Zillow rent estimates on some properties look too high to be true

[Sumitro Samaddar]

I am looking at Zillow to find properties to rent. In the "Manufactured" category, I see properties in Florida with very low prices and high monthly rent. That is too good to be true. Here are 3 examples:
1) https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7111-142nd-Ave-Largo-FL-3... Price: $27,000 Rent: $5,557

2) https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2882-Gulf-To-Bay-Blvd-232... Price: $12,500 Rent: $1,959

3) https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7403-46th-Ave-N-LOT-347-S... Price: $12,900 Rent: $1,994

Even some Single Family Homes had very high rents. Two examples:

4) https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/169-Beatty-Ave-Richwood-O... (In Ohio) Price: $82,000 Rent: $2,199

5) https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/106-Grinnel-Loop-Sanford-... (In NC) Price: $375,000 Rent: $6,109

[Brian Adams]

Zillow, of course, cannot tell when a home is in distressed condition. So that would be the first explanation for significant mismatches between the asking price and the Rental Zestimate. 

But Zillow also struggles with property types. For example, several of the homes you are sharing here are manufactured homes, but I believe the Zestimate algorithm generally conflates those with brick and mortar single family homes. 

Zillow is also at the mercy of agents who upload the listings. If a listing agent calls a "mobile home" a "manufactured home", then it will be misclassified in the algorithm and affect the price. 

Zillow has a lot of property data, including from third parties against which it might check that data. But many of those companies (Corelogic, Black Knight) get their data from error-prone sources as well.

Data in the real estate world is poorly digitalized and structured, despite the best efforts of programs like RESO. 

Which is a good thing for us! Those are information asymmetries we can rectify and profit from!