for the other home shows it at market value.

Zillow has many useful and interesting uses.  While not necessarily always completely accurate, it's a very useful tool for me today in doucment the properties where I have represented buyers and sellers over the last few years.  I will continue today and over time to record these transactions for my own use.  That other people can see my "work history" is an added benefit of Transparent Real Estate Blogging.

I am recording this post as Beacon Hill.  The properties are on 29th Avenue S. in 98144 close to the border of Beacon Hill and Mt. Baker, and as I recall being in walking distance to the park in Mt. Baker.