Thoughts On Zillow Estimates

[James Danchus]

BP, 

Any thoughts on Zillow? Most of the units on there contain a wealth of info (ie numbers on average rents, mortgages, ect.) Does anyone use it when making evaluations on properties or areas?    

[Jake Thomas]

The zestimate is a joke and many others on here will agree. If you are using it for rent comps then I would say its a decent source of info for that.  Although zillow seems so great it really mis-leads uniformed investors and sellers sometimes making it hard to buy properties. So many times sellers have told me "well zillow says my house is worth X" but then I kindly explain to them that zillow doesn't have all the correct information to make those estimates. Most listen, some do not. Good luck, and I encourage you to look for other sources on top of zillow to get your info from. A good realtor that can run comps is worth 100 zillows.   :)