Don’t Trust Zillow When It Comes to Home Value

Zillow’s Zestimates are absolute trash, and now there is a lawsuit in Illinois to prove it.

If you’ve been following this blog, then you know that Zestimates are just below trash when it comes to finding the value of your home. However, there is an interesting lawsuit that you ought to know about.

This Illinois homeowner is suing Zillow for undervaluing her home. Zillow says that the Zestimate is just a tool, not an official appraisal. However, according to Illinois state law, since the Zestimate is used by buyers to generate a value for a home, the Zestimate could be considered an appraisal.

You can learn more details about the lawsuit from Barbara Corcoran here.

Basically, this woman bought her townhouse for $626,000 in 2009, and Zillow said her home was only worth $562,000. Now, you and I know that the Zestimate is trash, but the prospective buyers walking through her home insisted that it was only worth what the Zestimate said.

“You cannot trust Zestimates when it comes to home value.”

The bottom line is that you cannot trust Zestimates. The Zestimate has a median error rate of 5%, which means that half of the homes are off by more than 5% and half are off by less. Which half do you think your home is in?

The best way to figure out what your home is worth is to get actual people to do real work. As a real estate professional, I’ll run a comparable market analysis to find the true market value of your home.

If you have any questions, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!