When determining your home’s value, an algorithm can only take you so far.

What do you need to know about Zillow’s Zestimates? The first thing to know is that they’re just a rough estimate based on public records and user-submitted information. The key thing to remember is that Zillow data can be manipulated, so the Zestimate may not be accurate. On Zillow’s own site, they admit their numbers are accurate 75% of the time but within 10% of the actual price.

For real estate, 10% is a pretty big margin of error. If your home is worth $500,000, your Zestimate could be $50,000 too high or $50,000 too low—hardly what you would call advantageous information!

Zillow is sort of like WedMD: If your health issue isn’t too serious, browsing WebMD might be the call, but if you have a more severe health concern, you’d know to consult a doctor. You wouldn’t trust your health diagnosis to WebMD, so why would you trust the value of your home to a website where the data can so easily be manipulated?

“The key thing to remember is that Zillow data can be
manipulated, so the Zestimate may not be accurate.”

If you want to know what your home is worth in this current market, do yourself a favor and speak with a professional real estate agent like myself. In fact, I invite you to look up your Zestimate and send it to me! I’ll be happy to compare your property to similar homes in the area that have sold recently to test just how accurate your Zestimate truly is.

I hope this information was helpful. Give me a call or send an email if you have further questions on this or any other real estate topic. I look forward to hearing from you!

Written by Shelly Holz on September 10, 2020.