What Makes Zillow’s Estimates So Inaccurate?

California Real Estate Podcast with Prashant Vanka

Zestimates and other online home value calculators should be taken with a grain of salt. Here’s why.

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When I go on listing presentations, home sellers always ask me about the disparity between Zestimates and what homes actually sell for. Zillow will give their home a certain value, but the National Association of Realtors states that homes sell for 5% more or less than their Zestimate more than 67% of the time.

There are a couple main reasons why this happens. The first thing you have to understand about a Zestimate is that it’s an algorithm, or a formula-based estimation. It only calculates general information like the square footage of the house and the previous sales in that house’s particular zip code. As we know, houses are imperfect. Zillow doesn’t take into account things like the wear and tear from your kids or your pets.

Details play a huge part in a home’s true value. For example, in Silicon Valley, schools are a big factor in determining home prices. Two identical houses in Cupertino that are right across the street from each other could be as much as $200,000 apart in value just because one house is assigned to Lynbrook High School and the other is assigned to Monte Vista High School.

Zestimates should only be used as a guiding tool for pricing your home.

With all this factored in, it’s really important that you use Zestimates and other online calculators as merely a guiding tool. If you want to know the exact value of your house, you should ask a professional real estate agent who knows your neighborhood well.

If you need an estimate of your home’s value or you’re looking to buy or sell, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We’d be glad to help.