Are Zillow Zestimates Accurate in Home Valuation?
When citing a home’s value, I personally have not had a problem with my sellers and buyers believing a Zillow “zestimate” over my Comparable Market Analysis (CMA). The value generated by a well researched and analyzed Professional CMA is persuasive and clear.
Zillow is very upfront about their limitations. They generate a range for their estimate rather than a specific sales price and they acknowledge their sampling error of plus or minus 7.5 percent. So a $500,000 home has a 95 percent probability of having a value between $462,500 and $537,500. That’s a $75,000 swing.
Zestimates do not factor in the condition or the interior of the property. They do not account for upgrades, high-end finishes, landscaping or lifestyle values, which leaves a wide margin of error in calculating the true market value of a home.
When I meet with sellers, I review several different CMA’s with them to demonstrate the validity of the properties selected in my analysis. Since I have been in most, if not all of the homes that are included in my CMA, I can add clarification to the photos and videos and define the unique features of a home that made it worth more or less than their home.
A Zillow estimate is not a substitute for a Professional CMA. If you are considering selling or buying a home, you will want a real estate professional to analyze the home’s true market value.
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I am an estate specialist in Pinecrest, Coral Gables and Coconut Grove. If you would like to schedule a buyer, seller or investor consultation or would like a complementary market analysis of your home, kindly give me a call at 305-898-1852 or send me a note a Wellins.D@ewm.com.
