Something Else You Should Know About Zillow.com
The other day I reported that Zillow.com has a new service in which properties listed for sale could get on their website. I thought this was a nice way to promote properties for sale on the internet, and gave Zillow a tip of the hat for offering such a marketing service. I thought of it as kind of a national MLS system that anybody could use, including real estate agents.
Well, come to find out there's a fly in the buttermilk.
It appears that if you place a property on this Zillow.com website, you also have to accept their valuation of the property. They do this in a section called "Valuation Information" and give the property a "Zestimate" which may be considerably different than the asking price.
As I and others have written before, Zillow property valuations are questionable and can be misleading. To me, they are nothing more than a place to get a real rough look at the value of a property. Real rough. I think Zillow pricing estimates are little more than seat-of-the-pants guesses at property value. As I have said before, if you want an accurate valuation, call in the services of an appraiser or a professional real estate agent.
On the one hand, Zillow is offering a nice marketing service which allows properties to be exposed to a wider geographic range of people than through local advertising or the local MLS. My problem with this new service is that some buyers might accept the Zillow value as being to-the-penny accurate and will think the seller is trying to take unfair advantage by overcharging for property that may be priced correctly. This immediately creates an adversarial relationship between buyer and seller before the negotiations even take place. In fact, some potential buyers may not even follow-up on acceptable properties becasue of the mistrust generated by the Zillow pricing estimate versus the asking price.
If I was a seller, I'd certainly think twice before I had Zillow dropping a valuation bomb on my efforts to get top dollar for my property.
For more information on what's happening in the real estate market in Tampa Bay, visit my website at www.TheStPeteRealEstateSite.com.
Well, come to find out there's a fly in the buttermilk.
It appears that if you place a property on this Zillow.com website, you also have to accept their valuation of the property. They do this in a section called "Valuation Information" and give the property a "Zestimate" which may be considerably different than the asking price.
As I and others have written before, Zillow property valuations are questionable and can be misleading. To me, they are nothing more than a place to get a real rough look at the value of a property. Real rough. I think Zillow pricing estimates are little more than seat-of-the-pants guesses at property value. As I have said before, if you want an accurate valuation, call in the services of an appraiser or a professional real estate agent.
On the one hand, Zillow is offering a nice marketing service which allows properties to be exposed to a wider geographic range of people than through local advertising or the local MLS. My problem with this new service is that some buyers might accept the Zillow value as being to-the-penny accurate and will think the seller is trying to take unfair advantage by overcharging for property that may be priced correctly. This immediately creates an adversarial relationship between buyer and seller before the negotiations even take place. In fact, some potential buyers may not even follow-up on acceptable properties becasue of the mistrust generated by the Zillow pricing estimate versus the asking price.
If I was a seller, I'd certainly think twice before I had Zillow dropping a valuation bomb on my efforts to get top dollar for my property.
For more information on what's happening in the real estate market in Tampa Bay, visit my website at www.TheStPeteRealEstateSite.com.
-30-
posted by Terry Ward at 3:33 AM
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