Zillow drops my home value by $169,000!!! YIKES!

As a lender I sometimes check zillow just to see how an appraisal may hold up.  Even with my conservative review board, zillow is usually way under value.

I get the opposite results.  I am also a lender that checks Zillow to give me an idea how to work the loan.  By the time I talk to my appraiser, we find out that Zillow has always OVER-ZESTIMATING the the value!  Their comps in Hawaii seem high, and it always has trouble comping condos.

Hey Ardell-

I agree with you.  It's funny you did a blog on this.  I was checking my house the other day and it went from 947,000 to 811,083.  When I look to see where they are getting their comps from I've noticed it was from another suburb that is right next door.  I also just had an appraisal done about 3 months ago and the appraisal was 920,000. 

 

 

Ardell

I guess I need to catch up on the whole Zillow thing. I can honestly say its not been an issue in Central Arkansas, never even heard mention of it by anybody in this business yet, but I'm sure it will be soon. All I can say is, kind of supports the whole notion that being represented by an agent might continue to be a good idea for a long time in the future.

Comps here seem to be low and not model matches when they are available.  I even had one that was 30% below the last closed model match, which was the lowest comp.  The price per square foot they used as comps didn't even match the value they gave out! 

Like you said, people use this tool to negotiate (either way buyers or sellers, I would still be complaining if it were too high) so it makes us liars.

I just Zillowed my own house..and got no Zestimate...is that pretty common?

That makes sense Ardell...thanks...figures we are still the third world of the USA LOL

That was a killer discussion - can you keep us posted?

This is one of the reasons I don't like to let Zillow know one of my homes is for sale.  We are asked to put in the asking price and it is usually WAY higher than the zestimate.  That can't make me as a professional look good to the consumer or to my seller.  Sherry

Ardell - I have 2 very direct abnormalities for Zillow:

1. it is the size of the range in which their "zestimate" falls in.  Sometimes this range is over $100,000!  Imagine going to a listing presentation and telling a seller that you believe their house should be priced between $225,000 and $335,000??  You would never see their face again! 

2. Once a house is "claimed" by an owner or agent that it is for sale, having a zestimate that reflects a different value than the sale price could be detrimental to that sale.

 I'm glad they contacted you and that they are willing to straighten out the kinks.

I totally agree Ardell - If I were the type to put my listings in zillow, which I'm not, I would get written permission from the seller - no doubt about it!

Seems to me that even if they are willing to listen they want the world, or at least every homeowner to help them make their model work which is impossible except in really cookie cutter type of developments.  In the northeast where not two houses are the same I don't see it being effective. Tweak away as they will.  As a homeowner I would not want them to capture a value of my home even with my help.  I want negotiations and buyers coming who make independent decisions about what to pay for a property.  I don't want buyers going to zillow seeing a value and thinking that is the worth.  I want buyers to respond to the marketplace and determine for themselves what a property is worth to them. 

Their model doesn't work even with cookie cutter type developments. I just zillowed our house only to find no zestimate, so I started zillowing other addresses I know. One happened to be a double in area where we are managing 60 properties. Now this is an area where all of the properties are identical. 4 blocks of the same thing, layout, sq footage, age, condition etc. Zestimates for this little pocket ranged from 58K - 105K. That's a HUGE swing for identical units. It seems like some of the zestimates factor in actual sales while others don't. It just doesn't make sense.