If you’re selling or refinancing, you need more than just a Zestimate to determine your home’s value.
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Let’s talk Zestimates.
If you’ve ever looked up your property online, you probably came across a Trulia or Zillow listing, even if you’ve never had the home on the market. A Zestimate is one of the pieces of information you’ll find on the Zillow listing, and it’s an estimate of your home’s value. Some sellers use this value to understand their property’s worth. This is why it’s helpful to know how Zestimates are made and how accurate they are.
Zillow describes Zestimates as a starting point in valuing your home, and it’s based on a proprietary formula combining public and private information. Public information means anything your tax assessor knows about. If you installed a new bathroom, for instance, and had to obtain permits for it and hire an inspector, that would leave a paper trail for the tax assessor’s records and affect details like square footage, number of bathrooms, etc.
Private information means information they encourage the homeowner to add to their home’s Zillow profile. If you’ve never added any information to your home’s profile, its Zestimate is based on comparable properties in the area. That’s why, if you plan on listing your home, it would benefit you to make the information in your home’s Zillow profile as positive as possible. Otherwise, your Zestimate will be inaccurate.
It doesn’t cost you a cent to have an agent such as myself give your home a valuation based on accurate, up-to-date data.
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Zillow advises using your Zestimate the same way they describe it—as a starting point for your home’s valuation. After that, they recommend having a Realtor or appraiser come to your house. As the old joke goes: A Zestimate is not an appraisal; if it was, they’d call it a “Zappraisal.”
So to get an accurate value for your home, talk to a professional. Whether you’re selling or refinancing, you need an appraisal, and you can hire a real estate agent or an appraiser to do so. When you refinance, the bank will hire an appraiser for you.
Zestimates are more accurate in areas where the homes are similar or a part of the same new development (think Reynolds Farm in North Kingston). In older areas like Newport or East Greenwich, where the homes were all built hundreds of years ago and don’t have the same up-to-date records, Zestimates won’t be as accurate.
It doesn’t cost you a cent to have an agent such as myself give your home a valuation based on accurate, up-to-date data. We’ll compare similar properties in the area and look at your home in person. If this sounds like something you’re interested in, don’t hesitate to call or email me.
If you have any other real estate questions, feel free to reach out to me as well. I’m happy to help.