Buyer Says Zillow is Right, Appraiser is Wrong

Debbie, Gosh wehat a story and I would not like having to deal with this type of buyer. Zillow and Trulia are not accurate in their supposed values. These groups cause numerous problems for Realtors in my opinion. I wish the general public would wake up. 

Debbie, I missed that this post wsa featrured and it should be. Congrats.. 

What a great story! It's tough because you are forced to deal with Zillow. They have gotten so big and some people definitely put too much faith in them. I tell my clients to search on Realtor.com. I love getting an available listing that closed two years ago. Hasn't happened in a short while but still it's just not the best data. Thank god we won't be replaced anytime soon. Great article!

Steven Paulsen http://www.paulsenproperty.com

What a story. Lately there have been many buyers getting miffed about the house appraising. Doesn't make sense to me but I think it's their reaction when they don't get their way on price.

We must be entering the month of "crazy". I have seen some really crazy contracts today held by others. I just shook my head and was glad it was not me going through the hell that was being dished out.

Good morning Debbie Reynolds ,

In Texas Zillow is really off..we are a non-disclosure state so they don't have the sold values to make comparisons!!

Hhhmmmm, the customer is correct b/c of something he sees on the internet!  Not the agent or the appraiser..who actually LIVES the REAL market every single day!  Thanks for the post

There was a time when I would have said, "wow, that guy is an idiot," but since they seem to be coming out of the woodwork lately, I'll just say I am not surprised. 

Glad to see Zillow coming in so close to appraised value.  People always bring their personal history and sometimes their friends and family's history with them.  AND everyone knows about real estate because it is in our faces on a daily basis.

Oh Zillow is right! And the sky is green and the hills are blue. Yeah right. 

It bothers me to hear, I found a house in Zillow here is the fmls #, when you look into FMLS the house was sold about 3 months ago!! ha, ha, not accurate at all, not updated at all, values not right at all, I would trust more something from Wikipedia, if coming from the internet, still some doubt, but from Zillow no. It's like reading a tabloid like GLOBE vs The Washington post.

Ah, a buyer who is betting the appraisal will come in low so he can renegotiate.

I can almost imagine a cartoon image being created from your blog post.  Your buyer sounds like sellers who disagree with us regarding the market value of their home, even though they are not basing their market estimate on solid, current, and comparable sales information.  I'm glad the buyer didn't get away with his tactic.  

Oh my goodness! Thankful to have not encountered that!

Sounds like you handled it correctly.  Prior to my real estate career, I spent 14 years as a mortgage banker.  I've found Zillow comps are often 2-3 years old and hardly accurate in value.  Plus, a trained professional appraiser (like several who have commented already) makes appropriate adjustments to each comparable to make them equal to the subject property.  While there are some decent computer valuations that do some of that, there's no substitute for a live human that is familiar with the market doing a proper evaluation.  Appraisals are not for the consumer, they are for the lender as they evaluate the "risk" of making the loan.  Hang in there!!  Hopefully your next few buyers won't be caught up in the tentacles of heavily marketed real estate search engines.

Everything now is all automated and slowly fading out the human touch.

The Drama- Love it. Even Zillow admits that the values are an estimate

If there had been a wager here, I'd have put my money on the professional appraiser rather than Zillow. You too, right?