Can you believe Zillow has been around for three years now? I can remember the first time I had heard of it. I was at a listing appointment in Henderson, Nevada going over the CMA (comparative market analysis) with the home owners. As I began to discuss the price, they interrupted me and said according to Zillow, my house is worth this much. I was thinking at the time, what the heck is Zillow? Needless to say, I didn’t get the listing and I blamed Zillow, even though I didn’t know what it was until later that day.
As I began to research Zillow, I realized that they were off in value on almost every home I checked. On average, they were coming in at least $20K – $30K higher than the values I determined. I thought there was no way they would stay around with this inaccurate information, boy was I wrong. It got to the point that almost every listing appointment I went on in late 2006, the home owners would always quote Zillow. “Well Zillow showed, my home is worth this much”. “How come they show my house is worth more?” For awhile there, I hated Zillow.
The problem was, no matter how much I disliked them, home owners were going to continue to use Zillow since it was an easy way to get a “Zestimate” of their home value. I determined I had to quit fighting Zillow and figure out a way to use it to my benefit. I began to use Zillow in my listing presentations. I would explain how Zillow was a great source to get an estimated value of the home owner’s home, instead of them interrupting me and stating, “well Zillow shows….” By using Zillow’s values in my presentation, it showed the home owners I was aware of their home “Zestimate” and depending on the value I was able to educate them on why Zillow’s value was higher or lower than my estimated value. Zillow’s “Zestimates” never cost me a listing again.
Today, Zillow has evolved to offer more services to consumers such as Mortgage Quotes and Home Searches while offering real estate industry professionals a platform to create a profile and answer questions from buyers and sellers.
Love it or hate it, Zillow will be here for a long time!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Zillow has been out best friend. I just read an article from “Agents of Change” on the web that 70% of there users are not using a real estate agent. I was just going to write a blog about the same thing. We are not getting more calls to do video for FSBO’s, and they are paying for the higher priced packages. The Two common complaints about Realtors are they underprice their homes, and the “never” market or show them. This week, we are doing three of those.
I have a weighted insight into Zestimates, as I am an appraiser too. The fact is, that Zestimates are not enough but certainly can be effectively incorporated into a listing presentation.
This discussion reminds me exactly why I keep my appraisal business cards well out of sight when at any social gathering, emphasizing instead that appraisals – good appraisals that one can stand by – require a fair amount of work.
If an oral appraisal is to be avoided when it betrays the scope of work performed for the intended audience, then an automated estimate is certainly best accompanied by a grain of salt. The same way that the potential for human error exists, so too does the potential for automation to exclude factors that affect value. Just a thought…
I’ve always found Zillow to be inaccurate about the Zestimate values they place on properties, usually below of the actual appraised value. It is a good source to get an idea of values but I always add 25% to it. Have anyone else noticed this too?
Tony, What a great way to put a “spin” on Zillow. Now that the market has so drastically changed here in Arizona, it is even more frustrating when zillow is brought up. Outlying areas are so drastically off (high) because of their lack of freeways and infrastructure and inlying areas are too low. I will add that to my presentations both for listing and purchase! Thanks Tony-