<p>I am seeing quite a few real estate threads and am aware a good number of you are realtors.
If anyone is familiar with Zillow, please let me know what I can do about this situation.</p>
<p>In the last 2 months the Zestimate on our house has plunged precipitously (down over 80%) vs a flat to up and fairly active market for the neighborhood, the overall area. The $ per sq ft is now 1/3 of the average for the neighborhood. NOTHING has changed to explain this. Comparable Houses have sold recently at much higher (3X our current Zestimate!) $ per sq ft. We repainted the exterior of the whole house in the Fall. There are no other Zestimates dropping in the neighborhood. Frankly, our house is very nice compared to many in the neighborhood, as well.
This is kind of frightening. Is there any way to learn what has caused this drop in valuation by Zillow? Is there any way to correct it? or alert Zillow to a possible error in the algorithm for our house? I fear that this will affect what buyers are willing to pay at some point…
HELP!</p>
<p>Is you your house on the market? Have you expressed a desire to sell and shared it with someone? Not to be a conspiracy theory subscriber, but Zillow numbers can and will be manipulated if someone needs it very, very badly.</p>
<p>performersmom, it is probably a glitch, but any number that is derived via a “propriatory protocol” not open to peer review is prone to manipulation. You house real value should be derived via a comprehensive appraisal by a licensed appraisor.</p>
<p>At the time we are preparing to sell, of course we will do a professional appraisal. And then the realtors will suggest prices based on recent comp sales.
We had a professional appraise it for insurance purposes about a year ago, and the current Zestimate is way below that number.
I am still questioning how the manipulation would actually work… By whom? Is there any recourse by the owner? or another party?</p>
<p>performersmom, I was mostly speculating… Does Zillow show which comps they used to calculate the value? I do not think so. They do not disclose the algorithm used to produce the number. </p>
<p>Here is my conspiracy theory. Let’s say someone is very, very interested in buying a house that is very similar to yours… His friend at Zillow finds a few similar houses, adjusts their “zestimates” giving the buyer a negotiating point, “Look, Zillow lists these two homes much, much lower than yours. Why are you asking so much?” SInce people tend to trust in Zillow so much…</p>
<p>I cannot find a single home with anywhere near as low a $ per sq ft in the neighborhood and surrounding area, or with a graph showing a price decline at all in the last year… And the Zestimate on my house just keeps going down…</p>
<p>I guess I need a “friend” at Zillow LOL </p>
<p>Has anyone ever appealed a Zestimate?
How does one contact Zillow for such a purpose?</p>
<p>Our house is WAY WAY off on Zillows. They say we have 3 bedrooms and we have 5, for example. Until the day we decide to sell we will not tell them. In fact, our county checks on Zillows for information for tax purposes and there is no need to go there…
Is all of your information correct?
If it is, and these is just my humble thoughts, I would hope that there would be a contact number for them and that either you or an appraiser could contact them.
I do not think the banks use them and I will bet many buyers don’t either.
If I were buying I would look it up and be interested but not put any stock in their $$$ as our is so crazy off. Actually, I kinda like it that our friends and family, should they look, see such a low number–makes us look more frugal and makes them wonder how we built such a nice house for so little.</p>
<p>Zillow figures mean nothing, and is a self appointed nobody or group of nobodies who started a website. It has as much credibility as Manta does re to salaries, and other websites that exist because anybody can put them up. Among other things, it includes houses that didn’t sell in averages, lists any price it chooses and if you want can be used as a rough estimate of a neighborhood, with the knowledge that the information it provides is usually wrong.</p>
<p>There would be no purpose to appeal anything related to Zillow because it has no credibility.</p>
<p>A price of a house, if there is a mortgage, is determined mostly by the mortgage lender appraisal. A private appraisal or a realtor’s estimate can be off by quite a bit if you are selling to someone who needs a mortgage. This is how it has worked since the housing crisis began. Lenders are very cautious about money they are lending. </p>
<p>Other things, like your property taxes, have some bearing on the price if there has been a recent assessment, but those also can be inaccurate.</p>
<p>In process of refinancing,and the zestimate by Zillow wound up being over 200k off…i think the apprassial is high, but not 200k too high…Zillow is not very accurate…</p>
<p>Zillow is not only inaccurate, but their estimates fluctuate wildly. Our house, which we purchased last spring, was worth X, according to Zillow at the time. Shortly after we moved in during the summer it was worth X - $200K. It’s now back up to X. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Well, our house has lost over 80% of its value in 2 short months- the chart is a cliff. So bizarre. How can the Zillow computer not catch something so off on so many counts: price per sq ft, direction and percentage change, and and so forth?</p>
<p>It would be one thing if the valuation had been ALWAYS out of synch (basically in line with surrounding area till the last two months), or fluctuated wildly, but that has not been the case. This is a very sudden and recent development!</p>
<p>There is a box for “Owner’s Comments” where you can note inaccuracies, and it is listed publicly then. Our house has had a similar precipitous drop in value, but not anomalous one as yours seems to have had, performersmom.</p>
<p>Have you checked that the description of your house is accurate? My house had a significantly lower than actual market value zestimate. But then I noticed it was listed as having .5 bathrooms. I guess they thought we bathed in the local river.</p>