House Values

Interesting site. The house across the street was appraised correctly. Mine, built in 1927, did not show even though the map placed a house there. My neighbor's house didn't show, but he sold it last month for over appraised value.

I checked my house today. The information provided by Zillow was about 40% of the county's appraised value. Zillow seems to get it's information from Government sources, but doesn't understand the calculations used to determine value for taxation, at least in my state.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In many areas the local gov't assessor's tax valuation has little or nothing to do with reality!

Actually, it's very possible for users of House Values to eventually lose thousands (even tens of thousands) of dollars. Why? Services like House Values and Zillow are often WAY OFF in their estimates of value. Consumer who doesn't consult with a GOOD Realtor and only uses an online service for proper pricing is likely to make a pricing mistake.

What a firestorm this Zillow service has created! You should see the rabid negative comments by realtors and appraisers in some other forums... They appear to be scared out of their minds by online tools like this.

But I can't see why... Zillow is still in beta test mode, and claims to give you nothing more than an ESTIMATE.

Unless someone somewhere knows a site to get "basic" home values without having to enter all kinds of information and then only get to the end to find out "someone will contact you",I found Zillow to be fairly accurate and not intimidating at all. Thanks!

Wow, what an interesting site. Unfortunately, there are no listings for our area yet (84066 and 84078) but I tried looking up some other people from my address book just to see how it works. Very interesting information. I will keep checking back and hope that some of the smaller, rural areas begin to be added soon. Thank you for this opportunity. It will surely help me with some of the other areas we have been looking into buying in.

The sad thing is, I discovered that some of the poorest people I know have the most expensive house of anyone I know. Of course this is probably because of the area they live in, there is nothing cheaper, but it certainly was an eye opener.

I found the sale prices well over market. However the information on a house and it's sold price are accruate.

Zillow is a fun site and hopefully a catalyst for change in the real estate market. I am one who sees little benefit (when there is valuable information available to everyone) in using a real estate agent. For a second home I sold a few months ago I softened and used an agent to sell.

I was not comfortable with his price but went with it anyway. The buyers put the house right back on the market in 10 days without doing anything and sold it for $40,000 more! So I for one laugh at the intensitiy and defensiveness from realtors toward zillow. It really is quite the show to watch!

As a real estate veteran of 15 years, I think Zillow (and other sites) are fine. Most people that use them are just curious about what the neighbors house sold for. If you are seriously considering buying or selling a property based solely on this information then you living dangerously. Hire a professional that evaluates property for a living, it's the best investment you can make.

I liked the Zillow website. However, if the price estimates are even close to correct then the real estate market in Lawton, OK is really shaking up right now! There are some houses on the same streets that are tens of thousands of dollars in price difference with the same or about the same footage. Also, the house I am thinking of buying is listed as much cheaper than I was asked to pay. My friends who bought right next door might have overpayed too. I'll let you know what I really find out. In the meantime it is fun to look around the country at different prices.