Issue Date: May 27, 2007

Zestimate What Your House is Worth

By Jody Zink
Licensed Realtor in Ohio & Michigan

What's my home worth? It's one of mankind's most perplexing questions -- right up there with, who shot J.R.?, paper or plastic?, and where's the beef? To answer the question of the value of their home, many sellers are turning to Zillow. Don't bother looking it up in the dictionary. It's not there. But it is on the internet and it's generating quite a buzz in the real estate business.

If you surf over to Zillow.com for the first time, here's a likely scenario: You type in your home address to see the Zestimate, or estimated value of your home.

The number could make you happy. The number could make you sad. Maybe it will confuse you. Then type in your neighbor's address. And the address of your boss. Your parents. It is one place where anyone can find valuations on more than 50 million homes in the United States. And it's free. Zestimates are creating buzz and along with lots of media coverage, have given the site a lot of momentum. Zillow.com is positioning itself as an authority in consumers minds.

So, here's the deal. I typed in my address. My Zestimate wasn't worth a hill of beans. Some information on comparable homes in my neighborhood was correct, but some was off by a year, and $20,000. What Zillow doesn't know is that I've made several improvements to my house. What about the kitchen upgrade? Many homeowners have finished basements and new decks. Maybe they've added a garage. On the flip side, some homes might have a hole in the roof with a tarp flapping in the wind during a rainstorm. Or a flooded basement. Or be gutted from flames. In one case, a home actually burned down 18 months earlier. Zillow valued it at more than $325,000.

Now, I do think Zillow has a clever concept. At this point, however, there are too many factors the site can't possibly take into account to give accurate valuations. And just like any piece of information you'd get on the internet, it may or may not be authentic. Is Zillow a useful research tool? It can be. But with so many wild cards, you don't always know what you're getting. The house itself isn't being evaluated, but statistics and documents about the house are, that may or may not be correct. The best way to price a house is working from recently sold listings similar in comparison. Realtors can readily access this accurate data and do it every day.

There's no doubt the internet has lots to do with the changing real estate market. Clients arm themselves with lots of insight gathered online, but it doesn't substitute the knowledge of an expert, just like WebMD.com doesn't substitute a visit to the doctor and Weather.com doesn't make you a meteorologist.

The data Zillow.com tries to provide is nothing new. The way it's presented is new, but the data itself has always been available to the public. The Zillow-ites have a long way to go to replace the knowledge of a working real estate agent.

With free Zestimates, you can get what you pay for. Isn't that just Zilliant.

Jody Zink is a licensed REALTOR in Ohio and Michigan with the Loss Realty Group. Her column appears every other week in the Toledo Free Press. She can be reached at jody@jodyzinkrealtor.com or 419-725-1881.