Zestimates

[Anonymous]

Interesting how everyone commenting is pointing out that zillow undervalues their property. I've found the opposite to be true on both properties I've owned.

[Anonymous]

We bought our house as a foreclosure. Fire damaged, disgusting, unusable!!!
We ripped out everything inside but the outside was brick and just fine. Nobody (especially Zillow) knows that we put $140,000 into 4 new bathrooms, new kitchens, new floors, new carpet, new everything).

Two years ago, our home appraised for $200,000 more than what we paid just one year prior.

Zillows numbers don't reflect any of this. I don't know how to update anything without risking an increase in property taxes. i'm sure that is the case with a lot of homes.

Also, Zillow likely assumes regular upkeep. For people who put in super cheap fixtures or don't take care of their home, their homes will be overpriced.

Square footage is also very important and almost always wrong.

[Anonymous]

oops - Meant to say we only have one kitchen (not kitchens) - I wish!

[Anonymous]

zillow overvalues our house by about $100k and I think appraisals tend to me very high as well.

We could probably sell for $975K. It zillows for 1.075K and our recent appraisal (refi) was for 1.1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bought our house as a foreclosure. Fire damaged, disgusting, unusable!!!
We ripped out everything inside but the outside was brick and just fine. Nobody (especially Zillow) knows that we put $140,000 into 4 new bathrooms, new kitchens, new floors, new carpet, new everything).

Two years ago, our home appraised for $200,000 more than what we paid just one year prior.

Zillows numbers don't reflect any of this. I don't know how to update anything without risking an increase in property taxes. i'm sure that is the case with a lot of homes.

Also, Zillow likely assumes regular upkeep. For people who put in super cheap fixtures or don't take care of their home, their homes will be overpriced.

Square footage is also very important and almost always wrong.

Assuming you did all your work with permits, the county already knows you property values and have and will adjust taxes. Zillow has no bearing on taxes. You can update squarefootage in zillow.

[Anonymous]

You can "claim" your house on Zillow and actually update the info there, btw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can "claim" your house on Zillow and actually update the info there, btw.

Does it change their analysis aside from the obvious things like changing square footage/ bathrooms?

[Anonymous]

Why would anyone voluntarily update zillow with private information about their home unless they were selling? Even then, why wouldn't you just make sure the listing information was all correct? To me that's like making your facebook profile public. Just seems odd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would anyone voluntarily update zillow with private information about their home unless they were selling? Even then, why wouldn't you just make sure the listing information was all correct? To me that's like making your facebook profile public. Just seems odd.

buyers check zillow and if the estimate is high or on par they will feel more comfortable.

[Anonymous]

7 bedrooms!

[Anonymous]

7 bedrooms!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would anyone voluntarily update zillow with private information about their home unless they were selling? Even then, why wouldn't you just make sure the listing information was all correct? To me that's like making your facebook profile public. Just seems odd.

buyers check zillow and if the estimate is high or on par they will feel more comfortable.

Do serious buyers actually use zillow though? If a listing says that a home has 5 beds and 4 baths, and there are pictures, but a third country looking web site says something else, do people really put any weight in that?