Should I Be Relying on a Zestimate?

Of course not.  Zestimate’s are computerized estimates of your home’s value that fail to take into account a LOT of factors.  However, if you don’t have a handle on estimated values in an area, they can give you a somewhat reasonable gauge as to overall values.

Do you know when I WILL rely on a Zestimate? When it is WILDLY in my favor, that is when.  I will promote it to anyone who will listen.  I will buttress my SMART purchasing decision with this Zestimate of value.

TANGENT: I am an online developer and marketer by trade and I often consult clients during an advertising purchase with this fact.  If a metric is not in the companies favor, they will not disclose.  “Q: How many clicks does the advertiser who currently pays for that space receive?  A: We don’t track that!”.  What they meant to say is, “the numbers are so poor, we wouldn’t dare publish them.  If we did no-one would buy the space for the rate that we are attempting to sell it to you for.”

Consider a Zestimate as such (I won’t even get started on assessments in this article).    The following Zestimate is for a property that we purchased last July.  The Zestimate jumped a considerable percentage.   As such, I am writing to let you know what a fantastic decision we made.  Just kidding.  Take Zestimates for what they are worth.  Not much at all.  The Zestimate was not correct in July and it is probably not correct now.