neat real estate website/search engine

[Ankf00]

www.zillow.com

rates market value for homes based on properties in surrounding areas, has my parents' place pegged pretty accurately, original mortgage price & current value

bout to move into a 2/1 that's rated at just below the sale price on here, but it doesn't show the sweet 2/2 garage apt which is nicer than the original house...

foreclosure listings rock :D


anywho, with the webtool, you can scroll around like google earth, can take a little while to load though

[extramundane]

I found it to be anywhere from slightly inaccurate to wildly inaccurate around here. Granted, I live in a 120 year old house that's in the DMZ between immaculately restored antebellum showplaces and burned-out crack dens, so my neighborhood probably taxes its poor little cyber-brain.

[racer2c]

It was somewhat close up here in Fred'burg. A little low.

[nrc]

I found it to be anywhere from slightly inaccurate to wildly inaccurate around here. Granted, I live in a 120 year old house that's in the DMZ between immaculately restored antebellum showplaces and burned-out crack dens, so my neighborhood probably taxes its poor little cyber-brain.

It's too dependent on square footage and the average value per square foot of "comparable" sales in the area. Trouble is that without a human picking out the comps you can get some pretty wild swings.

[Sean O'Gorman]

Wow, what a surprise, our house is worth $40,000 more than the gun-toting rednecks across the street from me. :p

[Napoleon]

I have read reviews of the site that say it can not be trusted at all.

[Winston Wolfe]

I checked the values of a couple of the houses I lived in when I was a growing up with the 'rents, and some of the "reported values" are.... gulp.... pretty high ! :eek: Connecticut home values are SICK !

[Dirty Sanchez]

thanks for the laugh :laugh:

[Insomniac]

Seems like they use the assessed value for property taxes, not the actual going rate.

[KLang]

Seems like they use the assessed value for property taxes, not the actual going rate.

My house came up a bit higher then my last assessment. Kinda neat tool. Also kinda scary how much information is out there.

[nrc]

My house came up a bit higher then my last assessment. Kinda neat tool. Also kinda scary how much information is out there.
Oh that's just the start. There's more information available from most counties that isn't in there yet - probably because it's in so many different formats. Property photos, land surveys, every mortgage you've ever signed - all public information.

[extramundane]

Oh that's just the start. There's more information available from most counties that isn't in there yet - probably because it's in so many different formats. Property photos, land surveys, every mortgage you've ever signed - all public information.

Most localities (around here, anyway) are putting all of this stuff up on GIS websites anyway, so in addition to being inaccurate, Zillow seems rendundant to me.

[cameraman]

Seems my house sprouted two additional bedrooms without me noticing :rolleyes:

[rabbit]

Nearly $100K low on my parents' home. :saywhat:

[nrc]

Most localities (around here, anyway) are putting all of this stuff up on GIS websites anyway, so in addition to being inaccurate, Zillow seems rendundant to me.

Right, that's what we used for buying our new house and pricing our old house. Realty sites with MLS listings combined with local GIS, auditor and recorder web sites are wonderful resources for real estate shopers.

If you have the yen, you can even find something like this...
http://8.6.192.26/SMDABasic/SOTF_V5-5.asp?p=222-001842-00&c=01&r=0&ac=55&sid=7260BB987A8649A6ABD8C9B67C8E7BFE&sc=&agencyid=OH-Franklin-Auditor&s=lg
http://franklin.governmaxa.com/roverdocuments/20040220OK120101JPG_large_000_7260BB987A8649A6ABD8 C9B67C8E7BFE_V_0.JPG
Year Built 1995
Total Rooms 16
Bedrooms 5
Full Bathrooms 9
Half Bathrooms 1
Square Footage 13192

[Opposite Lock]

Great googlie-mooglie, whose house is that? And who needs a 2:1 bathroom-to-bedroom ratio in a 5BR McMansion? :saywhat: This colon-cleansing thing has gotten out of hand.

[rabbit]

Great googlie-mooglie :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


Sorry, I love that expression. (My 5yo is a big fan of Maggie and the Ferocious Beast.)

[Anal Ventor]

well the nice thing is that I just learned that i've got one more half bath than I thought i had...guess i better go find it

[Mr. Toad]

I guess not all houses are listed.

"No homes were found at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC"

[RaceGrrl]

9 full bathrooms and 1 half bath? That's a lot of crap. Must be Bobby Rahal's house.

[TravelGal]

I have read reviews of the site that say it can not be trusted at all.

In fact, they themselves have admittted they can be pretty far off.

[chop456]

Not even remotely close.