Zillow is a popular website that "gives" automated estimates which purport to calculate the ideal price of every home in the United States. Zillow tries to reach this goal this task by using a sophisticated logarithm which compares factors which impact home values, but here's a typical story I have heard from property sellers in Northern Virginia:

Our home was recently appraised for 650K. Zillow estimates the value at 521K. The estimate makes us one of the lowest priced homes in the subdivision. We have all upgrades in our home and it is the largest of the homes that were originally built in this subdivision. It was appraised at 750K before 2009. Our home has a basement. Neighbors do not have basement on one side and you appraised higher. Really? -- James E. - Fort Hunt

If you research the Internet for the phrase "Can I trust Zillow?" or "Can I trust Z-Estimates" you'll discover many posts by angry homeowners and leery real estate purchasers who have discovered the hard way just out inaccurate Zillow's pricing can be. Many people in Arlington_heights claim that Zillow's valuations have a margin of error of about 20%. Even if we assume the margin of error is only 10%, in Northern Virginia that means a "z-estimate" is only within $50,000 of the actual sales value. If the margin of error is an astounding 5% that means that a z-estimate is only within $25,000 of the asking price.

Yet Zillow (for now) remains popular with some real estate shoppers. Real estate sellers and home purchasers should understand that there is not a single neighborhood in Arlington_heights where either a bank or tax collector uses Internet for tax assessment or appraisals. Our professional advice is to take estimates from any website at arm’s length. Putting too much trust into a website can cause a great deal of confusion.

Talk to one of our agents today for a free comparative market analysis of your property's worth. We promise that a website won't set the market value. Instead, your friendly neighborhood Nesbitt Realty real estate agent will account for the unique variables which make up your real estate's market value.