zillow is a generalized algorithm, meaning that it can't know the condition of your house, and it makes location generalized assumptions about your house. Zillow does not know the condition of the house, nor any desirable features unless added and the algorithm can value the feature. Sometimes it will be approximately correct, other times it will be windy wrong.
As compared to a actual paid valuation, Zillow is most likely significantly wrong if the house isn't similar to the houses in the general area, as the paid valuation looks at the condition of the house, etc. and the specifics. Its about 50K off 10% low on my parents house which I just had a professional valuation done, it was 100K (66%) high on my wife's parents' house as the condition of a 250 yo house was not kept up as well as the current houses. But with houses all very similar in the villages, the current valuation is probably a lot closer to an expected sale price than other locations
So again, its just a location generalized algorithm based upon similar house sales in the local area. . . . only a place to start, and with anchoring biases, meaning it was the first public valuation web site where people got their first free valuation, and as an anchor its a place people belief is accurate as they have no other source to evaluate the quality of the algorithm
in other words, its free and you get what you paid for it. . .
finance guy
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