If you want to know what your home is really worth, you should speak to a Realtor rather than just take a Zestimate’s word for it.

Can you really trust online home valuation tools to accurately calculate what your home is worth?

Online home valuation tools such as Zillow’s Zestimate pull a sample of the comparable sales in your home’s area and drive that sample to a base price per square foot, which is similar to how I drive my own comps when pricing a home.

Unfortunately, that’s where the similarities end. After a certain point, online valuations can’t account for important details within a particular home. If, for example, your neighbor sold their home for $50,000 more because they put $100,000 worth of upgrades into it, a Zestimate won’t be able to tell that.

“In other words, until the day comes when a Zestimate can figure out what the condition of a property is without a Realtor being present, I feel like my job is safe.”

If you read the fine print when you visit Zillow, they disclose that their estimations can be off by as much as 50%. In fact, the owner of Zillow himself reportedly sold his home for $1.6 million less than what its Zestimate claimed it was worth.

In other words, until the day comes when a Zestimate can figure out what the condition of a property is without a Realtor being present, I feel like my job is safe. There are a lot of factors that go into pricing a home correctly, and you need the expertise of a Realtor to take those factors into account.

If you have any more questions about this or any other real estate topic or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you.

Need help? Call The Trembley Group at 843.945.1880 ext. 1 and we’ll help you look for the perfect listing or buyers agent!

At The Trembley Group, we pride ourselves on being the experts at more than just selling real estate. We are local residents, some of us have been here for a lifetime. The rest of us will be here until the end of time. We love living, working, and playing in the diverse backyard of Coastal Carolina, and look forward to helping you live and love your dreams soon too. Please reach out to us by phone or email for personalized service and one-on-one advice. 

About our blog

Our agents write often to give you the latest insights on owning a home or property in the Myrtle Beach, SC area.