Anonymous wrote:That's fantastic, which bank lead this?

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. The appraiser came by yesterday. I printed out a couple of comps to give him. they weren't as close by as I'd hoped, but within about 8 or so blocks, similar size home each with one more bathroom prices $550-600k. He seemed like he had a decent idea of the neighborhood. I also gave him a list of our improvements to the house, and a list of improvements to the neighborhood (huge change since I bought in 2003 including new coffee shops, bars, yoga studio, playgrounds etc) and to our block. We'll find out in a few days what he thought. I'm still crossing fingers that he doesn't use fixer uppers on busy main roads as comps, otherwise there shouldn't be an issue with getting beyond $400k as it's only the ones in really poor shape sold to investors and on busy undesirable sketchy roads that have sold for less than $400k in recent months.

Anonymous wrote:Zillow is a piece of crap, as are other software programs....I have had more than my share of RE agents tell me the same....I too was looking at a refi and in shopping around asked how a carrier used the comps they got from an appraiser. A few said they used zillow as a baseline. When I heard this I dropped them...why, well here it goes I had one carrier put in my address in zillow...and out popped a nice house, etc. the only problem is IT WASN'T MY HOUSE, same neighborhood, same street but just a block away or 14 houses from my house = how can the compare anything when even the baseline they're using is wrong...it's a bunch of junk....

stay away from any carrier that uses this or any other program.

Anonymous wrote:OP here, in my neighborhood the homes were built in the late 1800s. My house is identical to five houses on either side. The house next door is in terrible shape yet Zillow says $50k more than ours, the house to the other side is in excellent condition (I'd say ours is good), recently renovated and yet Zillow says only $20k more than the house that's almost falling down. The prices are directly in relation to the taxable assessment. I successfully appealed my assessment back in 2004 (at that point my house was assessed much higher than all the comparable properties) and because of that they seem to have kept my increases lower than neighboring homes (actually in the last couple of years have had decreases like much of our zip code, despite healthy and increasing sales). The poor condition house next door has changed hands a couple of times triggering a re-assessment so is listed relatively much higher than mine. So while comps may be what Zillow says they use, it's pretty clear that the tax assessments are a huge factor on my block at least.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zillow, Redfin, & others are based on tax assessments as a formula for prediction of an estimate. Redfin gives a low, mid, and high... but all three are wrong in my neighborhood in MD. You will know this if you life in a rowhouse or townhouse neighborhood and your neighbor's house is the same model, same features as yours and it's "estimates" are less than yours.

Don't forget, tax assessments can be inaccurate... it's moronic to think the assessors have that all right. OP, it *could* benefit you to protest the assessment and have it raised.

Recent SALES, updates and/or renovations, location, and tax assessments should all be taken into account. In an urban location, especially a changing one, new restaurants & goods/services can also raise an assessment. OP if there are new retail/restaurants opening in your neighborhood point this out to the assessor... let them know the location is important & why.

NO NO NO, zillow does NOT SOLE:Y use tax assessments it uses comps. This is incorrect, they USED to use assesments when they did not have enough data about DC but now they DO NOT use tax assessments.

http://www.zillow.com/howto/DataCoverageZestimateAccuracy.htm

Anonymous wrote:Zillow, Redfin, & others are based on tax assessments as a formula for prediction of an estimate. Redfin gives a low, mid, and high... but all three are wrong in my neighborhood in MD. You will know this if you life in a rowhouse or townhouse neighborhood and your neighbor's house is the same model, same features as yours and it's "estimates" are less than yours.

Don't forget, tax assessments can be inaccurate... it's moronic to think the assessors have that all right. OP, it *could* benefit you to protest the assessment and have it raised.

Recent SALES, updates and/or renovations, location, and tax assessments should all be taken into account. In an urban location, especially a changing one, new restaurants & goods/services can also raise an assessment. OP if there are new retail/restaurants opening in your neighborhood point this out to the assessor... let them know the location is important & why.