Zillow- How Accurate is Your "Zestimate"?

Have you been using http://www.zillow.com/ to try to guess at your home’s value?

Zillow, based in Seattle, is a web site that offers free estimates and other tools for real-estate buyers and sellers. It uses an algorithm to estimate home values based on sales of nearby homes and tax assessment information.

However, a recent Wall Street Journal survey found that Zillow is only accurate within 7.8% of the actual sales price. And when Zillow is off, it can be way off, by 25% on one in ten homes.
Zillow tends to work best for midrange homes in areas where there are a lot of comparable houses. However, it can be less accurate for low and high-end homes. There are often fewer of these, and less data can be available to show comparable sales or "comps". Values of rural homes are hard to determine for the same reason. By it's own calculations, Zillow says it can only provide estimates on about 57% of all homes.

Even where there are many "comps," computer programs like Zillow's can stumble when vital information is missing. Data may not show that a house has just been remodeled, sold through a relocation company, or gone into foreclosure. Reported prices can be misleading, too. Sometimes sellers offer incentives to buyers, such as help with closing costs, that aren't reflected in the recorded price.

Also keep in mind that the numbers you are seeing are consistently six to eight months behind the current market. In a market that is changing as quickly as our own, those numbers become quickly inaccurate as new homes come on the market and sell.

Zillow can be a good starting point to getting a larger picture of the value of your home. It can also be useful for getting an idea of how a neighborhood might have changed over the course of a few years.

If you are looking to sell and are interested in finding out how much your home is worth on today's market, based on “comps” in your area, we can provide a free market analysis of your home. Call us at 810-229-7000 or visit http://www.buckleyjolley.com/home_value.html for more information.