Home Value Estimates

There’s no way for a home value estimate to take into account all of the factors that impact a home’s price. However, these estimates, such as Zillow’s Zestimate, do their best to factor in the current market conditions, size of the home, last reported updates, and many more factors that can help potential sellers find the right time to sell.

The accuracy of these estimates is improving, but there’s no way for them to be 100% accurate without having them professionally appraised because you never know what the condition of the home is inside. Therefore, an estimate on Zillow might be drastically different than one on another website because of the hundreds of factors that go into the calculations. Estimates can also be way under or over what houses actually sell for.

Home Listing Descriptions

When you’re searching for a home online, whether you’re looking for a rental or buying your first house, you’ll come across descriptions for every property or unit available. Unfortunately, sometimes realtors and landlords lie in their online listings to try to get you to tour the home or sign a contract. Of course, landlords can find tenants without meeting, but buyers typically want to see the homes before agreeing to anything or taking out a mortgage loan.

If you’ve ever read a description online only to visit the property, and it doesn’t look anything like the ad claimed, you’re not alone. Additionally, you’ll run into many homeowners trying to sell their homes themselves who use lies to try to entice people into buying. Of course, agents must present homes in the best possible light because they want the homes to sell in order to make money.

How Accurate Are Listings Really?

There’s no way to know how accurate a listing is until you check the home out for yourself or do a little research online. Buyers now have access to tons of tools and information to learn about homes, so they don’t rely on the description as much as they once did. Instead, they’ll look at images of the house online or take virtual tours in their free time.

With tools like Google Earth, buyers become their own investigators and can learn more about a house than they can from a simple listing description alone. As more buyers look for facts about the house rather than colorful marketing descriptions, they’ll be looking for information for the MLS to check whether it’s accurate. Many buyers don’t even read the descriptions anymore because they know it’s going to be filled with fluff. Instead, they’ll talk to a realtor directly to ask when updates were made and view the condition of the house by scheduling a walk-through.

Buyer Beware

Buyers must protect themselves by learning everything they can about the home from the listing, outside resources, and the realtor themselves. Working with your own realtor can help you understand what to ask the sellers to give you hard data and information rather than fluffy descriptions that don’t answer the most important questions. In most cases, realtors aren’t trying to lie to you; they’re just trying to make you interested in buying the house, so they won’t tell you inaccurate information. Instead, they’ll use beautiful words to make a house seem more attractive than it really is.