Quote:
Originally Posted by Boomer
I understand the need for getting a professional, detailed, written appraisal, and I understand the comps, too.
But I would like some clarification on your last sentence, “Zillow is not your friend.”
Is it because Zillow’s Zestimates are often ridiculously high, like realtor.com and others are, too. Or is it because the advertising on Zillow is so wide that it could invite situations that are not what you need or want? (But Zillow picks up the MLS anyway so there is that.)
Btw, does Zillow have a separate section for FSBOs or are they in a section with only other FSBOs?
Thanks for your help.
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Zillow is unreliable. Example from my personal experience:
We sold our home through a realtor. Disclaimer: the agent was horrible, I hate him, we went through hell for almost a year trying to sell the damned house. That said, this is one thing he did NOT do wrong. He did this right:
He listed it with the MLS system, and zillow absolutely had the listing, because when I went to the zillow website and plugged in my address, it showed my house, with the photos I took (yes, I had to provide the photos because the realtor's photos sucked, and the listing price and the paragraph I wrote about it (because the realtor couldn't write a sentence to save his life).
HOWEVER
When I did a google search for my address, the zillow's entry on the google results showed it was not only not for sale, but the last sale was when we purchased the home 18 years prior. Anyone doing a google search for our property would have seen this "NOT FOR SALE" result, and skipped on by to some other property.
When I told my agent, he claimed that he got in touch with zillow and it was fixed. It wasn't. So I clicked on the "Is this your home?" link on the website and sent a note to Zillow telling them they were costing me around $40,000 in taxes, mortgage payments, utilities, and the inconvenience of possibly having to move in the middle of a snowstorm, by telling everyone it's not for sale and that my lawyer might be a little grumpy since I don't pay him enough to deal with this nonsense.
It was fixed 24 hours later.
In short, zillow will be accurate ONLY if you are 100% on top of things and follow up on EVERYTHING with them. Don't wait and see a few days. If you don't see exactly what you want to see upside down and backward, with every possible search option that should result in the correct information, be on top of them within 24 hours. Even on bank holidays and weekend.