Home Price Estimate Website zillow.com

[jpc165]

How close to reality is this site?

I am currently shopping for a new home and was a little shocked on the estimate this site gave for my current rental property (in a good way). It seems pretty accurate in some locations but not in others.

Please any homeowners just pop in your address and let me know how close this site is to what you think your house is worth.

You don't need to sign up for anything. Just put in your address and it gives you results with a sat map of the estimate of your home and your neighbors'.

www.zillow.com

[Ballbuster1]

Looks like it's on the low side. Both adresses I entered listed
the prices lower than what houses in both neighborhoods are
currently selling for.

[click]

It seems like it is really on the low side. It says tax assessed value though, not what homes would actually sell for. No homes in my area are listed over 100K.

[jpc165]

Ya for most of the houses I entered I compared to their MLS reports for what they want and zillows estimate was always a lil lower. But my rental property I purchased is estimated about 40% higher than what I thought it was worth. Time to do a cash out refi up to the payment where I can still make some cash flow on my rent!

I plan to use that money for the down payment on my new primary residence.


My place said Zestimate next to its price.

This link explains some of the details on how they come up with it..

http://www.zillow.com/howto/Zestimate.z

I guess they use the tax assesment if they can. But isn't that usually alot lower than the selling prices.

[Sinn Fein]

That site is total bravo sierra.

It came up with $272,000 for our house. Our house is worth $425,000. It just got appraised, just did a re-fi on the mortgage. It also had the # of bedrooms and the square footage wrong.

[Coffee Diva]

How close to reality is this site?

It's on the internet, isn't it? You know you can trust the internet!

[whoisisthis]

we just appraised, and it was off by 100k for me


plus they robbed me of one bathroom and 800 sq. feet

[jpc165]

The site is still in beta mode. So it seems it has plenty of work to do. But the idea is cool.

[Mother Shucker]

My house was about right, but I put my sisters in and it was off by about 200k.

[Multiple Miggs]

Not even close. The estimate from there was less than half of what my home was appraised for 2 yrs ago.

[Bill]

The estimate on my house is probably pretty accurate. However, they had my next door neighbor's house valued at about $125K more than mine, which made no sense. So, I went to the next step entering accurate data into the formula and it increased the value of my house by about $625K, which is absolutely insane.

[hillarythegreat]

It's not close to being accurate. It shows my house as having only 3 bedrooms and 1 floor. The basement is completly finished with two bedrooms down there and a bath and family room. My brothers house is not correct either.

Edit: it was last appraised at $349,000. Not sure where I got the amount I listed originally but it has about 2,000 square feet. I just looked at the bank papers.

[mendoman]

Way low on my house. It shows $419K, just had it appraised for 475K. I'm in California, it's only 1700 sq. ft.. Prices STINK out here.

[fewtoomany]

Site stinks no home values in my area.

[Deoptics8]

I am selling my house in Fl. and it is pretty close, running about $20-$30K lower than listing. It does show when I bought the house and how average sale prices in the neighborhood. I just don't see anything recent and I am afraid that is because nobody is buying townhouse and condos down there any more. I guess I am going to have to find a tenant to rent. Anybody want to live in Jupiter, FL? It is a 2 bedroom. 2.5 bath Townhouse about a 5 min drive from the beach. It has a subdivision gated 50 meter swimming pool, tennis courts, etc. It is fully furnished and it is pretty quiet, and not too many old folgies compared to other neighborhoods. Anyone... Bueller???

[Sinn Fein]

I just went back to the site and updated the info and it made it alot closer. It didn't let me account for some of the improvements that were made, but it got it within 50K of it's real value.

[Elo]

My house is not even on it. I started construction in September 2004. From knowing my property it looks as though the satelite photo is from early summer 2004 at the most recent.

[Capt'n Obvious]

The house I just bought was valued at about 4,000 dollars on this site.
I think I REALLY got ripped off.

Thats the adjusted property tax value, which means my guess is that your taxes are probably between 15-20 thousand a year and the house is worth 1.5 mil ... just a guess

[StickyKeyboard]

Hillary, finished basements aren't included in the room count or square footage.

[novalia]

i just refied in sept and my house was appraised at 750... the site shows 855... i aint complaining... my situation is pretty sweet because they have been building million dollar homes a stones throw away from my house... another development nearby with 800k homes.. ~15 homes...

i've got a double bagger in 5 years!

[Bill]

Hillary, finished basements aren't included in the room count or square footage.

When I bought my house, the appraiser counted the finished basement as two rooms, even though it is just one large finished space. Because of the way that the furniture was setup down there, it was appraised as being an office and a den.

During two subsequent appraisals, one for a home equity line of credit and the other for a straight refinance, those appraisers did the same thing.

[novalia]

the website is a bit flawed when it comes to the details... if you fill in the information like number of rooms, square footage etc the numbers get wacky... my home practically just by adding the details...

there are other sites that can do sort of the same thing but i think they are more specifically related to selling prices... hmm... ok you're right... it isnt the same thing!

[Jolie]

It shows my house at 559K. The tax assessor just sent me my assessment for the year and it assesses at 927K.

Site seems pretty off for me.

[Fruit Monkey]

yea it seems a bit low says my nieghbor hood is about 75k off close tho im sure the #'s they use are at least 6 months old tho

p.s. i just figure out why my area is so low! i just moved in !! i can crash any real estate value and yes the front lawn is for parking cars ... ON BLOCKS!

[StickyKeyboard]

When I bought my house, the appraiser counted the finished basement as two rooms, even though it is just one large finished space. Because of the way that the furniture was setup down there, it was appraised as being an office and a den.

During two subsequent appraisals, one for a home equity line of credit and the other for a straight refinance, those appraisers did the same thing.

I am a real estate appraiser in NJ/NY and the amount of rooms in the basement isn't going to affect the value. I just count if its unfinished, part finished, or finished. We used to put down what rooms were in the basement but they changed the form and we don't even do that anymore.

[RandomNY]

It's pretty accurate for the homes in my area. In fact the house across the street from me sold for the exact price ZILLOW says it should. The site is good for an idea, if you are looking around.

Most of the other sites ifyou enter an address looking for est. they want you to enter all your information so a agent can call you. Those are just set up so agents can get new sales leads.

The guy who runs ZILLOW said that is the main reason he started it for people who are just looking and don't want to deal with an agent yet.

[Jolie]

If you are looking for an idea of prices in an area, another thing to do is find out if the county tax assessments are online. The county I live in has them all online, so its incredibly easy to see recent sales and recent assessments.

[nickmnusa]

Parents house in centerport new york sold for I think 230K 8 years ago now its worth 601K according to this site makes me sick

[Sajix]

The website states certain areas have more detail than other areas. my zip, is fairly accurate with nothing under 500k. They have a townhouse at 790 and it just listed at 900, so the percentage is not that off.

[Maynard K]

My house was right on with my tax assessed value this year. I was assessed last year so this site goes by #'s that could be 7 or more years old. Of course the new house i'm buying now is a very old tax assesed year, it's useless for me.

[chewonmysac]

Zillow is a government engineered housing bubble. They stink. WTF happened to my equity. FU Zillow.

[THE FEZ MAN]

ahhhh the great zip code game. my zip is a shity one to have, becuase the town that it is based in is a dump, i guess i should figure out what my zip+4 is and get a more accurate price, the value of my home was correct in my eyes but the other houses on my block should go for double of what they are on the site, just like the ones accross the street that are in a differnt zip and have NO lots at all, 1/4 acer or less, all of the older homes in my hood have at least one acer, the way it should be, i want 100k acers, i fucking hate people, espeicialy neighbors. all and all i think it reads a little low, but that is to be expected

[fearofGRRs]

That site is way low.

I checked houses on my street and if they were at those price I would buy the whole block.

How low is it ?

A house that just sold for $2.3 mill (building will be demolished), the site valued at $342K.
Guess the new owner got ripped big time.

[Suicidebree]

Uh not even close. It was somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000$ off, not including a finished basement. Apparently no one in my hood has a house worth over 175k. Though the house next door is on the market for 485,000.

[BeezerBlanks]

Holy old thread batman... j/k :icon_wink

This site is really bad though.
My (parents) old house sold for like $278k over 2 years ago and IIRC after the new people fixed it up it was valued at over $300k now, they have listed as $202k. I wish, hell I'd buy it at that price, as its impossible to find a house under $250k thats not in the ghetto.

[mascan42]

Wow. What a useless piece of shit. They don't even have the number of rooms right.

[LifeHacker]

Are you guys this site measures market value and not insurance value (replacement cost)?

[jpc165]

i just had my rental appraised for a cash out refi and this site said my house was worth about 10% more. $145,000 versus $130,000 apraised.

Its a small 2 bedroom place, but I bought it for $60000 3.5 years ago. A nice fucking return on my investment.

[AngryPest]

It’s pretty accurate for my area (Eastern Mass). I checked on 3 properties that were for sale and it nailed each of their final selling prices. Not the asking price but the final sale price and this was before the sale was registered. I think it all depends on the number of sales in the local area. If enough similar houses (which have the correct info listed) are recently sold near you then your estimate will be more accurate.

From a technical standpoint it’s a pretty slick application (It appears to be using AJAX). To be able to crunch all that info, from so many disparate sources, in real-time is pretty cool.

[Suicidebree]

I'm more pissed the guy above me stole my sig pic, fucker.

[AngryPest]

I'm more pissed the guy above me stole my sig pic, fucker.

Why don’t you select from some of the fine images available on the church of Euthanasia website my friend.

[Suicidebree]

Not you douche cunt, the avatar a a few up. Go finger your negro mother sir.

[Dave _from_Kiev]

It seems my home doesnt exisit. So I guess Im not sitting here typing this either.

[DonTheTrucker]

There is a huge difference between an appraisal and a tax assessment.

[thatsrightrobin]

It was right on the money for my neighborhood.

[BruceKellysJunk]

it shows my place at $328,624


cost $189,000 a little over a year ago.


sure hope its right...