If you thought “Zestimates” were off, try RealEstateABC.com’s Value Tools

Robert Gray Smith on 03 30, 2006

Announced with lots of fanfare on Inman today about New home-valuation site rivals Zillow. Just went to check it out and it valued my home at $618,000 compared to Zillow’s Zestimate of $1.12 Million. Hmm..just a slight margin of difference there. Inman’s blog site covers the ABC Value tool as “Zillow is old news“.

Personaly, while neither is quite accurate (I think Zesitmates have been covered enough already), I’ll take the old news over the new player on the block. They seem to miss some major value factors like..oh about 50ft of waterfront. All-in-all I think these services make interesting discussion points for our clients but it will be some time before they are on the money.

Robert

About the Author: Robert Smith

What do I know about Washington Real Estate? I’m a native Washingtonian – I grew up in south end of Seattle, in the Seahurst neighborhood, where my parents still reside. My twin brother and I are the youngest of 6 children (5 brothers, 1 sister) all of whom live in the local area. I attended the University of Washington where I majored in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance. I come to Real Estate as an escapee from the high-tech industry. I spent 15 years in that industry, starting out with 4.5 years in marketing at Microsoft. I went on to run my own consulting company for 12 years and then helped start a second company, Resolute Solutions Corporation. During my high-tech years I invested in rental properties and did pretty well at it. So after 15 years in high-tech I decided to make a change and joined Coldwell Banker Bain.

9 Responses to “If you thought “Zestimates” were off, try RealEstateABC.com’s Value Tools”

  1. Gordon
    March 30, 2006 at 6:57 pm

    Imagine my surprise to learn that, according to the wizards at ABC, my home is now worth exactly what I paid for it 2 years ago.

    Kinda gives new meaning to the term “real estate valuation TOOL.”

    Reply
    #3754
  2. Steven
    March 30, 2006 at 9:24 pm

    So, should I at least feel somewhat good that BOTH sites are valuing my potential house at 30k+ more than the offer I just made on it?

    Reply
    #3759
  3. Robert
    March 30, 2006 at 9:32 pm

    Steven — yes and no. Both guides are so random as to [up | down | right on target] with price they are almost meaningless. As someone said in an earlier discussion about Zillow (I think it was Ardell), they miss the feet-on-the-ground factors of what’s been remodeled, does A have nicer kitchen that B, how does the neighborhood look, etc.
    On the “yes” side, if Zillow is putting it above your purchase price than that’s probably good as their formula is based on county records — they often tend to hit low because they are lagging behind the MLS data of what’s happening RIGHT NOW.

    Aside from that, congratulations on the new home. :)

    Reply
    #3760
  4. 3 cents
    March 30, 2006 at 11:51 pm

    You are on the money Robert.

    I have trouble with the word “tool” when describing zillow. Strictly speaking a tool is designed to do a specific task. For example, a shovel will dig. It was designed to dig & it in fact does dig. That’s why we pay money for one when we want to dig. If it only dug some of the time we would not buy it. Zillow will dig sometimes, sometimes not. It’s not reliable, admittedly so. Oh it will hit the mark once in a while but not consistently & no one will pay anything for it. That’s why its free. So, if Zillow is a tool so is the monkey I use to throw darts at the WSJ stock pages to pick winners.
    BTW, did you know Barton used to work on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City as a youngster. Know what he did? He was the guy who would guess your weight for a buck. What a huckster that fella.

    Reply
    #3763
  5. ARDELL
    March 31, 2006 at 8:09 pm

    Did you see the cute little “cold to hot market” sliding bar on the ABC site that allows you to change the value up and down? Want a higher value? Just slide it to the “hot” market side of the bar :-) If life were as easy as that, and we all had a little slide bar in our pockets…

    Reply
    #3790
  6. Becky Troutt
    April 1, 2006 at 1:30 pm

    Hm…it says my home is worth $11,900 less than I paid for it 7 months ago. It also says I have 4 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms….wonder where the 4th bedroom and the other 5.5 bathrooms are at in my house…….Guess I just haven’t found them yet!

    Reply
    #3846
  7. Robbie
    April 1, 2006 at 11:32 pm

    Well, according to ABC my house hasn’t been built yet. (or at least it can’t find it).

    Score: Zillow 1 – ABC 0

    Reply
    #3901
  8. VC Ratings
    May 11, 2006 at 9:29 am

    How a real estate broker burst my Zillow bubble…

    News that my home is worth $162,000 less than Zillow estimated it to be is frustrating. Especially since I was planning to bid next week on a new home priced at the inflated Zillow valuation. I’m starting to wonder if Zillow is nothing more than a no…

    Reply
    #6161
  9. Real Estate Taxi
    July 1, 2009 at 6:51 am

    When it comes to those online real estate sites(Zillow), you need to take what they say with a grain of salt. You should always estimate what your house is worth by comparing what the market is giving other comparable homes in your area.

    Walt

    Reply
    #341266

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