The Truth About Zestimates

Did you know that Zillow's CEO sold his house for 40% less than what the Zestimate showed on his property?

Today Aldo is bringing you this video because if you are a homeowner and if you're thinking about selling your house in the near future, you need to stop looking at the Zestimate, at Redfin estimates, any sort of estimates that are out there on your property that you are finding on the internet.

So a lot of you are familiar with the Zestimate; It's Zillow's algorithm on your home, and finding an estimate of what it could be worth. Aldo wants to warn you that it's not the best idea to really use the Zestimate if you're gonna be listing your home. I would really forget about it and I want to tell you why.

Zillow themselves publish on their website about the Zestimate, and this is what they have to say about it. It is not an appraisal, and it should be used as a starting point. We encourage buyers, sellers, and homeowners to supplement the Zestimate with other research such as visiting the home, getting a professional appraisal of the home, or requesting a comparative market analysis, also known as a CMA from a real estate agent. So, if Zillow is telling you to not even really consider their Zestimate, you shouldn't even look at it at all.

When you go to Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, or Realtor.com, you can have a range from 50 to 75,000 dollar difference of what your house can be worth. Either your house is worth 350k or it could be worth 425k. Those two estimates are massive and they are not even close. 80% of homes sold are actually within 5% of the sale price from the Zestimate. To give an example, here in Whatcom County, $400,000 is the average sale price of a house. So within 5% of that could be 380k or 420k for the Zestimate depending on how you look at it, and that can be confusing because it's unclear if your house is really worth 380k or if it's worth 420k. 

One last thing to remember is a computer algorithm actually doesn't know the quality and the condition that your home is in. It doesn't know if your house needs a new roof, or if it needs updating, or if it needs anything in order for you as a homeowner to actually get your home up to that Zestimate price.

So please guys, reach out to a professional real estate agent, figure out what your home could actually be perceived as for sale price, and hopefully this video has helped provide some insightful tips. Please leave any comments and questions down below, and we'll see you next time.