Can I depend on some Internet company to calculate the sales price of my property in Ida Palmer?
Zillow is a popular website that provides automated estimates that claim to calculate the sales value of each and every residence in the United States. Zillow tries to achieve this this task by using a sophisticated logarithm which compares factors which affect real estate values, but here's a 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 Google the Internet for the phrase "Can I trust Zillow?" or "Can I trust Z-Estimates" you'll discover countless posts by upset property owners and leery real estate purchasers who have discovered the hard way just out inaccurate Zillow's pricing can be. Many people in Ida Palmer report that Zillow's valuations have a margin of error of around 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 market 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 (for now) remains popular with some real estate shoppers. Property owners and property buyers should know that there is not a single community in Ida Palmer where either a bank or tax collector uses Internet for tax assessment or appraisals. Our professional advice is to take "valuations" from any website at arm’s length. Putting too much reliance into a website can cause a lot of confusion.
Contact Nesbitt Realty today for a free comparative market analysis of your property's market value. We promise that a computer won't set the market value. Rather, your friendly neighborhood Nesbitt Realty expert will take into account the complicated variables which make up your home's ideal price.
