This article from The Rocky Mountain News is a good read for any of you that have bought into the "Zillow Craze." If you believe the values in Zillow you have problems my friend. ZILLOW IS NOT ACCURATE AND CAN NEVER BECOME A CREDIBLE SOURCE OF A HOME'S VALUE. EVER.
Don't get that? Call us and we can have a chat about it...
From The Rocky Mountainn News 3/30/07:
Mary Winter:
Curious what your house is worth?
Who isn't?
Now you can get an instant estimate at Zillow.com.
Type in your address and within seconds the site spits out a dollar figure.
No passwords. No registration. No fee.
You can snoop around. See how much the homes you once owned are worth, what your boss' home is worth, what the guy-you-didn't-marry's home is worth and what all your neighbors' homes are worth.
Online voyeurism?
Yup. At least that's what Fortune magazine editors call it. And they claim it's fueling a "real estate revolution."
That could be hype, but the fact is, Zillow was founded by two very successful ex-Microsoft geniuses, one of whom launched the popular travel site Expedia.
Not that I'm convinced Zillow will change the real-estate industry as we know it. But yes, it's very cool place for a one-time visit, despite its shortcomings.
It doesn't include all 50 states yet, for example (although in Colorado, Zillow says it lists 80 percent to 100 percent of homes). Overall, Zillow has mined government data to come up with estimated values on 57 percent of housing in America, according to Fortune.
And accuracy?
I plugged in my Denver address and the "Zestimate" it gave me is what I believe my house to be worth. Three co-workers tried their addresses, however, and said their Zestimates were at least 10 percent under what they think their homes would sell for. Another co-worker told me Zillow lists his older home as a one-story, when in fact it's a two-story, so his Zestimate was seriously off.
Denver real estate agents Nancy Brauer and Patrick Finney told me they haven't found Zillow especially useful.
"My impression is, it's more of a cursory check to see what a ballpark (value) on your home would be," said Finney, who uses sophisticated, customized real estate software in his business.
I also have reservations about Zillow.
How many times will users actually revisit the site after they've played on it once or twice, taken a trip down memory lane to see what their old houses are worth and checked out what their ex-husband's new digs are listed at?
Zillow, in other words, could be a flash in the pan: the citizen's band radio of the modern age.
On the other hand, I, like many others, suffer real estate anxiety, and I think Zillow could get us hooked.
With foreclosures at record numbers and the subprime mortgage industry giving Wall Street the heebie-jeebies, a person would be foolish not to worry about real estate investments. What if the market tanks like it did in the mid-'80s in Texas when the oil patch hit hard times and I took a bath on a cute little home that took me years to unload?
Zillow can only rekindle that fear.
Sleepless nights will see me logging on in the dark, feverishly checking to see whether the Zestimate on my home has dropped another $5,000, as it did once already this month.
It's possible that Zillow will make a gazillion dollars on advertising sales, but I don't think it will ever be a place where I go and pick out a home to buy. I mean, how can you buy a home virtually?
A home purchase requires boots on the ground. Before I buy, I want to check out the water pressure, inspect the roof, poke around in the backyard, look for cracks in the ceiling.
I want to make sure the guy next door doesn't keep a couple of old trucks on blocks out front and six barking Rottweilers out back.
How can you do that online?
The answer is, you can't. In my humble zestimation.
For a more information about what is needed to get a homes true market value, go to http://www.ColoradoDreamHomes.net
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