Been said numerous times (by agents) and it's NOT.  

I think sometimes investors get tunnel vision and focus on one number when the reality is there are numerous things that go into a safe and stable investment in real estate.  

In addition to no heat, there were numerous other damages throughout the house, door knobs ripped out, holes in interior doors, a/c cover missing/broken, fast-food bags laying around half eaten, bottom basement step broken. 

With a median price of $550,000, that means that they're within a $55,000 margin of error - EXCEPT for the 20.7% of instances where their error is MORE than $55,000.That is a truly useless number.They now say that they don't have enough info for my home, but previously had a Zestimate of $280,000. 

The potential for value is not too bad, but there is very little room for error and execution has to be perfect.

It also doesn't sound like an "error".

The school district continues to receive numerous accolades and top honors, which has certainly helped spur much of the growth. 

After spending countless hours answering numerous questions and being on hold with numerous insurance companies and brokers, I have had two refuse me at the last minute just as I was about to sign up.

I know that they aren't helpful as a metric-- trying to regress a complex situation down to a numeric score usually isn't helpful-- but in what ways specifically do they fall short?

Like @Brandon Turner has mentioned numerous times in podcasts /webinars, start analyzing to see whats out there.