I am an investor in the residential sector and I usual do my own market analysis, and I think I’m pretty decent at it. When researching a deal I look at a lot of factors, obviously, and I’m usually within a few bucks here or there. But this has always been on real estate in my own backyard. Areas I know, streets I know, or are at least somewhat familiar with.
Recently I’ve been looking at real estate in other states. And due to all of the obvious obstacles, ie… geography, limited time, etc… I can’t go to every single house and check out all the details that need to be done to come up with a decent market analysis. And forget calling RE agents, they more than annoy me. lol (just kidding here)
So I’ve been using zillow.com and I think it’s been pretty good so far. So my question is what does everyone think of zillow and are there any other sites that you are using? Do you think that zillow is somewhat accurate?
Zillow is not very thorough in many areas of the country. And “no” to answer your second question.
If you have a market you’d like to enter, I’d go there and spend a few days looking at places. No way would I be using internet estimates for properties.
I'm glad to see that you are venturing into the "out of state" real estate investing world. Sites like Zillow, I would take with a grain of salt.... If you take into consideration what online sites are saying, then you really need to use more than just zillow. There are many out there, just google something like, "online home value search" or something like that. I know one off the top of my head would be cyberhomes.com, but again, you want to use a couple of these home value sites to kind of get an estimate of where you should be at as far as value.
Another alternative, and I think this one is better, is to build a relationship with a Real Estate Agent and ask them to do a CMA for you. Find out ways you can help them out and bring them business, and again, build that relationship. A CMA shouldn’t be that big of a deal depending on what they have going on.
You can also network with some “We Buy Houses” guys in the market you are looking in and talk to them about the market. (This is also a way of finding out what they are looking for in their own market.) You can find them all day on craigslist and other free advertising websites located in the real estate services section.
By doing this, you dont have too much of a reason to go flying all around the nation seeing if you want to take on a market. You can get eyes on ground and leverage the internet!
Well… at least that’s the way I do it. Proceed at your own risk.