[starflyte1]

My house estimated value is $100,000 less than one across the street. Approx. same size house. I have a 10x20 in ground heated pool and 80ft on a championship golf course.

If I would like to sell my house and someone looks at Zillow, I would not be able to sell it.

Something very wrong that they can print such false statements.

[Nucky]

I believe everyone's life experience with Zillow. Why wouldn't I? My experience in other place were so out of line that I would have classified them as FAKE News.

In Florida from my experience so far they are much more of a valuable gauge of the value of a home. I am hopeful that their evaluation of the homes within a half mile of mine continue their upward trend. Manufactured Homes are Red Hot now.

Wanna make a killing on a house? Buy at the correct price going in and going out will be much less stressful. Best of luck from Carlton Sheets & Dave Del Dotto! It's been many moons since these guys were on TV constantly and a whole lot of what they taught was shifty. Not all of it. I wonder if they are out of jail yet? These guys are a walk down memory lane and I like it big time.

I like Realtor.com who may be tied in with Zillow and Trulia somehow nowadays.

Does The Villages limit the amount of rentals a Family or Person can have?

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by starflyte1

My house estimated value is $100,000 less than one across the street. Approx. same size house. I have a 10x20 in ground heated pool and 80ft on a championship golf course.

If I would like to sell my house and someone looks at Zillow, I would not be able to sell it.

Something very wrong that they can print such false statements.

You may want to go to Zillow.com and update your house facts. Even if they are currently accurate, they may review it and change the Zillow estimate.

Personally, I trust the Zillow estimates way more so than the listing price or what Realtors say. If a house has a Zillow estimate that is much higher than the listed price, I won't even waste my time to view it. I also use the county website to see what the seller paid for the house, when it was sold, and what upgrades were made.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by starflyte1

Do you think the Zillow home estimate is even close to the value of your home?

Depends on whose home you're talking about. The home that Zillow hasn't updated in over 10 years? Or the home that Zillow updated yesterday?

Actually the answer to both is "unreliable data."

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

You may want to go to Zillow.com and update your house facts. Even if they are currently accurate, they may review it and change the Zillow estimate.

Personally, I trust the Zillow estimates way more so than the listing price or what Realtors say. If a house has a Zillow estimate that is much higher than the listed price, I won't even waste my time to view it. I also use the county website to see what the seller paid for the house, when it was sold, and what upgrades were made.

You can't always update the information, especially if you don't have a Zillow account or are a licensed realtor. They get some of their data from the MLS service which laymen can't update.

[rjm1cc]

I know of a new home that was valued at less than the original selling price. My assumption is that Zillo looks at similar homes to come up with a price. The problem was the home had a lot of modifications including solar electric that was not reflected in the estimated price.

[GoPacers]

Many sellers and seller's realtors oftentimes suggest Zillow is wrong. I don't work at Zillow but my guess is they are much closer to actual value than most people would like to admit. Their algorithms get better with time and with more data (sales). If you assume there are smart people at Zillow then they are probably looking at the same things the smart people on this forum would look at to define value (tax assessments, actual sales, etc.). The only difference is they are trying to assess values of thousands to millions of homes (algorithmically) while we get to do it for a specific house empirically.

I don't trust Zillow implicitly but I do think it does provide a good estimate for most homes. Yes, there are outliers but those outliers are not always the house that we own.

[starflyte1]

I have never sued anyone in my life, and am generally against doing so. However, I can not believe that someone hasn't filed a class action lawsuit against Zillow, for publishing false information.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

You can't always update the information, especially if you don't have a Zillow account or are a licensed realtor. They get some of their data from the MLS service which laymen can't update.

Wrong. If you are the owner of the house, can update information and report inaccurate information anytime you want. You just need to verify that you own the house. Yes, it is up to Zillow to correct inaccurate information, but you can put them on notice when their information is inaccurate. They have a section on their website specifically for that purpose.

[ColdNoMore]

Originally Posted by starflyte1

I have never sued anyone in my life, and am generally against doing so. However, I can not believe that someone hasn't filed a class action lawsuit against Zillow, for publishing false information.

Seriously?

A lawsuit?

Zillow/Trulia/Etc. simply give an "estimate/opinion."

They do not claim/guarantee that their opinion/estimate, is exactly what a house is worth...so good luck on suing someone over their opinion/estimate.

And as we all know, it's actual 'worth' will be established by whatever amount someone...is willing to sell for/pay.

I've used Zillow & Trulia, both buying & selling, to get a very rough estimate...ONLY.

What I do look for though, are homes in the general area that have actually been sold recently (sales prices are often posted on other homes nearby) and then try to compare the SF price, amenities, upgrades, Etc., Etc....to the house I'm interested in.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Wrong. If you are the owner of the house, can update information and report inaccurate information anytime you want. You just need to verify that you own the house. Yes, it is up to Zillow to correct inaccurate information, but you can put them on notice when their information is inaccurate. They have a section on their website specifically for that purpose.

Right. That's what I said. YOU - the homeowner - personally - cannot cause the information to be updated. Only Zillow can do that. You can submit a request for an update, but you are not able to do the update yourself.

They had a couple of homes in my old neighborhood valued at -much- more than their actual value, plus they never changed the flag on our property to indicate that it was for sale.

It had us as the original owner - it was built in 1955 and neither of us were born then so yeah - no we weren't the original owner.

It indicated we had a built-in pool - we don't, and never did. But they got that information from the tax assessor in town, which had the information wrong 10 years ago and corrected that 8 years ago when we complained we were paying too much tax as a result.

It had a lot of information incorrect, included information that shouldn't have been there at all, and was missing information that should have been there (such as our full basement, which was a pretty big deal in a neighborhood that was predominately cape homes on cement slab foundations).

Zillow is not reliable, commonly inaccurate, and untrustworthy. That's on a good day.

[retiredguy123]

I trust Zillow more than The Villages agents. A Villages agent recently showed me a house with the sales pitch that the owner could not make profit because she had purchased the house new only 6 months ago. That is false. I asked the agent why the house was priced at $100K over what the owner had paid 6 months ago and what the Zillow estimate was for the house. She said that the owner had included the 6 percent sales commission and the cost for all of the upgrades in the price. Any real estate expert knows that the sales commission is paid for by the seller, not the buyer. And, when you upgrade your house, you should not expect to get 100 percent of the upgrade cost back when you sell the house. The Villages is not being honest when they say that they do not allow a profit within one year of buying a new house. Zillow is a good way to gauge the real value of a house.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

Right. That's what I said. YOU - the homeowner - personally - cannot cause the information to be updated. Only Zillow can do that. You can submit a request for an update, but you are not able to do the update yourself.

They had a couple of homes in my old neighborhood valued at -much- more than their actual value, plus they never changed the flag on our property to indicate that it was for sale.

It had us as the original owner - it was built in 1955 and neither of us were born then so yeah - no we weren't the original owner.

It indicated we had a built-in pool - we don't, and never did. But they got that information from the tax assessor in town, which had the information wrong 10 years ago and corrected that 8 years ago when we complained we were paying too much tax as a result.

It had a lot of information incorrect, included information that shouldn't have been there at all, and was missing information that should have been there (such as our full basement, which was a pretty big deal in a neighborhood that was predominately cape homes on cement slab foundations).

Zillow is not reliable, commonly inaccurate, and untrustworthy. That's on a good day.

What good would Zillow's website be if they allowed the homeowner to enter information without verifying the accuracy? It's their website, not the homeowner's. According to the Forbes report, the Zillow information is much better than it was years ago and getting better all the time. For current sales, the Zillow estimate is within about 1.9 percent of the actual sales price. I think that is a pretty good record. I wouldn't call it commonly inaccurate.

[valuemkt]

I have found zillow to be a very valuable resource. I've sold "average" properties for plus or minus 3% of zillow, which, in many cases, was above realtor "comps", and also sold rehabbed homes much higher than zillow or comps when they had been updated with modern colors and features. In either case, zillow is a great starting point. In the case of your own personal residence, most people over value features that are important to them .. but not potential buyers. Isn't that why many FSBO's are priced over Zillow and sit unsold ? A 15 year old house that hasn;t been touched in that time, will theoretically sell for much less than one that has been painted with current colors, has updated counters and appliances, and newer HVAC etc. The Zestimate figures on average improvements over time. At the same time, certain features that you have found valuable might not be worth as much as you paid for them .. eg someone might love your house, but consider your pool, summer kitchen or your kissing lanai to be negatives or deal breakers. So, IMO Zillow is a great place to start your objective valuation.

[Two Bills]

My wife and I have bought and sold many homes in our life, and it must be the same the whole world over.
The one thing we always found, is that if your house is well presented, and you get no offers, you are asking to much, whatever online websites, or realtors say.
The other thing we learnt, was if a place is perfect, so is the price.
Buy the less than perfect, if possible the more less than perfect, and then you have all the profit!