Don’t bank your purchase on a Zestimate? (Zillow.com)

Zillow is a great real estate website I must admit. This page is one of the first to come up in any real estate based google search, so it must be good and accurate information, right? Personally, as a real estate professional, I like zillow. However, I would be shot at every single listing appointment if I went in with zestimates. Of course, I would love to list homes at zillow prices, because they would sell in a matter of minutes.

The key to selling property is that the sellers set the listing price while buyers determine the sells price. I often have buyers tell me that they will purchase a listing but they will not pay a dime over the Zestimate. What is funny about this is that Zillow admits that these figures are (at times) dramatically different that reality. Without going into detail on how they come up with these numbers, the fact is that this website is unable to account for condition and relevance of other homes in the market. You must speak with a specialist before deciding on a sell price or an offer price.

See the image below. This is directly off Zillow.com and they are publishing that Orange and Seminole County have a 13.2% and 13.1% Median Error respectively. Those are startling numbers.

The Core Group is getting ready to role out a product that will help you keep track of values on a real-time basis for any specified area within our region. Stay posted and we will be giving access to anyone who wishes for this info.