Northern California Nesties
EmmieB
member
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What's a reliable website re: house estimates?
Zillow says ours is worth $554 - which I vaguely buy because the house across the street sold for $590...but that is a fully updated house and ours is being held together with spackle and a prayer.
TIA!
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Re: What's a reliable website re: house estimates?
it's slightly bigger and sold for 200k under the zillow estimate
I don't have an answer for you, but Zillow is not 100% reliable data in my opinion. For one, I'm not totally clear on how they calculate home values. Secondly, it doesn't look like they take into account things like improvements to the home and other "soft data" like a desirable neighborhood, so far as I can tell.
I'd take a look at assessed values through your county office.
Agreed or try redfin.com
Money Matters The other half's blog.
EJ is growing up too fast!
While biting my tongue (so I don't rant & rave), I have to say that zillow is terribly inaccurate and unreliable. I have had so many frustrations with zillow and I've heard similar stories from other Realtors. My personal opinions and experiences aside, I heard previously that zillow claimed their estimates were accurate within 17% - ouch!!!
If you'd like, I would be happy to help you with some comps and information. No pressure, no obligation, none of that. Just a nestie favor
Let me know if I can help out.
Good luck with everything
Baidra at ProchnowRealtors dot com
Lighthouse State Beach, Santa Cruz.
I was waiting for you to come into this post and was afraid you wouldn't since I haven't seen you post here in a while!
Thanks! What is listed for our house on Zillow (and within 10k on the others) is fairly close to what the fully updated house across the street sold for, so until we get an appraiser in here to tell us just how bad the foundation is and just how far out of code the electrics are, etc etc...we can't really do an accurate adjustment. But I will say that our house was updated in 1979 (built in 48) and has barely been touched since except to repair and paint.
Our landlord wants to sell in 5 years, which works for us if we can work out an arrangement so that we don't get screwed over in the process (we suspect his mortgage isn't paid off until then.) I'd love to lock in our purchase price at what it is now - or close to it, but we suspect he'll want to hold out and see if the market rebounds even more.
If we end up needing professional intervention, I will definitely contact you! Thanks!
I don't know how this happened, but Zillow has it recorded that we paid $30k MORE for our townhome than we actually did. I have emailed them 3 times with the correct purchase price and they haven't changed it and it's been well over 6 months since my last email. I don't know why it bugs me so much, but it does.
Zillow can be either right on or terribly off.
Hi R&V
I come around once in a while but I just haven't been able to as much as I'd like 
Emmie, if you are thinking of buying the property and want to find out the condition or value, an appraiser isn't really the best person. A home inspector would give you a good, overall review of the condition. A licensed Realtor with knowledge of the area would probably be a better source than an appraiser regarding price. If you & the owner are deciding not to use a Realtor, one might do it for a fee (similar to what an appraiser would charge). Also, a Realtor may agree to facilitate the transaction for a reduced fee. At the very least, you would want to meet with an attorney to review the contract & disclosures.
Best of luck to you, I hope everything works out
Lighthouse State Beach, Santa Cruz.