Can I trust a computer to figure out the market value of my real estate in Spring Village Estates?
Zillow is a billion-dollar Internet marketer that "gives" automated estimates that claim to calculate the market value of each and every residence in the United States. Zillow tries to accomplish this feat by using a sophisticated logarithm which crossreferences factors which affect real estate values, but here's a story I have heard from real estate 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 Google the Internet for the phrase "Can I trust Zillow?" or "Can I trust Z-Estimates" you'll find countless posts by angry property owners and skeptical home purchasers who have discovered the hard way just out inaccurate Zillow's pricing can be. Many people in Spring Village Estates report that Zillow's valuations have a margin of error of approximately 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 improbable 5% that means that a z-estimate is only within $25,000 of the asking price.
Yet Zillow still remains popular with some buyers and sellers. Property owners and home buyers should know that there is not a single neighborhood in Spring Village Estates where either a bank or tax collector uses Internet for tax assessment or appraisals. Our expert advice is to take "valuations" from any online site with a grain of salt. Putting too much reliance into a computer can cause a lot of irration.
Contact us today for a free comparative market analysis of your property's worth. We promise that a website won't set the value. Rather, your friendly neighborhood Nesbitt Realty expert will account for the many variables which make up your real estate's sales value.
