Zillow pricing?

[Peijen]

How reliable if zestimate from zillow? Look at this house
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1714- ... 8453_zpid/

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Price History
Date |  Description |     Price |     % Chg |     Source	 
05/04/2009	Sold	 $275,000	 -57.0%	Public Record	
10/28/2008	Sold	 $640,000	--	Public Record	

The sell price was 275k from a year ago and yet the zestimate is 745k? Do they ignore sell price if it's foreclose or something like that? By the way that guy lost over 300k on that house! I need to find me a deal like that.

[quantus]

Zillow prices are typically about 20% high if you ask me...

http://www.cyberhomes.com/ is probably a bit more realistic about its pricing.

[Dave]

Does Zillow's revenue model rely on ads?

[quantus]

It seems like they do rely on ads, but I think they also get money on referring people for loans. It's a lot like mint.com referring people to credit card offers that could save you money if you carry a balance and/or want a lower interest rate.

[VLSmooth]

Just FYI, I know it's situational, but Zillow's listing for my place is 3.89% higher than Cyberhomes.com.

According to the lower value, I'm down $7,464

[quantus]

http://www.zillow.com/howto/DataCoverag ... curacy.htm

Estimate accuracy varies by neighborhood and city. I don't find it that accurate in my neighborhood.

They seem to place a low weighting on foreclosures, especially in neighborhoods that aren't experiencing too many. I know there are a few foreclosures in my neighborhood and that's why the cyberhomes quote is as low as it is for my house. I can see what comparable sales they're using and a couple are foreclosures that went for like 125k or 150k instead of 550k or 600k. If only regular sales were factored in, then the estimate for my house would be at least 25k higher estimating very conservatively and likely more like 50k-75k higher. The zestimate is still around 600k which is a bit high. In any case, as long as the value stays above 450k (90% the purchase price), I'm not gonna lose any sleep, and in fact, I'll be happy for buying in near the bottom.

[VLSmooth]

Interestingly enough, the area Peijen linked has:

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        Zestimate Accuracy: 4/4 stars
           Homes on Zillow: 96%
     Homes with Zestimates: 93%
   Within 5% of Sale Price: 40%
  Within 10% of Sale Price: 62%
  Within 20% of Sale Price: 80%
              Median Error: 6.9%

There's still a 20% chance he found something not within 20% of the sale price.

For comparison, here's the area I was looking at:

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        Zestimate Accuracy: 4/4 stars
           Homes on Zillow: 80%
     Homes with Zestimates: 77%
   Within 5% of Sale Price: 33%
  Within 10% of Sale Price: 58%
  Within 20% of Sale Price: 79%
              Median Error: 8.1%

ps. code-tag indenting with 1 leading space is borked.