10.25.2012

What's The Deal With Zillow?

Not an open house goes by when I don't have a prospective buyer or just a tire kicker come in and tell me 'well Zillow thinks this home is worth X.' 

Big Deal. 

Do most people have ANY idea what Zillow does, where they get their information from and how they reach their 'zestimates?' Of course not. Let me make this easy. Virtually none of us really know and since they are so wildly inaccurate it's difficult to take them or their zestimates seriously. Rather than get into an opinionated rant...let's just present some facts.  Today I took 20 closed sales in the last two weeks in Marion County Washington Township.  I took their actual sales prices and then ran the zestimate for each home.  The zestimates were off by an average of 21.7% from the actual sales price versus zillow's number. Here are a few examples. A home on Olde Mill sold for $201,000 versus the zestimate of $224,900.  Ooops. Somebody would have overpaid by $23,000 if they'd listened to our friends from Seattle. A home on Washington Blvd. closed this month at $305,000. The zillow estimate was $395,000,  A home on N. Penn closed on October 11th for $429,000 versus the zestimate of $401,000.  Finally on Round Hill sold for $617,000 versus the zestimate of $552,000.  The zestimates were high, low and everywhere but in between BUT not ONE zestimate was actually within $9,000 of the actual sales price. Why would anyone use their numbers based on a five minute model of research? I don't know....but don't bring those numbers to me and try and negotiate because I may actually use documented stats to discuss it with you. greg cooper, east carmel indiana homes for sale, east carmel indiana neighborhoods 46033, top selling carmel indiana realtor agent broker, sold homes in east carmel indiana