Is The ZILLOW ZESTIMATE Accurate? // What's Your Home Worth?

One of Zillow’s key features is its Zestimates, a popular consumer tool for seeing how much homes are worth. These estimates are based on information from sources such as comparable sales and public data. Launched in 2011 with information about 90 million homes, Zestimates has expanded its reach, providing users with data about more than 100 million homes across the United States.12

Whether you're looking to see how much your home’s value has changed, if your home’s appraised value is high enough to let you refinance, or curious about how much your coworker spent on his new house, Zestimates offers users a starting point in home valuation.

Zillow’s unique algorithms update its collection of property values multiple times a week, based on information from both public data and user-submitted data. According to Zillow, the nationwide median error rate for the Zestimate for on-market homes is 1.9%, while the Zestimate for off-market homes has a median error rate of 6.9%.3 But Zestimates are only as accurate as the data behind them, so if the number of bedrooms or bathrooms in a home, its square footage, or its lot size are inaccurate on Zillow, the Zestimate will be off.

Users can correct these mistakes. However, Zillow cautions that updating a property’s details won’t result in an immediate change in the home’s Zestimate, and sometimes won’t result in any change at all. For example, having a fourth bathroom may not necessarily do much for home values in your town. So, inputting this information may not have any effect at all.

Along with accepting user-submitted data, Zillow deals with problems of inaccuracy by reporting estimated value ranges for individual properties. The smaller the range, the more reliable the Zestimate because it means Zillow has more data available on that property. Looking at the high and low end of the range will give you a better sense of what a home is worth.

Zillow factors the date and price of the last sale into its estimate. In some areas, this information makes up a big part of that figure. But if this information is inaccurate, it can throw off the Zestimate. And since comparable sales also affect a home’s Zestimate, a mistake in one home’s sales price record may affect the Zestimates of other homes in the area.

Sometimes a homeowner makes improvements or upgrades to a property, which should increase the value of the home. But, Zillow may not necessarily be aware of these factors. That is, unless the local property tax assessor has that information. If a homeowner takes out a permit from the city to make any upgrades, that information may be passed along to the property tax authorities and entered into the public record. Zillow can only update its listings when this information is available.

Upgrades aren’t always as valuable as you think, though. It depends a lot on local housing market conditions and what projects you’ve done. So just because your home’s value on Zillow hasn’t changed since you added that bedroom or remodeled your kitchen, don’t assume you can tack on an extra $30,000 to the Zestimate. Conversely, if Zillow says your home is worth $300,000 but you know you haven’t updated it as much as similar homes in your neighborhood, it may sell for less or take longer to find an interested buyer.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments!

==========

🏠 Who Is The Sandusky Group? 🏠
In a sea of Realtors, why choose one over the other? The Sandusky Group strives to help you answer that question. We are a full service real estate team that assists in the buying, selling, and consulting in your real estate goals. We are obsessed with customer service and run our business on the core values of communication, consistency, integrity, and excellence. We desire to be your forever agent and we see you as a person, not a transaction. We'd love to be put to work for you and to prove why we're the Realtor to choose!

==========

💬 Let's Get Social

==========

⬇️ Talk to Us!
Want to get in touch or send us new video ideas?
☎️Call Us: [phone]
Address:
4545 Bluebonnet Blvd Ste. B
Baton Rouge, LA 70809

#SanduskyGroup #RealEstate #ExpertAdvice

[tedbernstein]

In the end... it is the buyers who determine the actual worth of a home.

[breadfan]

An ESTIMATE is a RANGE for a price with a certain margin for error. Zillow GIVES you a range if you claim your house on it's website. It gives a HIGH and a LOW then takes the mid range and THAT IS YOUR ZESTIMATE. SInce Zillow DOESNT know the true condition of your house it just gives the average. Remember, the HIGH range would be considered for a house that is LIKE NEW. Kinda like a car if you had it in damn near perfect shape. THe LOW end would be if the upkeep wasn't as good.

[GIONELLIO]

Zestimate is probably just a guess but mostly it's incorrect because it doesn't know updates, etc. He's right. The ones who can tell is the local realtor about the recent market trend, specifically property updates, etc. This video is helpful.

[kevingoodner]

In your experience, how often is the realtor estimate higher and how often is it lower than the Zestimate?

[stevewise]

They are way off. A zero lot line condo half the size of our large custom home with a zero lot line vs our home sold for as much as Zillow claims our home is suspiciously estimated. A realtor friend laughed and said the Zestimate was only about 700k off the mark.

[lifeandthoughts]

Then where to compare Zillow listed price and correct market price

[damonsonnier]

Zillow estimates my house at $4 dollars, because my brother and father play a game where they ram into each other with mattresses.

[BowlHeadRalts]

Hey guys is the sold amount accurate or not? I could care less about rent and all the other stuff.

[thedoo]

That's very interesting thank you