What does the Zillow Zestimate mean for the value of your home? To know the answer, there are a few things you need to take into consideration.
First, what is a Zestimate? A Zestimate is a home valuation tool Zillow has on their website that pulls recent sales in the home’s community and tax records to calculate its value. Oftentimes, Zestimates are hugely inaccurate, and there are two reasons why.
First, Zillow has never been inside your house. They don’t know if you have remodeled bathrooms or kitchens, or a new roof or HVAC unit. They can’t accurately price your home without having that intimate knowledge.
Second, our D.C. market is an eclectic one. If you live in a neighborhood here in Arlington, for example, you have land values that are astronomical—a $500,000 house could be sitting next to a $900,000 one, and that $900,000 house could be sitting next to a property worth $2 million. This makes it almost impossible for Zillow to keep up with the valuation of your home.
If you want to know the true value of your home, there are two ways you can find out. First, you can hire an appraiser to come to your home and give it an appraisal. This can cost anywhere from $375 to $2,000, depending on your home’s price. The second way is to hire a broker or an agent and have them give you what’s called a “broker’s opinion of value.”
