travelguy_73 Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Came across a write-up in the Biz section of the Chron (Web site has lowdown on millions of homes ) about the website http://www.Zillow.com, which is supposed to be somehow revolutionary in how it values properties. So I tried it out on the Idylwood home I sold last spring.The property appeared on Zillow at a base of $170k. That's not taking into account the improvements I made in the property when I purchased it. So I added the improvements (major bathroom remodel at around 95% of cost, elaborate landscaping, new fencing and driveway gate, etc (these items you just plug in your cost or perceived value). The final value rose to $182k. I got about $200k for it, though.I think sites like Zillow serve a purpose for at least getting a buyer/seller into the ballpark of what a property is worth, but there still is no substitute for a realtor's market analysis (at least not in an older neighborhood).Try it out on your property and see how close you get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Thanks for the link! I tried it out on the house I'm in now, and on the one I sold a couple of years ago, and on two others I've lived in. All the values were right on the money. I was impressed with the graphs that compared a home's value with others in the same zip code, city, state, and rest of the country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travelguy_73 Posted February 9, 2006 Author Share Posted February 9, 2006 Thanks for the link! I tried it out on the house I'm in now, and on the one I sold a couple of years ago, and on two others I've lived in. All the values were right on the money. I was impressed with the graphs that compared a home's value with others in the same zip code, city, state, and rest of the country.Pineda, you are in a newish area, right? Perhaps that is the difference: Areas with more consistent zip codes (or more home sales) have better info. 77023, my old one, is all over the map. I did note that the comparable home sales it tried to assign to my home weren't very good, i.e., in radically different areas and prices ranges. Nothing even came back from my area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfootball Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 It looks like they're using the 2004 HCAD data, and likely similar property tax data from around the country.Pretty neat site! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm1fd Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Came across a write-up in the Biz section of the Chron (Web site has lowdown on millions of homes ) about the website http://www.Zillow.com, which is supposed to be somehow revolutionary in how it values properties. So I tried it out on the Idylwood home I sold last spring.The property appeared on Zillow at a base of $170k. That's not taking into account the improvements I made in the property when I purchased it. So I added the improvements (major bathroom remodel at around 95% of cost, elaborate landscaping, new fencing and driveway gate, etc (these items you just plug in your cost or perceived value). The final value rose to $182k. I got about $200k for it, though.I think sites like Zillow serve a purpose for at least getting a buyer/seller into the ballpark of what a property is worth, but there still is no substitute for a realtor's market analysis (at least not in an older neighborhood).Try it out on your property and see how close you get.I suspect the site works better in areas of the country where sales prices are required by law to be disclosed. The only people in TX who have a reasonable amount of accurate sales data are the realtors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 Great! I made $48K in a year and a half. BTW, it is HCAD info. It even showed the HCAD mistake on my info (3BR instead of 2BR). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted February 9, 2006 Share Posted February 9, 2006 (edited) Pineda, you are in a newish area, right? Perhaps that is the difference: Areas with more consistent zip codes (or more home sales) have better info. 77023, my old one, is all over the map. I did note that the comparable home sales it tried to assign to my home weren't very good, i.e., in radically different areas and prices ranges. Nothing even came back from my area.The houses I looked up were built in 1950, 1980, 1970 and 1985. The values were consistent with what I know them to be, so I liked that. But, you're right about the comp. home sales, that was just whacko. I thought the most interesting part was the graph that compared home values to the rest of the U.S. It just goes to show that Texas really does have a great low cost of housing compared to the rest. I'm not sure how many cities are covered by this website, but I tried to look up some properties in Huntsville (one of them built in the 1900's) and got zilch, so I'm thinking maybe just larger metropolises are focused upon. Edited February 9, 2006 by pineda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 (edited) I think sites like Zillow serve a purpose for at least getting a buyer/seller into the ballpark of what a property is worth, but there still is no substitute for a realtor's market analysis (at least not in an older neighborhood).Totally agreed.A lot of the problem is, it takes tax info into account--and a house's total market value has little to do with what HCAD thinks it is. I tried it on ours with the improvements we've made and it really shortchanged us in comparison to the real comparables that were done professionally.It's great if you're trying to get an idea, but if you're looking to market your own property you could run into a bit of a jam. Edited February 11, 2006 by Parrothead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pineda Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 (edited) Agreed, Polly! I wouldn't use it to market my properties either. But, if I was looking into other areas that I was unfamiliar with the values in, I think it could be a useful tool. Edited February 11, 2006 by pineda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted February 15, 2006 Share Posted February 15, 2006 definitely. Interesting that my friend in Maryland says it's pretty much right on target for them. I guess it depends on how accurate the tax rolls are? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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