Just how accurate is that Zestimate?

Ahh, the power of the Internet. Did you know that more than 90 percent of Towson home buyers begin their real estate search there? We know our buyers are better buyers when they’re empowered with local Towson real estate information. But the void created by the lack of knowledge of a home’s condition, the subsidies a seller paid to a buyer at closing, or even buyer and seller motivations gets combined with Zillow’s inaccuracies to make the Zestimate a downright scary thing to rely on.

It’s cool technology to be sure, and most tempting of all, it is presented in an easy-to-use interface.

How accurate is your Zestimate?

Enter your home’s address at the bottom of the screen for a Zestimate - then call us to compare your Zillow estimate to our market study!

As Zillow says on their Web site: “The Zestimate is not an appraisal and you won’t be able to use it in place of an appraisal, though you can certainly share it with real estate professionals. It is a computer-generated estimate of the worth of a house today, given the available data. Zillow does not offer the Zestimate as the basis of any specific real-estate related financial transaction. Our data sources may be incomplete or incorrect; also, we have not physically inspected a specific home. Remember, the Zestimate is a starting point and does not consider all the market intricacies that can determine the actual price a house will sell for.”

Realtors know that one of the most difficult tasks is pricing a home, especially in an area with multiple housing styles like the Towson real estate market offers, and we spend our days looking at comparables to come up with accurate prices for both our home sellers and home buyers. Our real estate clients have a lot of money riding on our knowledge of current market pressures, buyer and seller motivation, the condition of the home and of those around it. Do you really want to trust your real estate money decisions to a computer algorithm?

We spend a fair amount of time explaining to clients why the sales price on a home is not going to be what Zillow says it is (both higher and lower, by the way) Our research shows that, on average, those Towson real estate “Zestimates” are within 5 percent of the actual value of a home just half of the time. (That’s what Zillow’s own research shows as well.) And that other 50% of the time? That value could be 10 percent, 20 percent or more off target. In fact, studies show the Zestimate is roughly twice as likely to be too low.

What do we like about it? The Zestimate may allow users to quickly answer basic questions about the Towson homes market, for free: Is the mortgage under water? Are prices in the neighborhood going up or down? What are the price ranges of homes in a different town?

As Zillow’s own chief economist said, “The Zestimate is also designed to be used in conjunction with many other pieces of information because we know there are decisions when sometimes you need more than a Zestimate. In these cases, we always recommend supplementing the Zestimate with professional advice. Great agents provide services far beyond just pricing a home: assistance in negotiation, help with marketing and priceless peace of mind. A computer will never replace that.”

The reality is agents’ price opinions aren’t infallible, and computer-generated data isn’t necessarily correct. Our goal is to get our Towson customers a good deal, and that takes every bit of knowledge and research there is – let’s just don’t count on that Zestimate as all we need, ok? Give us a call or email us for a complete market analysis and consultation.

Chris Raborn and Zach Hosford, Keller Williams Excellence Realty 410-560-5858 www.TowsonHomes.Info

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