Zillow.com, the Internet-based service that has posted the estimated values of 68 million homes, flunked the price test with its own co-founder and CEO, Rich Barton. So he has inaugurated a feature to solve his problem and that of many other skeptics.
Barton, who also founded and previously ran the Expedia travel Web site, announced that visitors to the Zillow.com site can now adjust the details on their property listings and produce a second value that will sit alongside Zillow’s “zestimate.”
In Barton’s case the automated Zillow valuation program overlooked improvements made to his 3,740-square-foot Seattle home, built in 1904. The value listed on Zillow.com is $2.8 million, $400,000 less than the number generated by the program after Barton upped the number of bathrooms from 2.25 to 3.5, listed the number of rooms (14) and filled in other details.
On the Zillow site, Barton spelled out the details and shared the reason for his openness: his home is for sale at $2,995,000, which is higher than the “zestimate” but lower than his adjusted value.
Barton also provided a link to his real estate agent’s listing page, in case anyone is interested in buying the four-bedroom “Classic Seattle Box” in “Denny Blaine, one of Seattle’s best neighborhoods.”
Many real estate agents have complained that Zillow figures are faulty, often because they reflect old sales prices, county assessments not in line with the real estate market and other incomplete or outdated data.
from signonsandiego.com
