Zillow.com is a completely free home search engine that anyone can access at any time from their computer or mobile app. This tool is the top used website in the United States for real estate. When searching a property or location, Zillow is the top search result the majority of the time.
Zillow provides home photos, basic information regarding square footage, neighborhood information, school district data, and can even provide contacts for mortgage lenders. For basic property data, Zillow is a great tool. The majority of the information given is pulled directly from the MLS Listing entered by the real estate agent.
However, and this is a BIG however.......
Zillow.com provides what they call "Zestimates". These are price estimates assigned to a property. Zillow, because of its popularity and daily visitors, wreaks havoc on the real estate industry.
These "Zestimates" cause problems for agents for several reasons.
- When meeting with a buyer, Zestimates give them an impression that the properties' worth is much less than the actual listed price. This causes quite a problem when negotiating price because Zillow makes the buyer think that they are overpaying for a specific property.
- When meeting with a seller, Zestimates have the opposite effect. The seller is under the impression that their home has a higher market value than what it is actually worth.
To kick off the new year, the Los Angeles Times ran an article on this such issue. They stated that over 70% of all Zestimates are inaccurate and are causing a huge problem in the housing market and for agents. For cities that have higher priced property values, these Zestimates could be costing these sellers somewhere in the ballpark of $40,000! Zillow CEO states that they provide only a 'good starting point'. However, with the average 'median error rate' being around 8%, this makes the "starting point" a far cry from anything accurate!
Is it time for you to get Pre-approved for a mortgage?
If you are considering purchasing a home in the near future and are ready to start pre-preparing fo the pre-approval process fill out pre-approval request form here.
When you are looking to purchase a home it is important to know the steps involved in the buying transaction. Take a look at this article on the 10 Important Steps to Buying A Home
Finding the home of your dreams
Comments(1)