Sellers shouldn’t get attached to any certain price – they aren’t the ones paying it. Instead, select an attractive list price, and judge the market’s reaction – and adjust accordingly.
A story on the accuracy of zestimates:
http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-harney-20150208-story.html
In Carlsbad, Calif., Jeff Dowler, an agent with Solutions Real Estate, did a similar analysis on sales in two ZIP Codes. He found that Zestimates came in below the selling price 70% of the time, with disparities ranging as high as $70,000. In 25% of the sales, Zestimates were higher than the contract price. In 95% of the cases, he said, “Zestimates were wrong. That does not inspire a lot of confidence, at least not for me.” In a second ZIP Code, Dowler found that 100% of Zestimates were inaccurate and that disparities were as large as $190,000.
Just looked at my zestimate for my home, Jim. Yep, it’s a $100,000 too low.
Below actual value, or below wishing price? 😆
I agree it’s screwy – the zestimate on my house in Carlsbad was quite accurate until Dec 2013. At that point it started going completely off the rails high. I just checked and it corrected slightly this month but it’s nearly $300k high. I just refi’ed so I have a recent appraisal and Zillow completely misses the mark. It’s not rocket science – these are tract and the identical model 4 houses down with a bigger lot and in better shape sold in November for $325k less than my zestimate (gives me a pretty firm upper bound of price). The funny part is that all the other zestimates on the block are what I’d consider pretty accurate – my house is a total outlier for no obvious reason. And I’ll have another data point soon – a place 5 houses down the street was listed exactly at zestimate 3 weeks ago.
JtR, below actual value 🙂 (You know RE is a hobby of mine, right?
When did zestimates become legitimate things? Just because they are around for awhile, all of a sudden they have some value? Lets go back to laughing at them and ridiculing anyone that makes reference to them to justify a value. They are a cute marketing ploy by Zillow that has worked quite well, nothing more.
PLUS, the way they are presented are quite unseemly. I know the Zillow estimates on houses I own as of the day I closed on them. When I pull up the Zillow estimate now, the representation of what the Zillow value was on the day I closed has changed; in some cases significantly. Not cool.
If you think the real estate industrial complex is lax about the rules, the Z team is even worse.
They’ve been accused of RESPA violations here, but nothing has changed on their website:
http://realuoso.com/corporate/zillows-co-marketing-program-violate-respa/
http://www.inman.com/2014/12/01/lenders-said-to-be-bending-rules-of-zillows-co-marketing-program/