How accurate is Zillow? I find the Zestimates to be a bit outlandish.

Thoughts?

chester

in About Brooklyn 11 years and 5 months ago

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est | 11 years and 5 months ago

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You can have them remove the so-called zestimate.” I did. After trying and failing to contact them through their contact” link on the site, I e-mailed their investor relations person. Can’t remember the name. But every company that’s publicly traded has to post that information on their corporate site. But again, while they may have your property listed well below what you know it will fetch in the open market appraisers don’t use estimates, they use comparable sales. So while an inaccurate zestimate may be annoying, when it comes to an actual transaction such as a sale or a refi the appraiser will be comparing your home to prices obtained for similar properties in the area.

zoepelle | 11 years and 5 months ago

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I’ve found it to be inaccurate. My property listing says I paid $1,500,000 for it. That’s just the last appraisal we had for a HELOC. I didn’t pay anywhere near that amount, but if my neighbors/friends checked, that’s what they would think.

surbiton | 11 years and 5 months ago

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It maybe “useless” but Zillows inaccurate Zestimates cause misery and potential financial damage to millions of homeowners suffering with Zillows imposed nonsense Zestimates. When 17% of 106 million Zestimates are over 25% inaccurate this is a significant problem that requires some form of Regulatory action by our elected officials. At the very least there needs to be a DoNotZestimate option that enables any homeowner saddled with an incorrect Zestimate to OPT out of Zillows nonsense, designed purely to attract Unique Users to its website and therefore additional revenues.

dorkofwindsor | 11 years and 5 months ago

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in a word . . . . useless.

mortgagepro | 11 years and 5 months ago

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While Zillow can be utilized as a resource for some data, the ‘Zestimate’, especially in Brooklyn, should never be considered. While I may utilize parts of Zillow (i.e. where my clients can post reviews), as mentioned above, the data is not specific enough to determine values in Brooklyn. Comparable sales is what will determine an appraised value and the criteria of factors warranting adjustments (+/-) to a comp is then taken into account. Zillow will list sales but there are not enough details in the sales figures provided to accurately compare. I utilize GeoData (subscription service) to assist my clients with more detailed BK data. It is one of the databases utilized by appraisers (in addition to their knowledge of the neighborhood and Realtor data of very recent sales, contracts, etc.). Feel free to contact me if I can be of assistance. Adam Roberts South Shore Mortgage NMLS#1310 P: 631-956-0111 x218 adamr@southshoremortgage.com or adamr@fast2fund.com http://www.zillow.com/profile/user9512449/

est | 11 years and 5 months ago

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I agree with the above comment and if anything I’ve found Zillow to underestimate in the Brooklyn area. Not to mention Street Easy is not the same real-estate website since they acquired it.

slopefarm | 11 years and 5 months ago

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Zillow gives you rough justice based on a very large universe of comps. It cannot exercise judgment as to which are the most apt, so it sweeps in a large radius of recent sales and then uses some metric to weight each one in an average acounting for numbr of BRs, sf, etc. You are best off clicking through to the comp list itself and finding the ones that are most apt.