Has anyone been able to play with www.zillow.com yet? I went today and it was down, but from what I have read the data coverage is still spotty. I admit that I am curious how it might be covering our area. While the margin of error may be high, I am sure it is fun to play around with for general valuations in specific areas.
Anyone?
Laura
I took a quick look and the valuation was through the roof. For one property that was just listed, it had an estimated value that was $50k over what the current asking price was and that asking price is a bit high. I think where it blew up was that it used the assessed tax value and Massachusetts is supposed to be switching over to 100% of market value. Over a 1/3 of the houses in that town were reassessed recently so I guess it’s hard for it to figure out a good price. Guess it also doesn’t take into account the fact that some properties selling now are going for less than what they would have gotten last year.
I wouldn’t trust too much on those “estimates” as that is what they are. It’s a great tool for knowing the details of the insides of the house and how much the person paid for it. Also, it gives a few comps of what sold around the area. Neat tool.
I put my home in and got a number that was pretty close. I don’t think it can do your due diligence, but it is pretty good. I don’t like not being able to control what comps it pulls to get the value, but it is close enough to decide if you want to go out and take a look
WOW. This site just popped up outa nowhere. One of my account execs. sent me the link this morning. I tried to do some pre-comps using it and I was not impressed. In my case, the data they had on the subject property was old.
This site was created by the ex-ceo of Expedia. It was all over the news yesterday afternoon and last night in the Bay Area.
LOL, they had this on the main page…
“Site seems slow? Close your eyes and envision your perfect home
By then maybe the server can handle our zillions of visitors.”
It did not even have data for our zip code. I think if you are going to bring out a new service like this, you should be ready.
It is not ready for the Real Estate World.
It’s in Beta - ie. testing mode. It isn’t supposed to have data for every zip code yet and it will be slow and bug-y. Pretty standard for any new site launch like this.
Our area just shows appraised values, but I do like how it shows entire areas at a time so I can get a general idea at one glance. I look forward to the improvements they will be making.
I ran my home again, and the value was right, but when I looked at the houses used for comps, there was a big problem. They was not from my subdivision. 2 were on the other side of a major freeway. I think they got my value right by shear luck. I would not use it to comp a house I am looking to make money from.
8 of 10 houses I personally know about were way off … ours by $150K! an old one I used to live in was high by $175K
If someone tells you a house you are selling is too much you can show them the Zillow site, they’ll think they’re robbing you…
This site is in beta mode and very spotty. If it’s comps you want, try: www.homeradar.com or
www.domania.com
So far, the site has been spotty. It’s been way off with East Austin values because I think it also using tax assessed values. The homes are selling for twice as much as what’s on the site. The area is rapidly appreciating, so it will be off.
I also checked Bank of America’s home value tool and it was way off. I have a friend in Pflugerville (a declined market) and they valued his home about 50k more than what he’d get in his wildest dreams.
Comps are tough. Texas is one of the non-disclosure states so Domania and other solutions don’t really work for us. I haven’t seen any accurate online tools. Even agents and appraisers are wrong and they get to be subjective.
Pulled some equity six months ago and my house appraised for 150K. Zillow is showing only 113K. I sold several homes in my neighborhood and zillow was way under the sales prices.
Don’t think it’s trustworthy.
looks ok but i cant get any addresses to work
OMG!!! It finally worked for my street and it says the house I live in is wotrh $274k. Most of the other houses on my street are the same and up to over $300k. That’s funny because nothing on my street has EVER sold for over $200k. One (biggest on the street) sold for $190k but that was 6 months ago when prices were stronger and I still think it was a fluke. At this point nothing on the street should fetch more than $150-160k, neighborhood is almost entirely blue collar 2 families.
Zillow does not narrow the search much, so you need to go to advanced and narrow the radious of your search and set the number of bedrooms.
Also pay attention to the sales dates since some are very old. In my area, the data is at least 6 months to a year old so the estimates mostly below market value.
I am using it to get a rough idea of house sales in that area and estimate the house price based on the comps rather than their own estimate that way I can eliminate the underpriced foreclosure sales or highly overpriced property(ies).
I think it will be a great tool once it is finalized.
Tried the satellite picture service Zillow provides, it was really cool and zero(ed) right down to rooftop of our condo building in Chicago. Did notice the surrounding areas that have been under construction for last 2 months don’t show up with any construction yet - so - satellite shots are obviously old. This whole site will blossom into a terrific tool - and free, if we are willing to work with these services that try to develop from the “Bottom- up” instead of waiting for a perfect tool created from a corporation ("Top-down) that costs.