Are zillow.com home estimates accurate? (Dallas: sales, real estate, buying)

[seattlerain1]

Hi-
My husband and I will be moving to the Dallas area in July. We have started the homebuying process and have noticed a huge difference (sometimes over $50,000) between the seller's asking price of their home and the home estimate on zillow.com ("zestimate").
For those living in Dallas, would you say the zillow.com estimates of home values are accurate or not?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.

[bluescreen73]

Because Texas is a non-disclosure state, Zillow's Zestimates can be wildly inaccurate. You're better off talking to a real estate professional.

[momof2dfw]

I would not trust zillow for this area for anything. So far off they aren't even funny.

What you can do is look up the value given to a property on the county tax rolls. Then adjust upward. The tax rolls are usually lower by about 10-15% on average and sometimes more depending on the area from what someone can realistically get for a property. Keep in mind we go every year and fight our tax office on the value they place on our properties and keep that figure as low as possible.

[LQQKOUT]

Don't trust Zillow

[Debsi]

No, not at all accurate.

They also think I have 3 bathrooms, not 2, for reasons unknown.

[DaveG99]

I'd liek to hear what a zillow employee woudl have to say about this. You would think that a company whos whole effort is to determine the value of properties would be able to be closer than $50k accurate. You would also think that if they werent accurate they wouldnt be around long.

[LQQKOUT]

Same for me, they had my two story home listed as 1 1/2 story......why I don't know.
My home is 3100 sqft 4 bd, 3 bath home. The master is on the first floor and the secndary bds are on the second floor with a full bath and a game room.
Where didn't 1 1/2 story come from? Anyways, Zillow is a highly inflatted estimating website. It a good visual tool but other then that not worth the info it posts.

[billdfw]

They are actually 100% NOT accurate. Completely worthless, althought they have a good website and some MLS and fsbo listings.

Texas is one of the few states that does not disclose the sales price, so zillow may be good for the rest of the country, but not here.

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by DaveG99

I'd liek to hear what a zillow employee woudl have to say about this. You would think that a company whos whole effort is to determine the value of properties would be able to be closer than $50k accurate. You would also think that if they werent accurate they wouldnt be around long.

Zillow actually publishes reports all the time about their accuracy or lack there of. The last report I saw for the Dallas area was 64% accurate. I find a lot lower than that, but I don't work every market in such a large state. I'm sure they're more accurate in lower priced areas.

[getmeoutofhere]

Zillow says my home is still on the market.

It's been almost a year since I purchased it.