Ask A Realtor: Zillow says our house is worth a lot less than we thought!

Question: Our house is apparently worth a lot less than we thought it was, even in a down market. Zillow estimates that it’s worth $157,000, and we need to sell it for at least $165,000 (just to break even). Is that accurate? Is there any chance we could sell it for enough?

Jeremy’s Answer: There are numerous websites, such as Zillow.com, that will attempt to estimate your home’s value by evaluating publicly available information regarding your home and other similar homes that have sold recently. However, most of these sites are highly inaccurate due to a combination of bad data, poor algorithms, lack of specific info about your home, and lack of local knowledge.

For example, according to Zillow’s own data on their accuracy, their “Zestimate” is only accurate within 10% of an actual sale price 57% of the time. This means that almost half the time, they are off by more than 10%.

So, applying this to your home, there is a 57% chance that your home is within 10% of $157,000, or between $141,300-$172,700. There is still a 43% chance that your home’s actual sale price would be more or less than that range in El Paso county. (By the way, they seem to miss low more often than they miss high – at least here in the Colorado Springs area.)

So don’t lose hope on account of Zillow. If you’re thinking of selling and would like to know what your home is worth, you may want to request a professional market analysis, and I’ll personally review the data for you.

Jeremy Isaac is the husband of Springs Bargains and a Colorado Springs Realtor at the Circa Group at RE/MAX Properties.  For professional advice on your specific home or situation, please contact him and he’ll be happy to assist you!

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