Fort Lauderdale Real Estate | How Accurate Are Zillow’s Zestimates?
Even Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff has become a victim to the company’s inaccurate Zestimates. Earlier this year, Rascoff’s home sold for $1.05 million, 40 percent less than the property’s Zestimate of $1.75 million. While Zillow publicly acknowledges that Zestimates can be inaccurate, this is another example of just how severe the inaccuracies can be and another reason why you should use a licensed real estate professional or preferably, a Realtor®, to give you a more realistic value of your property.
When buying or selling real estate, the local knowledge and expertise of a licensed agent becomes a valuable asset. Online tools are consistently proven to be unreliable for estimating the value of residential or commercial real estate. Zillow publishes the statistics on the accuracy of Zestimates and in Broward County, and the numbers are surprising.
In Broward County, only 66.8% of homes sold had a sale price that was at least 5% higher or lower than the Zestimate. Of all the Zestimates for Broward County homes, half of them were off by at least 8.1% of the final selling price. 42.2% of Broward’s Zestimates are more than 10% inaccurate. When applied to a sale price, these percentages become shocking dollar values.
Let’s use the average sale price of homes sold in Broward County as of March this year. Based on a sale price of $379,000, it is likely that the Zestimate is off by at least $37,900. Whether buying or selling, close to $40,000 is a considerable amount of money that you could be losing in the transaction.
How can Zestimates be so inaccurate? An online pricing tool, such as Zillow’s Zestimates, is not able to take into account the many quantifiable and subjective considerations needed for an appropriate sale price. That’s why a Zestimate could be 40% inaccurate as with Rascoff’s home. The experienced professionals at Dale Palmer Group understand both national and local real estate market conditions, and they know now to adjust prices based on the unique characteristics of each property such as irregular lot shape/size, new electrical, high-end updates, a busy street, etc.
To buy or sell real estate anywhere in Broward County, please call Dale Palmer Group
at 954-895-8999 or contact-us today.
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