Previously I’ve lamented about the inaccuracies of Zillow’s “Zestimate”. Here in Tampa Bay, the Zestimate’s margin of error is about 14.6%. That’s because there is no way a Zestimate can tell if a home has upgrades or not, has an amazing view, versus a neighboring home that does not – it simply takes an average. I’ve had conversations with Zillow’s CEO about it and how terrible it is for Realtors, because many times people believe the Zestimate over a local Realtor (for shame!) and we have a hard time convincing them that the Zestimate may not be correct. However the Zestimate is the #1 reason consumers visit Zillow, so they continue to use it, despite its inaccuracies.
Yesterday Zillow announced that it has created a Zestimate for rental properties – whether your property is for rent or not. Once again – Zillow cannot tell if your rental has granite countertops and stainless steel appliances when the one next door has white Formica countertops and white appliances – my guess is they show up the same on the Zestimate for rentals.
Before you go and put your trust in a computer software program to value your most precious asset – place a few calls to local Realtors for a second, heck even a third, opinion. Click here to find out what this Realtor feels your home is worth.
One of my favorite videos below, a critique of Zillow’s Zestimate:
Hey Liane, Sara from Zillow here. It always surprises me to hear that someone would believe a number that is computer generated from a site that obviously has never been inside the home to see the things you mention, like granite, over a trusted expert like yourself. You are right that there are so many factors that come into play when valuing a home that an expert needs to evaluate. This is why we quote our accuracy and we usually include a Value Range on each of the Zestimates- because those things do come into play. However, Zestimates are nice when you just want a starting point and want to be anonymous in the research process.
We actually launched Rental Zestimates the first week of March of 2012. Here is some information on how them: http://www.zillow.com/wikipages/What-is-a-Rent-Zestimate/ and we certainly include an accuracy chart for these figures as well, found here: http://www.zillow.com/howto/DataCoverageRentZestimateAccuracy.htm
Over 20 million people visit the site each month, plus Zillow powers Yahoo! Real Estate (the most trafficked real estate site) – so regardless of the Zestimate – it is great exposure for your Sellers’ listings! Please let us know if there is any further information we can provide you. Best!
Sure Sara. How it it that in my neighborhood over the past 6 months, zillow estimates had been rising steadily ($500-1000 at a time), then all of a sudden today reduce by $14,000. Okay, so you guys had your neighborhood estimates wrong? But were they so wrong that you changed your own history on estimates going back those 6 months as well? C’mon now.
Soooo….my house suddenly dropped in value by over $30,000 dollars this month, and the entire history is changed too so I wasn’t sent a notice that it dropped, but actually told that it increased by a couple of thousand. The drop is apparently due to new algorithms they decided to use, so now instead of just a slightly inaccurate estimate, I have something that is in the ballpark of ridiculous. Using a new algorithm with such drastically different numbers is basically Zillow’s acknowledgement that their previous numbers were bogus. I’m sure these too will eventually be labeled as bogus (hopefully in court). My house is almost exactly the same as the neighbors across the street, except that my lot is bigger, I have maybe 100 square feet more, and I have hardwood floors, yet their house is now zestimated at $40,000 more. What’s worse is that the single story ranch with an unfinished basement (my house is tri-level, all above ground) is now worth $60,000 more than my house. Funny thing is, this same ranch plan sold for $60,000 less down the street not to long ago. Granted that my neighbor general contractor friend says Zillow is junk, but they either need to get their information accurate or put a very visible disclaimer on their site that states, “for entertainment purposes only.” They seem to only exist to sucker people into their advertiser’s services, but they are negatively influencing the housing market and people’s lives. We’re planning on selling due to a transfer in the not to distant future, and zillow estimates hurts our bargaining power. People in the midst of selling and hear from buyers “well that’s not what zillow says,” should seriously consider banding together to start a class action suit. If I hear it, I will definitely try, or at least sue them to have my house removed. Freedom of speech as they call it, does not trump right to privacy, pursuit of happiness, and torts that cause damage to another. If you have an issue, please write your complaints to your local congress man or woman’s office. Homeowners should not be victims of a for profit website such as this.
I agree Homeowner! I hear from clients and potential clients all the time “but Zillow says”. Who’s the expert – a computer program or a local Realtor who sees these homes and our market on a daily basis? I don’t think Zillow knows or cares how negatively they are impacting homeowners bargaining power, and the real estate market as a whole.
I had someone email me from st pete just last week and try to say to me that they would be interested in our home but the zillow value was way to far below what we were asking. I emailed zillow and told them that they were comparing our 4/2 block home with new roof & a/c-completely remodeled with granite countertops in a large kitchen with 30 cabinets and a spa like travertine bathroom, pool, barn and acreage with uncomparable homes and trailers and got zero response from zillow. Could I have lost a sale because of zillow’s inaccuracies? I would say so. Actually, if you put our address in, they have 2 different values. One is in the high 200’s and the other is 89k. ??? Need I say more?? I vote for them to take zestimates off. They are wildly inaccurate and I think if they don’t want to correct it, a class action lawsuit would be in order.
They also had a rent zestimate on our home of $1400. and we never considered renting. This week it’s up to $1600+. Thing is, we’ve been offered 2000k to rent. So could we assume they are off a bit on that too?
I can see how they have the right to put “public information” on their site but to come up with innacurate numbers that influence the general public and do harm to us?? Not fair.
But thank you Sara for thinking it’s okay to knowingly give out wrong information that negatively influences us directly and thinking that you make it right with some disclaimer somewhere that says that your company may be a little off sometimes. Are you kidding me?