It is fun to play with Zillow and Trulia! You can browse, you can view, you can also find out how much your home is worth.
Since Zillow launched in February 2006, millions of people now turn to keyboards and mobile phones, punching in home addresses. Here again, the digital revolution freed data from experts and democratized it for the masses.
There are quite a few of these sites, zillow, cyberhomes, eppraisal.
What's wrong with the picture?
It is fun. That's it.
You see, the secret is this.
If your home and all the others around it are exactly the same and cookie cutter without one upgrade to them, then the price of your home well may be what Zillow or another appraisal site quotes you.
Often that is not the case.
Zillow's accuracy is roughly 10 percent of the true value.
If you have San Diego real estate that means a 50K difference on a median home price of 515K.
Pretty big difference, huh?
The firm's chief economist Stan Humphries himself says, "When you get anything that's off average Zilow doesn't apply at all."
So if you live on the nicest street of an average neighborhood that is bodered by a declining neighborhood, you could be like one seller who found their home to be zestimated at 70K less than appraised value.
A friend in San Diego got three values ranging from $199,000.00 to $299,000.00.
I pity the fool that went with the first price!:)
The bottom line for this is, Zillow and these companies are fun. They are fun sites to play with, but when it comes to true numbers and you are dealing with hundred's of thousands of dollars, leave the numbers to more sophisticated tools like the MLS.
What are your thoughts?
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