The biggest problem I’ve seen with Zillow is picking out bad comparable sales. My brother’s house was somehow matched with a piece of commercial property that had sold about a mile away. Suddenly Zillow said his quarter million dollar house was worth two million. Also I have the sense that it is boosting prices anyway to get more eyes on it.
So bad news if you’re a Zillow investor or a RE agent.
But wouldn’t be a bit of good news for buyers and sellers, as they probably split the little more money that buyers have for their shop.
Someone please explain how the _buyer_ agent commission incentivizes that agent in the right direction.
Zillow is good in many states, however some states, like Montana where I live are Non Disclosure states — meaning home, property commercial business sales prices are private and it is illegal for any bank, brokerage, RE agent, appraiser, title company or state or county treasurer to disclose sales pricing.
Zillow does not join the MLS so they have to guess at values for home prices.
Example:
My neighbors put their home on the market for $875,000. Realtor.com had the listing published as did Zillow both for the listing price — $875,000.
The house sold (my neighbor told me personally so I can share) quickly for $950,000.
It will take a few years before Realtor.com to estimate a value on the home on their website due to the non disclosure rules.
After the sale Zillow estimated it’s value at $30% less than the sales price...
I do want to emphasize that I’m not anti Zillow...just some places it’s less accurate.
zillow is a broker in most states ...
I worked in real estate sales from 1984-2010 (Colorado). There was no “standard commission”. I charged fees that moved all over the place depending on the clients, the type of property, the advertising agreement for the listing, whether multiple deals were involved, and other factors. Fees ranged from 1% to 10% depending on the deal(s). I had many repeat/multiple repeat customers.
A 40 to 50 percent correction is looming.
Read later.
Two more months and the $25K would have been tax free for Fed Tax purposes.