Getting the most from Zillow.com

Americans are typically house-proud, working hard to infuse their home’s character with an image of themselves. It is in our nature to improve our surroundings to enhance our comfort and pleasure. And when we make our homes better through updates and remodels, we often increase their value.

If you own a home and have never visited Zillow.com, I highly recommend a visit. Zillow is a unique real estate marketplace built around its huge database of more than 100 million homes in the United States. You can usually find your home easily on Zillow by typing your street address, city and state into the search box. Once it comes up, you can view information not readily available at other real estate sites including location mapping, property tax information and the transaction amounts for recorded sales of the home. 

It's a good idea for all homeowners to periodically visit Zillow and verify their home's profile, scanning for inaccuracies and out-of-date information. As the homeowner, you can claim your home, edit your home facts, add to the home description, upload photos, and report a problem or mapping issue. Be sure to check your house data: the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, and acreage. You even have the ability to enter the date of your last remodeling project.

A key distinguishing feature of Zillow is the Zestimate home values. For every home on Zillow, there is a Zestimate (or current estimated market value). These values are updated three times a week and are calculated using a proprietary algorithm. The algorithm calculates based on a home’s physical attributes, tax assessments and prior and current sales transactions. Keep in mind, though, that Zillow cannot calculate for the condition or nuances of your home, only the facts. For instance, if you add a new kitchen that bumps your square footage by 400, this will help you. But rare granite or marble countertops and walnut floors are not part of the algorithm model.

By verifying your home facts and checking for errors, you can help Zillow provide the most accurate Zestimate for your home. Depending on the nature of your edits, the information may be usable by Zillow during its next calculation and your Zestimate may change. Whether or not you plan on listing your house for sale, be sure that Zillow’s information reflects the most current information about your home.

While there are varying opinions about the reliability of Zillow’s information in determining what a house would actually sell for, Zillow is very clear in qualifying that the information it provides is only an estimate and cannot be used in place of an appraisal, or to obtain a mortgage loan. And while sometimes Zillow can be close to the mark, many times the variance between an actual selling price and a home’s Zestimate can be as much as twenty percent.

Zillow values are more accurate in some regions than in others. This is due in part to the quality of the data available in certain locations. To better show the accuracy of their estimates, Zillow compares historic Zestimates with the actual transaction prices for homes sold in a particular area. Click here to view Zillow’s Data Coverage & Zestimate Accuracy. 

Zestimates are starting points and they fluctuate. However, some people rely heavily on Zillow’s data. If and when you decide to list your home for sale, you can be sure that potential homebuyers will visit Zillow and check the Zestimate for your home. According to a Zillow account representative, the Durham population generates 50,000 hits a month to the site.

If your listing price is considerably higher than the Zestimate, people may balk and walk away. They may worry that the appraisal will come in lower than the sale price and affect financing. The Zillow marketplace provides yet another real estate tool, but it is widely used. To learn more about Zestimates, link here.