Looking for your home’s value online can be like opening Pandora’s box! While there are plenty of public sites designed to give you information, they are often inaccurate, or include a little read disclaimer about using the site for information purposes only.
For my own edification—and my clients—I filled in the form on a popular site (ahem… rhymes with Pillow) of two properties I know very well. The first is mine! This site reported back that the duplex was worth $273,000! HUH? I ran a Comparable Market Analysis in Metrolist and found NOT ONE sale above $199,000 of exactly like property in the last year. How does Zill…uh…Pillow establish value at $273,000?
The second is a 1200 sq. ft. home I just sold in Glenbrook (95826). The public site used a $145,000 value, but the closed sale price and appraisal was $158,000. If the seller used the value established on the internet, they would have lost $13,000.
These are just examples; there’s nothing better than a Realtor’s professional research and Comparable Market Analysis customized for your property.