Image by finestationery via Flickr
Not one, but two whole posts this week for Wayback Wednesday.
I wrote a couple of posts a couple of years ago about valuations. They were back to back then, and I really think they do best when read together.
My Home is Worth What?
But Zillow Says…
Even from the titles, it is easy to discern that the posts are related, and they really are.
The first post, My Home is Worth What?, is a bit of a rundown about the various ways properties are valued, ranging from appraisals to real estate agent derived tools like CMAs and BPOs (read the post for more about these). But, all of the valuation models… even real estate agents… are missing one key ingredient. And even though I know exactly what it is, I can’t add it to valuations that I do… that is the tragic flaw in evaluating properties.
Image via CrunchBase
The second post, But Zillow Says…, explores a little more about Zillow’s Zestimate, their AVM (Automatic Valuation Model). It is an amazing tool, but has some serious limitations. There are a lot of real estate agents that do their best to dismiss, ignore or even outright kick the Zestimates. I think the problem is that they don’t understand the limitations and parameters of them, so they don’t know how to talk about what they mean. It is a shame, because they are such a useful tool… especially on a wider basis.
I hope you have a chance to check out both post
Related articles
- Wayback Wednesday… Property Tax Valuations… (lanebailey.com)
- Wayback Wednesday… The Dirty Little Secret… (lanebailey.com)
