I just discovered the new makeover of the Yahoo real estate home values page. I like the way they now show three, count ‘em 3, online home value estimates. The estimates come from Zillow.com, eppraisal.com and Reply.com. That’s a big improvement.
The biggest problem with Zillow is that people think it’s estimates are gospel. They’re not. Zillow.com has a large margin of error.
By putting the Zillow.com estimate next to the other two estimates, I think the average Joe will quickly realize that these online home value estimates are wacked.
I can tell people, for example, that “For Phoenix Arizona, 28% of their “Zestimates” are off by 10 percent or MORE.” For most people, however, that’s hard to visualize. (The average reader of this blog, on the other hand, is a numbers person and understands the significance but, alas, most people are not like you.)
I think, however, its a lot more powerful for people to see the three estimates together and how variable they are. For example, I just checked three homes and one home is estimated to be worth $413,058 by Zillow.com, $453,906 by eppraisal.com and $547,052 by Reply.com. That’s a $134,000 swing on one home!
Most people will immediately see that these online home value estimates are just ballpark estimates. I hope they will give less credence to Zillow.com’s estimates or any of the online home value estimates.
The estimates are fun but don’t take them too seriously.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Louis Cammarosano // May 24, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Great point. For some reason Zillow was able to convince a lot of people that their Zestimates were gospel. They are not.
HomeGain, the company at which I am the General Manager, also has a free instant homevaluation tool but we don’t tout it as the Kelly’s Blue Book of Home Valuations, like Zillow does.
HomeGain had this tool on its web site back in 1999-2001. These tools are a product of the last millenium but Zillow some how convinced a large segment of the population that they had created a game changing new innovation.
The more companies that “invent” these tools the less credible Zillow will be in claiming accuracy.
HomeGain believes that while the tools are fun they are not to be relied upon and a professional realtor or appraiser should be contacted for a more accurate appraisal or comparative market analysis.
For fun you can try homegain’s tool at http://www.homegain.com Tomorrow we will add more features to the site, including market and census data.
2 John L. Wake - Realtor // May 24, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Louis, Thanks for stopping by. Say, I can’t find the link to the HVAL tool.
3 Louis Cammarosano // May 24, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Try this http://www.homegain.com and type the home address in the “What’s your home worth” box
or try this link
http://www.homegain.com/cma/get_hv?ht=hp_hval_module&addr
Regards Louis
4 jf.sellsius // May 30, 2007 at 6:38 am
Zillow’s success is due, in large part, to good marketing and perception. Their initial home page come-on to buyers was “do not overpay” and the use of the term “home valuation” which led consumers to believe that zilow had access to the information which enabled homes to be accurately valued.
But value is as much due to unzillowables than what’s in the public database at the tax assessor’s office.
5 Inaccurate HomeGain HVAL // Oct 22, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Why is Louis Cammarosano so hell bent on attacking Zillow every chance he gets? He is always disparaging the Zillow tool yet he trumpets his own tool on HomeGain which is even more inaccurate than Zillow’s. I think it is just a bad case of envy because of the attention Zillow is garnering. BTW anyone who thinks a computer generated program can substitute the services of an appraisser or real estate agent deserves the ill-effects of their lack of common sense.
6 16% of the time Zillow estimates are off by more than 20%! Yikes! | Arizona Real Estate Notebook // Jan 10, 2008 at 12:19 pm
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