Zillow.com

Zillow is a big player in the online real estate world. This site was originally built as a home valuation tool but in recent years is morphed into a property database of sorts. We have a love hate relationship with Zillow. It’s a popular site and sees a ton of traffic. The only issue we have with Zillow is the home valuation model the site is based upon.

Zillow uses a proprietary algorithm in order to produce “Zestimates” (estimates) of a homes value. We think this is a brilliant marketing idea but unfortunately, the opinion of value is often inaccurate. This becomes a problem in a transaction when the party that benefits from the inaccurate zestimate takes the opinion as gospel. We use a traditional, comparable property based approach to valuation, much like an appraiser will ultimately use when your home goes under contract.

We still think zillow gets a good amount of traffic and it certainly gets our listings exposure but it can often make the process of agreeing on a sales price more difficult. Having said this, we can’t keep zillow from putting their opinion of your home’s value out there, so our attitude is that we might as well present it in the best light possible on zillow and hope they get it right. To take a look at our listings on Zillow Click Here