Accuracy of Zillow estimate

[fastfredracing]

Ive got my eye on another piece of land. Zillows estimate seems way out of whack to me .
It is basically a piece of land with electric, a well, and a fema trailer on it .
Zillow shows the square footage of the trailer, but I am assuming they are thinking it is a house .
To me, the trailer, is negative value, I would most likely sell it , demo it, or pay someone to haul it off .
Zillows estimate seems to be really high for the area to me. You can buy similar pieces of property with a nice little house on them for almost the same money .
For those of you saavy in real estate, have you found zillow to be a reliable source for info ?

[Cajundaddy]

Zillow is all over the map in SoCal. Some comps look legit and others are ridiculous.

[Rich76_911s]

I’m guessing the algorithm doesn’t work too well for your particular piece of property.

I find it fairly accurate in our area. But I’m in a high density area with a pretty good dataset to draw on.

[Racerbvd]

What ever happened with that piece of dream property you were looking at?

[fastfredracing]

[QUOTE=Racerbvd;10272788]What ever happened with that piece of dream property you were looking at?[/QUOTE
He rented it to family members for the time being. He really wants to hold on to it.
I am watching it closely . Sort of a good thing, because, I just was not ready . Im trying to get all my ducks in a row for when it comes available

[LWJ]

Zillow is really about as good as your old drunk uncle. It is something. It has value. Just not a super high value.

I found that my research on comps is better than any other metric. It isn't rocket science.

Trust your gut.

The real art however is convincing the seller that your value is correct!!!

[look 171]

I found Zillow can't keep up around here b ecause things are changing so fast. From experience I found their estimate a bit on the low side. For here amyway

[Nickshu]

My house is valued way low on Zillow compared to an appraisal done about a year ago.

[MRM]

It’s a free app available to anyone on the internet. Clearly it’s a secret pipeline to the truth. Or it’s just a collection of random values driven by some algorithm a guy put together to create a veneer of legitimacy to drive web traffic.

The post above about a drunk uncle is on point. He may be right, he may be wrong, but whether he’s right or wrong is more random than he would like to admit.

Assessed tax values are available online. Check those to corroborate Zillow estimates. Just go to your county’s web site and search for property tax values. You’ll see the address, owners name, last sales price and current and historical property values.

[Dantilla]

Any real estate professional will roll their eyes whenever they hear the word "Zillow".
Notoriously inaccurate.

[HardDrive]

Real Estate is hyper local. Our main home is overvalued on Z. Our tiny shack in Seattle, undervalued.

It's good within 15%(ish)

[look 171]

Look at the comps. Similar properties sold near in the past few months should give you an idea as to what your property is worth.

[nota]

in some areas a trailer is grandfathered in
but a new land parcel may not be allowed to have a trailer under current rules
that would give a value boost to the grandfathered parcel not the older trailer it's self
but the fact that a new trailer/double wide or modular home would be allowed without hassles

local zillow is fair not perfect and lags a bit but near value of current sales
sure some people over pay just as some get screaming deals but avg is closer then an individual homes price at any moment

[911_Dude]

I use Zillow and Realtor.com to look at sold properties in the area. Check pics of property and use similar condition properties to figure a $/sqft. Multiply that buy your square footage. Bam. Value estimate.

[legion]

Property is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. Attempting to estimate that can be difficult. It will be most accurate in high density areas with many similar properties that turnover frequently. It will be least accurate in low density areas with widely dissimilar properties that sell infrequently.

Ultimately, all that matters is that the seller accepts your offer.

Part of the problem is that if the seller has unrealistic expectations (which tools like this can create in the situations I listed above), it can make a sale at a reasonable price impossible. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a car for sale where the owner thinks their special decals on their limited-edition version makes their 10 year old+ vehicle worth more than the current new version (your 1990 IROC-Z Indy 500 Pace car replica Camaro isn't really that special). I can't tell you how many times I've offended a seller in this kind of situation by offering a realistic price, see the vehicle sit for months, and then find it on a used car lot to learn it was bought for far less than my offer months earlier. Now I take the strategy of not being the first offer and wait until the price starts to come down to reality.

[fastfredracing]

Seller has come to me, but have not informed me what they will be asking yet. Property is adjacent to my shop property, so it is valuable to me .
I've spoke with zoning, and its wide open. Dual zoned, commerical and residential.
Zoning officer basically gave me the go ahead to do whatever I want there, except for park junk cars ..... He said he will be banging on my door if I try to do this .
Hard to get comps in this area, as there is everything from commercial businesses, a trailer park, to million dollar mansions on the other end of the road. , and everything in between. Not much property has been bought or sold on this road, or area in a long time. Nothing similar to this any how. Several large tracts , with huge houses being built are the only real recent comps I could find .
I already know what it is worth to me. My offer will probably be significantly less than what Zillow lists. I cannot imagine anybody paying more . Unless, it would be a large developer . ( which I am banking on selling everything to eventually )
I'm hoping they are realistic .

[rfuerst911sc]

When looking to purchase our retirement home I found Zillow to be fairly accurate when compared to other sites . But being electronic media it is only as accurate as the data fed into it . We used it as a tool but it was only part of the overall tool box. Common sense and comparebles were the final decision makers for us .

[legion]

Sounds like as long as you two come to agreement on a price and you can secure funding (the lack of comps could make a loan difficult), you are good to go!

[fastfredracing]

I'm trying my hardest to pay cash. I think I can pull it off No loan, no agent. Lawyer gets a little slice to draw it all up .
I have always wanted this piece of land, but I am more worried what will happen if I do not buy it . I could be looking at a rotweiller tied up on a chain, two broken down pickups in the driveway, and old appliances laying all over the place . The one aggressive property buyer in the area is a douche, and his whole crew is flaky, they scare the hell out of me . I don't want that anywhere my place

[legion]

My 2¢:

I guess in that situation, I'd keep two numbers in mind:

1) What do you think is a fair price for the property.

2) How much is it worth to you to not have it turn into your nightmare?

I assume #2 is higher than #1. Make an offer in the ballpark of #1 and pay up until #2. It sounds like Zillow is not really useful in your situation.