Zillow.com is a joke.

[salin]

I live in an urban "transitional" neighborhood in an urban Midwestern city. I bought a redeveloped home after it had been foreclosed on in 2004 - for 60% of its original asking price. Regardless of the sale price of the home - Zillow has it for 200% of what I paid. The (abandoned and falling apart) house next door is listed by Zillow as valued at 100,000. It just sold for 1,000. Yes, it just sold for 1% of he zillow stated value of the home.

[spotbird]

1. People near me think

their houses have not lost all that much.

What to say.

[Warpy]

2. Zillow has never reflected actual sale prices in my own area

and at the beginning of 2006, was valuing houses here at twice the comps. They've gotten a little closer lately, but they're still overvaluing most of them.

They were pretty close in my dad's part of Florida, though.

[likesmountains 52]

3. They are pretty close here..

[quiller4]

4. Zillow is close but a bit low in Seattle area.

[Peregrine Took]

11. Same here. n/t

[NRaleighLiberal]

5. They are spot in in my area of North Raleigh.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

7. Hello, neighbor. Just looked mine up again and would have to agree. (n/t)

[pipi_k]

6. Been out looking at homes for sale...

One in particular is displayed on Zillow.com at least $30,000 more than what it's worth considering the bad shape it's in and how it comes with 5 acres of unbuildable wetland attached to it.

Unfortunately, the lady who lived there was put into a nursing home and her son, who lives in another state, has absolutely NO idea what condition the home is in. Or HAD no idea, I should say.

Today the Mr and I drove past the house and saw that contractors were busy removing from the garage a second floor deck that was in danger of falling down because of a rotting beam. The garage roof needs replacing, the deck on the house has rotting boards, and the manhole drain in the driveway is falling apart, exposing the sewer drain some 8 or 10 feet below.

I guess the realtor representing the property got on the guy's back and told him the place would never sell at any price, let alone the asking price, looking the way it did.

So yeah....Zillow is a joke. You can't value a home without inspecting it in person.

[anigbrowl]

8. Price estimates are based on public records

Both of the most recent transaction price, and that paid for neighboring properties, adjusted for square footage and so on. It can take up to 3 months for actual closing prices to show up on municipal databases. I happen to know this because my best friend is the lead programmer for one of Zillow's competitors (http://roost.com, in case you would like to try a different approach).

[Telly Savalas]

10. And it's using those public records to project a 70% increase in price for my home

in the last two years. (Perhaps my house would have doubled in value if there hadn't been two people shot in separate incidents within a couple blocks of my house since I bought it.)

Given that houses have been sitting on the market unsold for months with asking prices much less extravagant than what's on Zillow, I have a hard time taking it seriously. It may work well in some markets, but in my neighborhood it's useless.

[anigbrowl]

12. I think it's illegal for them to speculate on other factors

I'm not sure of the details, I just know there are some rules about that so they can't be accused of manipulating property values.

[salin]

14. The zillow estimate on my house never reflected the price I paid for it

It remained at the original asking price (and I paid 40% less.) At one point, my house was valued at 150% of what I had paid for the house a couple of years earlier.

Reading the responses, I see that at least in some markets it is close. Guess the trick is to compare some random comps to the zillow estimates to get a sense of how close it might be before using it as an indicator.

[July]

15. I know for a fact that their "last sale" price on my late brother's house is off by $60,000.

They've also got the date of sale wrong, and have it currently valued at $40,000 more than any of the surrounding homes (it is probably worth about half of what they list it at, if that -- I haven't been able to sell it at any price).

[CoffeeCat]

9. Zillow is a snoop tool...not a home-value site...

Anyone who uses Zillow to find accurate home-value assessments is barking up the wrong tree.

Everyone knows that Zillow is used to snoop on people and find out how much people paid for
their home or generally--what kind of home in which the live.

Who hasn't looked up their old boyfriends/girlfriends on Zillow? ;)

[guitar man]

13. Zillow can bite me

If it thinks I'd sell my home for what it has it listed at...what a joke