Is Zillow accurate at all or a total waste?

[NJBest]

Zillow is a joke in regards to my home. My home is worth somewhere between $850k and $1.2mm based on an assessment last year. According to Zillow, our home was valued at $912k in 2007, $2.7mm in 2008 and 2009, and is now valued at $999k. After seeing this, there is no way to have faith in Zillow's accuracy.

It's still a good place to get post sales prices though.

[AuDiBelle]

A friend of mine just sold her home for $969K but the 'zestimate' said it was worth $678K as of April 1, 2010. My house is worth about $150K more than what zillow says too.

I think they take too much information from county assessments (which can be completely inaccurate too) in formulating their zestimated value. Just my theory.

My sister keeps freaking out over her zestimated value, but I keep telling her how inaccurate zillow is. She just doesn't believe me.

[jamaicabound60565]

If something on your block comprable to your house in terms of rooms, quality of cabinets, carpets, tile, etc sells for more then by all means zillow has you underpriced however if you just say your house is worth 150k more than zillow says that means nothing. A guy on my block is trying to sell his home for 200k, there's about 5 other houses on my block for 150k which are all overpriced as well. His house isn't worth 200k just b/c he says so. He can say so all he wants but its going to be sitting on the market at 200k for the next 20 years.

[AuDiBelle]

Originally Posted by jamaicabound60565

If something on your block comprable to your house in terms of rooms, quality of cabinets, carpets, tile, etc sells for more then by all means zillow has you underpriced however if you just say your house is worth 150k more than zillow says that means nothing. A guy on my block is trying to sell his home for 200k, there's about 5 other houses on my block for 150k which are all overpriced as well. His house isn't worth 200k just b/c he says so. He can say so all he wants but its going to be sitting on the market at 200k for the next 20 years.

We are going to be selling our house within the next year and have gotten comps, CMA's, and a recent bank appraisal. All signs point to zillow grossly undervaluing our house. We've done a lot of improvements to our property, none of which are reflected in zillow's zestimating ability. I've also always aggressively protested our property taxes and ours are considerably lower than comparable houses near us, which is why I think zillow isn't all that accurate since our assessed value is lower.

As someone else pointed out, a house is only worth what somebody else is willing to pay for it regardless of comps, CMA's, zestimates. In the case of my friend, zillow was off by almost $300K. Zillow is nice for for many things, but I wouldn't rely on it for accurate home valuation.