The Internet and today’s fast-paced technology have certainly made life easier for us in many ways. These days, inventors and developers are constantly coming up with new technology designed to make a huge variety of tasks simpler, faster and more efficient. You can pretty much learn how to do anything under the sun by simply typing a few keywords into a search engine which will then pull up numerous how-to guides with step by step instructions. Some things, however, are still better done the old-fashioned way, without relying on Internet websites.
This includes finding out how much your home is worth. If you are an Internet-savvy home seller, you may be familiar with the real estate website Zillow, and its feature called Zestimate. According to Zillow, a Zestimate home valuation is the site’s estimated market value, computed using a proprietary formula. A lot of people have made the mistake of relying completely on these Zestimates to determine their home’s value, when even Zillow itself says, “it is not an appraisal, it is a STARTING POINT in determining a home’s value.” While Zillow and Zestimates can be useful tools for you when dealing with real estate, the best thing to do is still to hire a real estate professional or appraiser to provide a more accurate value. An experienced real estate agent would be able to present you with a Comparative Market Analysis and take special features, location and market conditions into account when giving you an estimate.
Because Zestimates are pulled from data the site receives, the accuracy of the information is not consistent, as the site gets varying amounts of data from different areas. For Cleveland specifically, the Data Coverage and Zestimate Accuracy Table on the site shows an accuracy rating of only three stars, with only 26.7% of Zestimates within 5% of sale price.
So again, if you are in the process of or considering selling your home and want to know how much your home is worth, the best and most accurate way to go about it would be to contact a reputable real estate professional.
